envision

The context

The organisation

The Thelma Hulbert Gallery is a public art gallery, run by East Devon District Council. It opened in 1998 and is currently enjoying its best visitor figures since it opened.  
There are 2 part-time members of staff: a Gallery Curator and a Gallery Assistant. The gallery relies heavily on volunteers who at the moment total eleven.
The gallery has an annual budget of approx. £14,000 from East Devon District Council, out of which the Gallery Assistant is paid and all utility bills, ICT charges etc. The gallery receives limited revenue via public donations and is increasing revenue from commission on sales of postcards and art/craft.  

The situation

During the last eighteen months the Thelma Hulbert Gallery has seen a complete turn around. From being on the brink of closure by East Devon District Council the gallery has undergone a real transformation with a major increase in visitors, the introduction of new display areas and the generation of income for the first time since it opened in 1998, and yet it has struggled to attract young people as visitors. There seemed to be a barrier stopping young people from entering the gallery and this project was intended to break that barrier.

The idea

The overall aim of the project was to increase young peoples participation in the galley. We were keen to find out why young people weren’t coming to the gallery and what we could do to increase participation by young people in the running of the gallery. The original idea was to start a Youth Advisory Panel at the gallery to find out answers to the above.

The project

Planning

In partnership with the Ivy Project*(see below) a recruitment strategy for the youth panel was discussed. We developed an outline timetable, although young people weren’t directly involved in this it was essential due to the limited time for the project. With that basic structure the young people were able to direct the content.
*The Ivy Project is an Exeter based charity which offers young people the opportunity to develop themselves and their communities through volunteering. A high proportion of the young people who join The Ivy Project have additional support needs.

Delivery

See our initial plan attached.
Two young people made an initial visit to the gallery with the Ivy Project to discuss ways of getting other young people involved in the project. On their guidance we (the Ivy Project and myself, at times with a young person) went out and about in local community to recruit young people, taking along a flyer/poster designed especially by a young person, this included a date for first meeting at the gallery.
The first meeting on 28th June 2007- 16 young people attended.  See attached ‘Action Plan for initial gallery meeting’ Summary:
•    Initial reactions to the gallery were recorded in a large handmade scrapbook and with the use of a Polaroid camera.
•    Young people also recorded what they thought of various things around the gallery, the closed front door, the signage etc. with the use of stickers – pants for rubbish and sunglasses for good, question marks for somewhere in the middle/didn’t notice etc.
The second meeting on 11th July – 12 young people attended. See attached ‘Action Plan for gallery meeting – 11th July Summary:
•    Additions to scrapbook
•    Setting down of group rules, as decided by the young people
•    Young people discussed and presented their ideas on how they’d change the gallery to make it more youth friendly
•    Discussed a possible trip to London
Trip to Tate Britain 3rd August – 7 young people. Summary:
•    Looked at permanent collection
•    Visited the ‘Way We Are’ photographic exhibition
The third meeting on 6th August – 6 young people attended. See attached ‘Action Plan for gallery meeting – 6th August’. Summary:
•    Discussed ideas generated from Tate Britain, and their effect on the initial ideas the young people had for the Thelma Hulbert Gallery
•    Discussed how they saw the group continuing and the idea of the young people ap-plying for funding to make their ideas happen.
The main aspect that changed was the dates. This was due to us totally underestimated the time scale for recruitment. This then had a knock on effect that it ran into the summer holi-days when young people found it harder to attend.
Initially the meetings were an hour long but it was clear the young people wanted them to be longer as we often ran out of time so the 3rd meeting was the first to be scheduled for an hour and a half.

