University Centres for the Arts Network

C21st Centres for the Arts - Pathways to Development January 2016

Contents 1. The Brief 2. Summary 3. The Story to Date 4. Consultation 5. Benchmarking 6. Case Studies 7. Key Themes 8. C21st Centres for the Arts 9. What Next Appendices

1 1.The Brief

The University Centres for the Arts Network (UCAN) is a consortium of theatres, arts centres, concert halls and galleries based in the UK, each with a university as a major stakeholder. There are currently twenty active members based across England, Scotland and Wales operating within a range of contexts: from city centre to out-of-town campus; from independent trust to university service; to wholly owned subsidiary. The network represents a wide range of universities outside of London that have a focus on teaching and training, but also includes those with a strong emphasis on research. The network’s mission is: to share knowledge and deepen understanding across Higher Education arts venues in order to support best practice and help develop sustainable models for the future.

The purpose of this report is to identify pathways for the group’s development taking into account the particular challenges and opportunities for arts venues with universities as their major stakeholders. The report will consider how to proactively support member sustainability, overcome shared challenges, and expand awareness and support across the cultural sector.

2. Summary

The report is based on a programme of work that included: face to face, skype and telephone consultation; benchmarking across the UCAN network; and desk research. The scope and timing of the project introduces a practice based lens from which to view other research into the relationship between the arts and HEI.

2.1 The project consultation included university administrators and academics, funding organisations and UCAN members. A number of clear themes arose from this work. University and venue relationships are being refreshed and updated to reflect the current priorities of HEI and operating context of the venues. This is resulting in more ambitious, strategic and clearer objectives and governance. Venues remain an important part of students social and cultural lives, but are becoming more central to their learning and research. UCAN members are particularly important to HEI when it comes to engaging with local communities, strategic partnerships, and the cultural and creative professions.

2 They are also developing as ‘third spaces’ that stimulate and support innovation, experimentation and pathfinding work. These roles are developing in a variety of different models and circumstances so UCAN work to capture and communicate good practice and impact is useful to the profession as a whole. There is support across the network for developing a UCAN C21st Arts Centre programme to align member’s developmental aspirations with those of their key stakeholders. There is also a keen appetite to develop practical initiatives that broaden and deepen student engagement with the arts.

2.2 UCAN Benchmarking has demonstrated that venues with universities have widely varying priorities, governance, operating platforms, facilities and programmes of activity. However, they have more factors in common than those that differentiate them, and UCAN directors and managers find comparison and knowledge exchange “surprisingly” useful. The current approach to benchmarking will be developed as a tool for the network and for the wider arts sector. The cumulative ‘estate’, ’collection’ and programme of UCAN member is much more substantial and far reaching than is generally known, as is the level of direct and indirect investment in the arts by HEI. The leverage of inward investment by the venues is important and growing, particularly where joint university / venue approaches are being developed. There is a significant contribution to research, both through showcasing and communicating academic work, and increasingly through partnering in research projects. The contribution to learning and formal teaching varies enormously between venues, depending on their configuration and the focus of the HEI (a Conservatoire venue is, for example, fully integrated into course teaching), but it was clear that new approaches to practice based learning are underway in a variety of venues within universities.

2.3 Key trends impact on students, academic staff, communities, audiences and the venues themselves. Universities are becoming ever more important in Place Making, operating or creating cultural facilities for their wider locality, and even leading on cultural strategy development. The development of the ‘creative campus’, where arts venues contribute to HEI campus porosity and community engagement, is rapidly expanding. Furthermore this role is being strategised as a contribution to university’s CSR, to local regeneration and to a sustainable arts sector. The importance of venues and arts practice to HEI performance is also growing in the fields of research and teaching practices. Some arts venues are becoming types of cultural laboratories for innovation. These developments particularly respond to the growth in inter-disciplinary working in HEI and in the arts, and a number of venues are actively involved with arts and science, arts and health and wellbeing. Venues are also being more pro-active in connecting students with professional opportunities, networks and skills. A wide variety of methods are employed, from mentoring and skills development, to festival showcasing and networking, to placements and internships. Lastly, it is clear that students can be as ‘hard to reach’ a group as any other young people, leading venues to create programmes and audience experience that engages students desire for an interactive arts environment that responds to their social experience.

