PROJECT - engaging artists in the built environment

Evaluation Brief

Public Art South West is seeking a suitably experienced individual or team of researchers to evaluate the public realm design projects supported by the new award scheme, PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment. 

The successful Evaluation Team will be responsible for devising and implementing an independent monitoring and evaluation process which provides a robust evidential base for examining the effectiveness of artist/design profession collaborations in the public realm, the additional value artists bring to the design and consultation process and the longer term impact of this experience on the practice of the professionals involved.

1	Introduction

PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment is an exciting new national funding scheme which provides grants to support collaboration between artists and design, planning and construction professionals on projects in the public realm.  

A major strand of the initiative is the commissioning of independent research which evaluates projects supported by the scheme.  To our knowledge, there are no existing models for evaluating the processes and outcomes for artists working collaboratively in multidisciplinary design teams.  It is critical that the evaluation has a robust evidential base which will stand up to scrutiny at national government level.

This is an opportunity for a consultancy, organisation or institution to work closely with Public Art South West (PASW) and its partners, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Arts & Business (A&B), to invent and test a whole new way of approaching this area of evaluation.  The methodology and findings of the research could transform the way we look at the arts in the context of regeneration, and will provide evidence for CABE and A&B to present to Government.

As part of this partnership, PASW would like to collaborate on a joint publication at the end of the award scheme which not only maps the scheme’s progress, but also publishes the methodology and findings of the evaluation.  

2	Background Information 

The Commission for Architecture and the Built and Environment (CABE) and Arts and Business (A&B) recently announced a new grant scheme designed to encourage and support the involvement of artists in the built environment.  The scheme, PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment, will run for two years from April 2004 (public launch in early June 2004) to 31 March 2006.  Public Art South West has been appointed to develop and manage the award scheme including the evaluation process.  

Public Art South West (PASW) is recognised as one of the leading public art development agencies in the UK.  Primarily serving the South West of England, its work extends beyond geographical boundaries in terms of the critical thinking and application of artists’ skills and creativity it promotes.  PASW works with national and regional public and private sector organisations across Britain, and actively networks with a range of professions within public art, design and architecture.  Its field of work covers advocacy, training, resources and consultancy.  It has a pro-active approach in initiating projects and ways of working, underpinned by offering financial support to a range of strategically important projects and regional partners.  PASW is a Regularly Funded Organisation of Arts Council England, South West.  It operates independently of ACESW, but is located within the regional office.  www.publicartonline.org.uk

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) inspires people to demand more from their buildings and spaces.  CABE believes that well-designed homes, streets, parks, offices, schools and hospitals are the fundamental right of everyone. It uses its skills and resources to work for a higher quality of life for people and communities across England, with particular concern for those living in deprived areas.  It does this through public campaigns, making the case for change, gathering hard evidence, providing education opportunities, providing support to professionals,  and through direct help on individual programmes and projects.  www.cabe.org.uk

Arts & Business (A&B) is the world’s most successful and widespread creative network.  It helps business people support the arts and arts inspire business people, because good business and great art enrich society.  A&B works to deliver its vision across the UK through a network of 19 offices.  It is the UK’s leading charity bringing business and the arts together, encouraging a diversity of relationships and delivering a range of services to both sectors. Funding from central government helps A&B foster innovative and long-term partnerships between business and the arts through its New Partners grant scheme.  It also runs a series of professional development programmes to promote the exchange and development of skills between the business and arts communities, works as an advocacy and lobbying body at national and international level, and offers consultancy to both sectors.  www.A&B.org.uk

3	PROJECT – engaging artists in the built environment

PROJECT - engaging artists in the built environment provides financial assistance to support collaboration between artists and design, planning and construction professionals, working pro-actively with public and private sector agencies on projects in the built environment.  The objective is to facilitate the artist’s role as a creative thinker and/or commentator, working within the team appointed to deliver the project. It is not intended to cover the capital costs of implementing any work which may arise from this process. In the context of this scheme, the term ‘artist’ is intended to cover a range of art forms.  

Awards will be made by a Project Advisory Panel comprising representatives from the arts, design, planning, community regeneration, development, housing, health and education sectors and the funding partners. The scheme covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  

The intentions of the scheme are to raise the level of debate, change working practices, unlock partnership funding and analyse the benefits of working with artists.  An important element of the scheme, therefore, is an independent evaluation process to assess projects in receipt of awards in order to evaluate the outcomes.  The goal is to produce research with a robust evidential base that will inform future policy and practice.