Outcomes

Impact on participants

4.1    Impact on participants
Participants reported being more interested in visiting art galleries, more confident in talking (for example for those that were nervous of talking at the beginning really spoke out by the last session).  Another impact was young people developing friendships and looked forward to meeting at the gallery. Most of the participants had gained confidence in:
•    Talking about ideas
•    Sharing their opinions
•    Contemporary art
•    Thinking of new ideas
•    Being creative
•    Visiting new places
The external influence of visiting a London gallery impacted on their initial ideas. Confirmed some of their ideas and acted as a point of discussion. After the visit they appeared to be more realistic in what was appropriate for the Thelma Hulbert Gallery.
Another example of impact is that one young person who found it difficult to make contact with staff at the beginning felt comfortable enough to chat with staff and discuss ideas as the project progressed. To the extent that the young person asked me to buy cigarettes for them on the trip to London (which I declined of course).
Participants from the initial meeting produced a large scrap book and sheets detailing their first impressions of the building/gallery. These were predominantly negative but as the project progressed participants used more positive words in their ideas to improve the negative aspects .

Impact on others involved

As the gallery curator and project lead I feel positive about the experience. I have a real appetite to do more with young people and to make sure that the Youth Panel continues. I am keen to see representatives from the Youth Panel on the Exhibition Selection Committee and represented at other gallery management meetings.
The staff from the Ivy Project have increased their knowledge and awareness of art and en-joyed the experience of working with the gallery. The Ivy Project commented on the successful recruitment and retention of young people in relation to other projects.
A councillor who visited during a meeting of the group was impressed with how the young people were allowed to voice their opinions in such a creative way and was really happy to see the gallery providing a much needed meeting place for the young people of Honiton and the surrounding area.

Institutional change

The consultation produced by the young people has confirmed other visitors comments about the gallery and this gives me more concrete evidence for pushing for change based on visi-tors points of view (for example a need for more workshops relating to the exhibitions and a definite need for improved signage and an open front door!)
Working with the young people has had a major impact on exhibition programming - the young people were far more adventurous in tastes than I had anticipated and I’m now looking at more conceptual art, I am also looking at introducing a ‘Young’ Open exhibition as well as having youth representation on the Selection Panel for future exhibitions. I will be consulting the group on other aspects of gallery development too.
This project has helped the Council be more confident in encouraging young peoples consultation and has helped them to reach their key goals. In July they awarded me the ‘Star Per-former Award’ for recognition of outstanding achievement and contribution towards the Council’s key goals, for which this project played a major contribution.

Lessons learned

What worked and what didn’t

5.1    What worked and what didn’t
Five key things that the project got right:
•    Working in partnership with a youth organisation (especially when it came to administration, young peoples risk assessments, consent forms etc.)
•    Let pace of the project be lead by the young people
•    An inclusive approach to gathering and communicating their ideas.
•    High retention of young people by offering sessions in the early evening, outside of gallery opening hours.
•    Practical ideas that were particularly successful:
•    Pants and sunglasses comments sheets
•    Scrap book
•    Polaroid camera
•    One gallery only on London trip
•    Utilise the councils press and publicity to promote the project, young peoples in-volvement.

Things that didn’t work:
•    Assumed would be able to recruit quicker, but length of time to recruit was delayed by consent forms and other admin as well as being limited to certain times to meet with young people (at Youth clubs etc.) and those times not corresponding with the days I work.
•    The photographic exhibition at the Tate. I had thought the young people would all relate to photography but actually they were more interested in conceptual art. It was also presented in press and gallery literature as being more appropriate for young people than it actually was, it was very staid in the hang and the content of much of the work.
•    When recruiting we encouraged learning disabled young people to join and yet we had not taken into account the cost of extra support staff so relied on the young people or the organisation where we had recruited, being able to organise this sup-port themselves.