3 2.4 C21st Centres for the Arts The ambitions of UCAN can be summed up as a network of venues that mobilises the knowledge, resources and human capital of their university settings in order to research and develop centres for the arts that anticipate the future. A network of 21st Century Centres for the Arts that builds on the platform of pioneering work described in this report. However UCAN lacks capacity to support joint working and project development at present. By focusing this work under the following five key themes it will be possible to develop a project portfolio that secures funding for the priority developments, and a project plan that matches resources with objectives.

• The Knowledge Exchange will map UCAN cultural assets and resources to support developments across the sector as well as improving the effectiveness and sustainability of UCAN arts venues. The network will expand its coordinated work, professional linkages, and communications to the cultural sector. • The 21st Century Centre for the Arts is a ‘third space’ to explore how arts venues can best deliver in the future. The expertise, knowledge and resources of HEI will be brought to collaborations to pioneer new approaches to: community engagement, inter- disciplinary practice, new pedagogies of teaching and research, involving young people, the artist, and the network-wide ‘virtual centre for the arts’. • The Research Engine provides R&D for the sector, including research into: new operating platforms, the learning venue, health and wellbeing, arts & science, young people / digital natives and the arts. • The Creative Campus works with local partners and national agencies to support local development, community education and outreach, new public use of the campus, and partnerships within the arts sector. • The Active Network will expand, customise and replicate good practice (such as Derby’s Learning Theatre model) to actively enhance the skill sets of young people in preparation for work in the cultural and creative sector.

2.5 What next for UCAN? Members of the network will prepare a 2016 research exercise aimed at all arts venues with universities across the UK to identify full impact and best practice. Network priorities will be translated into projects through a process of consultation with potential partners and funders. This will require some initial financial support to commission freelance or seconded UCAN capacity to prepare:

• A funding proposal for Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Wales to take forward a project that brings together the priorities around engagement with students and young people (expanding innovative skills development models, digital natives research, joint programming and co-producing, and the associated knowledge exchange).

4 • A project proposal to the Creative Europe Cooperation Projects programme of 2016 to develop the C21st Centre for the Arts concept. There will be a requirement to identify and then work with at least two other networks or clusters of university arts venues in Europe which have similar priorities.

3. The story to date

3.1 UCAN The project brief points to the unique situation of arts venues with universities. This environment provides a fertile ground for innovation, enabling venues to offer uniquely engaging arts platforms enriched by an unrivalled habitat of learning and knowledge. Moreover, at present the Higher Education (HE) context can offer a position of relative financial security compared to non-university affiliated arts organisations reliant exclusively on other forms of public investment, which invariably allows for greater risk- taking and creativity. As a consequence, University venues can affect the cultural landscape disproportionately to their size.

The HE context does not bring immunity to changes in public funding or shifts in cultural consumption, and increasingly venues are seeking new ways to maximise their resilience. There are unique challenges as well as opportunities for arts venues with universities that are often situated on campus and constantly needing to cultivate an ever-changing student population. This can be at odds with a drive to persuade local audiences that a venue’s offer is for general consumption. There is also the risk that venues become hidden behind the teaching and research environments from which they originally emanated. Venues must work hard for academic ‘buy in’, whilst encouraging colleagues to champion a venue’s intrinsic value beyond more narrowly defined HE outputs.

3.2 Education Education is continually changing in response to both economic and cultural developments. Universities are one part of a system looking to break out of an approach characterised by Sir Ken Robinson as ‘trying to meet the future by doing what they did in the past’. Universities are all too aware of a changing paradigm where traditional ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’ classifications may no longer apply. The call for inclusion of the artistic and aesthetic experience in learning is increasingly persuasive.