Aims of the Scheme

•	promote the sharing of ideas and creativity within multidisciplinary practice in our built environment

•	integrate artists’ creativity and skills into the design of our built and natural environment in order to enhance the quality of life  

          promote high quality design which is fit for purpose, reflects local                     
            identity, meets communities’ needs and expectations, provides           
            economic benefit

•	encourage new partnerships and ways of working, especially within the education, housing and healthcare sectors

•	invest in innovative schemes, to create new contexts and opportunities for artists, for example in regeneration schemes

•	evaluate the benefits, outcomes and influence of projects receiving awards in order to inform future working

Awards

Awards are offered in six categories:-

Exploration Award:  organisations who would like to work with an artist, but wish to look at the feasibility of doing so and the relevant working practices needed in order to facilitate team working and realise shared objectives.  Value £2000 - £5000

Visionary Award:  artists’ engagement with the design team responsible for master-planning, urban design and development frameworks.  Value £5000 - £15000

Team-Building Award:  for artists working within multidisciplinary teams on the design and construction of buildings and spaces.  Value £5000 - £15000

Creative Homes Award:  the engagement of artists in housing market renewal or housing expansion schemes.  Value £5000 - £15000

Creative Communities Award:  artists working with communities in regeneration, planning or urban design projects.  Value £5000 - £15000

Talking Artists Award: the publication of artists’ views as verbal commentators on urban conditions and solutions. Value £2000 - £5000 

There will be four rounds of awards during the two year term of the scheme, to be announced in November 2004, March 2005, July 2005 and November 2005.  It is expected that 20 - 30 awards will be made over the two year life of the scheme.  

4 	Evaluation Aims and Objectives 

Aim

The aim of this contract is to carry out evaluation which provides a robust evidential base for assessing the impact of the projects supported by the award scheme, in order to demonstrate to both the public and private sectors the processes and impacts of collaborative practice between artists and design professionals in the public realm.

Objectives

•	To build on the recent and current debate on the benefits of public art, and research into the value of urban design (CABE/UCL/DETR, 2001), the impact and quality of public art (Public Art Forum), and other relevant research studies. 

•	To establish a evaluation framework based on setting criteria and developing measures which address the following key areas:-
 
o	The processes of artist input into public realm design projects and the relative effectiveness of each.
o	The impact of artist input on the design quality, regenerative effect, community viability and commercial effectiveness of projects.
o	The long term effects of the exchange of views and practice between artists and design professionals.

•	To devise a robust, effective process for collection of data from projects in receipt of awards.

•	To produce evidence and conclusions which are relevant to the health, education, housing, community regeneration, development, commercial, private, design, planning and arts sectors

•	To make recommendations about future practice in multidisciplinary collaborations in the public realm.

•	To provide information to help PASW evaluate the impact of the overall award scheme.

5	Deliverables and Outline Timetable

The following deliverables are expected from this contract:-

Within 4 weeks of contracting		Timetable and proposed work plan for undertaking 
or 31 August 2004 at latest		the contract

12 October 2004	Short report setting out the framework for the evaluation, criteria and measures.  Guidance for award recipients 

22 February 2005	Summary report describing methodology, criteria and measures, initial findings/themes

March 2005 (date to be fixed)	Presentation at mid scheme seminar

9 January 2006	Final evaluation report. 4 bound copies, 1 unbound copy and a digital copy in MS Word required.

January/February 2006	Summary of methodology, key findings and recommendations for the publication on the scheme

March 2006 (date to be fixed)	Presentation of evaluation process, findings and recommendations at end of scheme national conference

NOTES: 

We propose to make the full evaluation report freely available from the award scheme website within www.publicartonline.org.uk

PASW wishes to collaborate with the successful Evaluation Team on producing a publication on the award scheme.  Broadly, it would include details of the award scheme and summaries of the projects funded by the scheme (written by PASW), and a summary of the methodology, key findings and recommendations (provided by the Evaluation Team).  

6	Process

6.1	The research described in this Brief forms part of a wider Evaluation Strategy for the award scheme.  The Evaluation Strategy has three ‘layers’ as set out in the following diagram:-

PASW

Identify PROJECT objectives
Develop measures
Evaluate PROJECT

Evaluation Team

Establish overall criteria
Develop measures
Evaluate all projects

Award recipients/PASW

Establish project-specific objectives
Develop measures
Evaluate individual projects

PROJECT objectives

Overall criteria

Results of evaluation of individual projects

Results of evaluation of all projects

The flow of activity and information is envisaged as follows:-

6.2	Public Art South West will play a key role in the evaluation process including identifying objectives of the overall award scheme and evaluating the scheme against them.  PASW will be an active partner with the Evaluation Team: The Scheme Manager, Alastair Snow, will be the main point of contact with projects in receipt of grants.  Joanna Morland, co-ordinator, PROJECT evaluation, will be the main point of contact for the Evaluation Team, on behalf of Public Art South West.

6.3	The Evaluation Team will be responsible for devising an evaluation framework based on setting criteria and developing measures to address the research questions and sectoral interests as set out in this Brief.  The Team will be responsible for designing and implementing an effective and robust process for the collection of data from projects in receipt of awards.  It will need to provide clear guidance to award recipients for incorporating the criteria and measures into their project planning, including dealing with queries on the evaluation process and procedures during the initial project planning phase.  It should also devise a method for checking that information of the right kind, quality and depth is being collected.  The Evaluation Team may need to consider whether further direct contact with selected projects is required in order to reach conclusions and prepare recommendations.