Next steps

•    Implement some of the young peoples ideas. An exhibition of their own work, curating exhibitions or displays themselves, producing a young peoples pack, promotion of the gallery by young people for young people.
•    The youth panel will regularly meet and the gallery will include them in other projects i.e the gallery Selection Panel.
•    Consulting with young people has made me more aware of the lack of cultural activities in the area so I will look at programming of youth friendly exhibitions, work-shops and activities.
•    This project has raised the profile of the gallery and in turn the council and we will continue to celebrate the achievements and the input of the young people.
•    The gallery work experience, who was initially here for just one week became involved in project and continues to be a part of the youth panel. This has lead to looking at the role of young people undertaking work experience in a different way, this is an ideal opportunity for young peoples input into how the gallery is viewed and run.
•    Having really enjoyed this project, I am committed

Appendix

Please see enclosed photocopies:
•    Pants and sunglasses sheets
•    Scrapbook
•    Press
Initial Action plan
Action plans for meetings
Young persons poster
Press release
CD of images (all with consent)
Questionnaires.

Partners were the Ivy Project, Exeter
with additional support from Link-up (Honiton)

7    Statistical information for envision’s Grants for the Arts Activity Report
7.1    Where did your project take place?
Did your activity happen in a specific place (or places)?
    a    Your activity happened in a specific place (or places)
If your activity happened in a particular place, please give us the address and postcode of
where most of your activity took place.  
Full address
     Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Honiton, East Devon

Full postcode    E    X    1    4        1    L    H

If the place where your activity happened does not have an address (for example, it was in a park), please tell us where it took place and give us the name of the lo-cal authority area instead.
      

Other places where your activity happened
If your activity happened in other places, please give us the postcodes of each place.  If any of the places do not have a postcode, please give us the name of the local authority area instead. We have made space for you to give details of up to five other places.  Please use a separate sheet if you need more and write ‘See attachment’ on the first line below.

Full postcode or local authority area:      SW1P 4RG
Full postcode or local authority area:      
Full postcode or local authority area:      
Full postcode or local authority area:      
Full postcode or local authority area:      

If you have filled in part a, go to question 3. If part a is not relevant to your activity, please fill in part b.

    b    Your activity was not specific to a place
If your activity was not specific to a place, please give details. (For example, ‘This activity happened across a wide area or across a region’, ‘This activity took place on the internet’ or ‘We produced a publication’.)

     

7.2        How many people do you estimate benefited from the activity?
Please give an estimate for your activity.

‘Taking part’ means doing the activity. ‘Audience’ includes people going to an exhibition or performance, and people getting access to work that is printed, recorded, broadcast or on the internet.

This activity    Number
    
Artists    n/a
    
Others taking part    25
    
Audience    n/a

7.3        What are the age ranges of the people who benefited from your activity? Mark all relevant boxes.
    
     
 All age ranges
    
 
 Children under five
    
 
 Children (five to 11)
    
√     Young people (12 to 15)
    
√     Young people (16 to 19)
    
√     Young people (20 to 24)
    
√     Adults (25 to 64)
    
     
 Adults (65 and over)

7.4    Was your activity directed at, or particularly relevant to, any of the following groups of people? Please mark any relevant boxes.
    
√     Disabled people
    
√     People at risk of ‘social exclusion’ (not being able to take part fully in society because of, for example, poverty, prejudice or isolation)
    
    
     
 Asian or Asian British (includes Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani
 or any other Asian background)
    
    
     
 Black or Black British (includes African, Caribbean)
    
     
 Chinese
    
     
 Any other ethnic group
 (Please describe below in no more than 10 words.)
    
      

7.5    Please give details of the results of your activity.

This activity    Number
    
Number of performance or exhibition days    n/a
    
Number of new products or commissions*

    n/a
    
Period of employment for artists (in days)    n/a
    
Number of sessions for education, training or taking part. ‘Taking part’ means doing the activity (Divide the day into three sessions - morning, afternoon and evening. A ‘session’ is any one of, or part of one of, these. For ex-ample, a half-day education workshop would be one ses-sion.)    
    15
* as well as DVD’s, exhibitions etc also include new resources for the gallery, young people and partners e.g. policy documents, advocacy tools, volunteering and accreditation schemes