This project follows hard on the heels of the report ‘Beyond the Creative Campus - Reflections on the evolving relationship between higher education and the creative economy’ capturing the results of a two year AHRC funded project and online platform (www.creative-campus.org.uk) and published by King’s College London. The report focused on four key areas:

5 • the need for HE to reach beyond campus boundaries and contribute to cultural regeneration and local communities • investment in creative human capital and professionals who can engage with both academic research and cultural production • ‘third spaces’ for creative and academic knowledge to interact • transparency around universities work in the creative economy as patrons, sponsors and partners.

There is a clear synergy between ‘Beyond the Creative Campus’ and the concerns of UCAN, particularly around developing more knowledge exchange, research and development involving both cultural and creative professions and academe. Synergies also apply to university’s social responsibility and in their connecting to both local communities and communities of practice. The ambition of universities to ‘take down their walls’ and develop a more porous approach to knowledge exchange is described in the report. This demonstrates how arts venues in universities can be both the ‘third spaces’ to bring creative and academic knowledge together, and homes to the emerging cohort of intermediaries required to engage with academic research and creative production.

This direction of travel is recognised in the assessment of research and HEI performance in the UK. In the former area research funding councils are looking to demonstrate social and economic returns on investment, and culture and creative knowledge exchange deliver. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) assesses the research of 154 universities across the UK through a series of expert panels. The assessment now considers the impact of research, including society, culture and quality of life. As a consequence the value of public engagement and knowledge exchange as pathways to impact has grown, as has the importance of showcasing and sharing research through the media, arts and events. The assessment process is based on case studies, and a university’s ability to tell a story of research impact is increasingly important. The facilities, capacity and activities of arts venues are powerful tools that universities can bring to bear across their research submissions. The programmes of arts venues can in themselves translate into ambitious action and practice based research programmes.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council is also supporting a network of Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy that may provide future partnership working opportunities for UCAN. These include: The Creative Exchange (Lancaster, Newcastle and RCA); Design in Action (Edinburgh, Glasgow, RGU, Abertay and St Andrew’s); Creative Works London (14 partners, including University of London’s Centre for Creative Collaboration); Research and Enterprise in the Arts and Creative Technologies (UWE, Bristol, Exeter, Bath, Cardiff, Watershed). The Lancaster Arts case study (in the appendices) is an example of how collaborating with the Hubs can support new developments.

6 3.3 The Arts UCAN works across England, Scotland and Wales meaning that a wide range of partners and priorities are relevant to the network. Arts Council England (ACE) works closely with most of the UCAN venues in England, often providing significant core funding as well as supporting project based initiatives. ACE have also created a research funding stream to develop its relationships with HEI. Universities are particularly important to Scotland’s knowledge economy, and Creative Scotland work with HEI at a number of levels, from Napier University’s Screen Academy to Dundee Contemporary Arts. National cultural agencies like Creative Scotland or Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) are strategic partners in areas of research and innovation as well as operating or representing a variety of arts venues, including UCAN member Macrobert Arts Centre. The Scottish Funding Council has recently jointly funded a new post of Director of Creative Industries in Creative Scotland with the aim of supporting creative businesses to work with colleges and universities. Arts Council Wales directly fund arts venues with universities.

Local authority funding for the arts, and direct Council arts provision is shrinking, and even disappearing in some areas. For example, Birmingham City Council, a notable beneficiary of culture led regeneration, has just announced 25% cuts to arts budgets and the impact of Derby City Council’s budget pressures have been a major driver in the University’s increased role. The Arts Development UK Local Authority Arts Investment & Partnership Survey 2015 found that 138, or 37%, of local authorities in England and Wales have no dedicated arts officer and no direct arts service. Funding cuts were particularly notable in smaller local authorities. Arts Development UK note that: ‘What the sector is lacking is the higher risk speculative projects that would get artists started on their journeys. The learning obtained on these projects has often laid the foundations for future work and ideas, which have led to established arts practise and professional standards’. It is clear that developments in university arts venues come at a challenging time for the arts sector, magnifying the strategic significance of initiatives to connect with local communities and the wider arts ecology. UCAN venues are also well placed to support the experimenting and risk taking that is so under pressure elsewhere in the arts ecology.