6.4	Projects in Receipt of Awards will be required to take an active part in the evaluation process as a condition of their award.  Award recipients will receive the criteria, measures and guidance material devised by the Evaluation Team as part of the award confirmation package.  The Scheme Manager will support the project to incorporate the criteria and measures into the detailed objectives and planning for the project, and will provide ongoing contact and support.   Data from individual projects will be fed back to the Evaluation Team via the co-ordinator, PROJECT evaluation. 

7	Management and Terms

7.1	The contract will be managed by Joanna Morland, co-ordinator, PROJECT evaluation, on behalf of Public Art South West.  The team appointed for the contract will be expected to work closely with the co-ordinator throughout the contract, with reports by telephone or email at least monthly.  A small steering group will meet with the Evaluation Team at key points during the contract term to monitor progress. 

7.2	Conflict of Interest
Applicants must not benefit from or have any interest or involvement in applications for awards from the scheme, as applicant, advisor, consultant or in  any other capacity.

7.3	Copyright
PASW and its partners CABE and A&B intend that the evaluation process and resultant report shall inform practice in the field, and therefore intend to disseminate their findings freely and as widely as possible.  We therefore propose that our contract with the chosen evaluation team shall include provisions, which deal with intellectual property rights and the team’s original material.  For example: the evaluation team will assign to ourselves present and future copyright in their project material.  We shall grant to the evaluation team a non-exclusive, royalty free, perpetual licence of Intellectual Property Rights to use such intellectual Property Rights for any purpose, provided that any such use shall be accompanied by such acknowledgement as PASW may require in relation PASW’s contribution towards the creation of, and ownership of, such Intellectual Property Rights.

7.4	Fee

A fee of £18,000 is available for the work, inclusive of expenses and VAT.  

Payments will be made on receipt of invoices.  The payment schedule will be:

£3,000 inc VAT	on exchange of signed contract of appointment.

£3,000 inc VAT	on receipt of framework, criteria, measures and guidelines for applicants.

£3,000 inc VAT	after the seminar in March 2005

£6,000 inc VAT	on receipt of the first draft report (mid/late November 2005)

£3,000 inc VAT	on satisfactory completion of the contract

8	Skills and Experience

The Evaluation Team will need:-

•	A demonstrable understanding of the creative process.

•	Experience of at least two of the following areas: public/cultural policy, public art practice, architecture/the built environment, urban design, planning, regeneration, urban geography.

•	Knowledge of the issues relating to the value of good design in the public realm, and its impact on healthcare, education, regeneration and sustainable communities.  

•	Understanding of the process of artists’ engagement within collaborative design teams for the built environment.

•	Experience of a range of monitoring and evaluation techniques, including both primary and secondary research, designed to produce evaluation with a robust evidential base.

•	Willingness to work collaboratively with Public Art South West, the key players in the projects to be evaluated and with other bodies engaged or interested in similar research areas.

•	Strong analytical and interpretation skills. 

•	An ability to write in a clear and accessible way to make a case to a range of sectors (healthcare, education, regeneration, design, public and private sectors).

•	Strong project management skills with an ability to focus research within a restricted timescale and to deliver on time.

We are expecting that a mix of knowledge and expertise will be needed to deliver this contract and would welcome collaborations across professional sectors and institutions.

9	How to Apply

Applications for this contract are invited from independent consultants, organisations and academic institutions.  Appointment will be by written submission and interview.

Please confirm your intention to apply by Friday 14 May 2004.  The closing date for applications is 9.30am on Thursday 3 June.

Please supply the following information:-

1	A proposal setting out why you wish to undertake this research and what your organisation can bring to the partnership.  The proposal should also contain full details of the proposed approach to this evaluation, an anticipated timetable, key outcomes, and likely work plans for each stage, indicating the personnel involved.
 
2	With reference to the analysis of skills and experience set out in section 8, the names, qualifications and experience of all those on the tendering team, with their CVs, details of their specialist involvement, amount of time involved and cost per day.  Your submission should clearly identify the name and experience of the person who will be leading and working with the team on a day to day basis and the amount of time they expect to devote to the project.

3	The previous record of the tendering organisation and the individuals on the team of undertaking similar research.  Please submit examples of research, which will be returned.

4	A detailed breakdown of fees and costs relating to the various stages of the evaluation.

5	The names and contact details of two organisations for which equivalent research work has been completed.  References will be followed up prior to interview.

Please supply two hard copies and one electronic copy (as an e-mail attachment in MS Word or Rich Text Format) of the tender documents. Mark the email and the envelope:  PROJECT – Evaluation Application.

Please send to:-

Joanna Morland
Public Art South West
Arts Council England, South West
Bradninch Place
Gandy Street
Exeter EX4 3LS

pasw@artscouncil.org.uk

9	Closing Date and Interviews

The deadline for proposals (for hard copies and e-mail versions) is 9.30am on Thursday 3 June 2004.

Interviews will be held in Exeter on Thursday 24 June 2004

The appointment will be announced in early July.

JMM, 27.04.04