Nowhereisland in Review
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Nowhereisland in review An edited version December 2012 2 Nowhereisland in review 3 Contents Introduction Executive Summary 5–7 The Artwork 8–10 The Journey The Expedition 11–13 The South West Journey 14–16 Engagement Partnerships 19 Summary of all partners and contributors 20–24 Schools resources 25 Who engaged with Nowhereisland and why? 26–28 Becoming a citizen 29 Who were the citizens of Nowhereisland 30 –31 How did people take part in Nowhereisland? 32 Events 33–36 Digital engagement 37–42 Creative responses 43 Conclusions and Recommendations 44 Communications Introduction 46 Phase One 47– 48 Phase Two 49– 52 Conclusions and Recommendations 53 Resource, documentation and legacy Resourcing the project 55 Documentation 56–57 Legacy 58 Appendices The Nowhereisland Team 59 Resident Thinkers 60–62 Media Coverage 63–64 Cover image: Nowhereisland visits Ilfracombe Inside cover image: Nowhereisland joins Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival march 4 Nowhereisland in review Introduction A project conceived and developed over three The process of compiling this report has involved years, Nowhereisland grew from Alex Hartley’s collating and analyzing the project using the remarkable (and seemingly impossible) artistic evaluation processes outlined in Audience proposal: what if an Arctic island travelled London’s guide ‘Researching Audiences at Outdoor south? This project was the winning South West Events and Festivals’, 2012 and considering the commission for Artists Taking the Lead, the Arts research of the UCLAN team led by Professor Council’s flagship project for the London 2012 Lynn Froggett, who produced the report, ‘New Cultural Olympiad. The commission was selected Model Arts Institutions and Public Engagement, by an independent panel of artists and producers Research Study’ and the discussion paper ‘Quality of in 2009 and came to fruition in summer 2012. Experience in the Visual Arts’ produced by Annabel Jackson Associates in 2012. We used the following This small island journeyed from the High Arctic methods to analyze the project: region of Svalbard to the south west coast of England in summer 2012. As it made this epic • A total of 380 face-to-face surveys conducted journey, it travelled through international waters, by trained staff at the Embassy, giving us a 95% whereupon it became the world’s newest nation – confidence level with the 10,000 estimated Nowhereisland – with citizenship open to all. attenders; Over its year-long status as a nation, Nowhereisland • 102 mini-interviews conducted by Embassy staff – travelled 2,500 miles from the northernmost a small sample with a margin of error; landmass in the world, and, accompanied by its • A total of 668 replies to follow up e-surveys sent mobile Embassy, was greeted by thousands in to all citizens at the end of the project, giving us ports and harbours around the south west coast of a 95% confidence level with the number of 23,003 England. The nation accrued over 23,000 citizens citizens. Responses were more likely from active from 135 countries and inspired 2,672 propositions citizens, though the large number of responses to its online constitution. On Sunday 9th September, means that the results can be assumed to give the island left its final port of call – Bristol – and the accurate feedback. territory was dispersed amongst its citizens. • Vox pops of participants at the Embassy; • Letters received from citizens; This is an edited version of the self-evaluation report • Social media comments and responses via which detailed the how, when and where of the facebook and twitter; artwork, events and programme that unfolded over • Observations at the Embassy and key events by the three years of development and seven weeks of trained staff; the journey. • Press reports and responses; • Interviews with staff and partners. This report is written by the team at Situations, the producers of Nowhereisland, in consultation with Certain feedback statements, fabrication and the artist, Alex Hartley. Whilst the award was made production details have been excluded from the to the artist, the management and responsibility for edited version of this report. the delivery, finances and evaluation of the project was taken on by Situations, which until 1 November Nowhereisland has shown the possibilities for 2012, was a programme operating within the working collectively and cumulatively with partners University of the West of England, Bristol. across a diversity of sites, transforming one artist’s idea into a collective, ambitious project, which reflects both on local specifics and global issues. In the Executive Summary, we outline what we have achieved and learnt from this project 5 Executive Summary Key achievements Key findings • Produced a challenging, multi-faceted artwork • The aesthetic integrity and critical rigour of Alex which encouraged active and sustained Hartley’s original vision was fundamental to engagement and critical thinking; encouraging active participation; • Delivered a dynamic and engaging programme • The two-year development period was not through partnership working which reached areas only crucial to the resolution of production and of low engagement in the South West region with logistical challenges, but vital to the nurturing of the work of one artist inspiring over 82 creative partnerships and building interest in the project; responses; • Social engagement in Nowhereisland moved • Pioneered an inspiring suite of resources and beyond an event-based, mass experience to opportunities for participation across a diversity something experienced individually, often of digital platforms; provoking and encouraging new creative • Overcame tabloid scepticism to generate a responses; positive media response resulting in deeper • The participants in Nowhereisland became engagement with the work. committed and familarised with Nowhereisland • Succeeded in engaging a high percentage of often through non-arts networks and ideas; young people in the project over a sustained • The journey of Nowhereisland involved both period of time through partnership and events planned events and unexpected arrivals, and through an imaginative citizenship and suggesting that future projects should incorporate Embassy programme; both event marketing and surprise encounters. • Attracted 52 internationally respected thinkers to • The press response, despite turning positive contribute to the programme and to champion the during 2012, was dogged over three years by project world-wide; the ‘price tag’ of the project but there is clear • Raised considerable matched funding to resource evidence that positive press attention led the staffing, communications programme and to in-depth public engagement, rather than journey production; sensationalist recognition; • Created opportunities for participants and visitors • Due to the skills, resources and expertise required to consider the implications of an individual’s by the project, the artist assumed the conventional role in society and their relationship to issues of role of commissioned artist, with the producers climate change, human migration and nationhood. bearing the financial risks and operational workload of the project. Nowhereisland visits Mevagissey 6 Nowhereisland in review Detailed Achievements Creative learning and Employment • Inspired 82 other creative outcomes to be made Engagement in response to Nowhereisland, including six new • Encouraged over 23,000 people to register to texts written by members of experimental writing become citizens of Nowhereisland from over 135 network, Tertulia, based in Bristol; a set of new countries across the world. Schools in Melbourne, myths and stories by Young Plymouth Arts Centre USA and Ilfracombe were active Nowherian and Nowhereisland songs by a Weymouth-based citizens and many travelled to witness the island’s ukulele band and young people at Plymouth Music Zone. journey around the coast; • Created exceptional opportunities for young • 4,370 young people under the age of 15, and people to become involved in the project through 4,140 young people between the ages of 15 and an active schools’ programme. 24, became citizens; • Encouraged 71 other artists and creatives to get • 42 regional partnerships helped to deliver 161 involved in the project; engagement sessions with 10,953 attendees; • 71% of citizens surveyed remarked that • Trained and delivered a ‘front of house’ staff for Nowhereisland had encouraged them to think the project – the Nowhereisland ambassadors about how they might be more active citizens. – who engaged with thousands on cliff tops, Though difficult to measure the impact of the beaches and harbours, with many visitors rarely project to date, we believe that the project will have had a significant impact on people’s having had the opportunity to experience consideration of their values and how they might contemporary art directly in their home-town. contribute to society; • Developed non-art partnerships in the project with • Created the equivalent of 8 full-time positions particularly fruitful collaborations with the British over three years; Red Cross and HMP Verne in Portland; • Encouraged 22 volunteers to get actively involved • Pioneered new digital tools which led to in the project as organisers and participants; significant active engagement in the project such • Ran five full-time internships over seven weeks for as the online constitution (written by citizens), artists on the project. numbering 2,672 propositions for a new society, proving the website was a vital