7 4. The consultation

Face to face, skype and telephone consultations were carried out with the following people:

Huw Davies, Dean of College of Arts, University of Derby Andrea Pulford, Director of Planning and Operations, Warwick Arts Centre Andrew Miller, Programming Director, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Craig Morrow, Artistic Director, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre Elen Ap Robert, Artistic Director, Pontio Franco Bianchini, Professor of Cultural Policy and Planning, Leeds Beckett University James Goodman, Deputy Director, Pontio Jamie Eastman, Director, Lancaster Arts Julie Ellen, Artistic Director, Macrobert Arts Centre Lindsey Pugh, Arts Council England Mary Stuart, Vice-Chancellor, University of Lincoln Michaela Butter, Director, Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester Sarah Brigham, Artistic Director, Derby Theatre Shona Powell, Director, Nottingham Lakeside Arts Simon Guy, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University Tim Sayers, Leicester, Arts in Health Coordinator

The consultation results have been condensed under seven headings: The University; Place; Research & Links to Academics; Students & Teaching; UCAN Networking & Collaboration; Strategy and Funding; Events & International Links.

4.1 The University Venues provide a resource to enhance the campus and increase public usage through initiatives like public art and public events programmes. They also add to the reputation of the university and make it more attractive to both students and their parents. The cultural campus brings students closer to practice, and the venue workforce demonstrates a range of professional possibilities to students. Venues can make an important contribution to a university seeking to be in the top quartile, particularly as the importance of case studies to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) continues to grow.

8 There is a need to raise awareness of the profile of the range and scale of opportunities for universities with an arts venue. Improving venues creates a virtuous circle that impacts on education, training and students. In some cases this can also reduce the expense of maintaining buildings from the 1970’s. Venues can be a key to breaking down barriers and silos between departments and disciplines. There is, however, a need to keep pace with digital developments in the university to keep the venue relevant to the academic field.

The relationship between the university and the venue varies in terms of governance, management, reporting and operations. Changes in senior university management can present issues of continuity, particularly as the evidence base for the value and future potential of venues in universities is underdeveloped. However, the introduction of cultural strategies, more expert governance, and more formal management structures is leading to both more continuity and more productive working arrangements between university and venue. The university brand can be useful in developing venue outreach activity.

4.2 Place Public engagement is important to all universities, is a form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), broadens participation and creates a more porous campus for the local community. Venues are a local cultural and social asset, contribute to dismantling ‘the ivory tower’ and realise the role of arts in place-making. They are particularly visible in smaller communities, or areas lacking key cultural facilities, can be a beacon for academic engagement, and also help reduce psychological barriers to local people engaging with a university.

It is important to connect programming with local people’s lives and experiences, and diverse programming can stimulate intercultural dialogue between students and local communities. Venues reach beyond the campus with touring and outreach, with art form facilities that may not exist locally, and with co-creation with local cultural producers and with the wider public. Current developments range from a university public engagement portal, to large scale participative work programmes.

There are a variety of relationships in play with other cultural organisations and venues in surrounding areas, ranging from a sharing of resources (as one manager put it: ‘I am forever borrowing stuff’) to organising student residencies with companies and venues. Some venues produce or co-commission and tour work, and in some cases the university itself has taken on the running of venues outside of the university estate, or funds posts in a city gallery. University venues can also offer a supportive environment for experimental or participative work.

9 4.3 Research & links to academics Venues provide a public platform for research outcomes and add value to the work of academics. Most venues are engaging with the research agenda, particularly in the fields of arts and science collaboration, arts and technology, wellbeing, and arts and health. In some cases there are dedicated facilities, such as Pontio’s ‘Fablab', to explore links between technology, art, teaching and research. A play or exhibitions commissioned out of research can become action research that translates into learning and innovation of value elsewhere in the sector. For example a number of venues are linking with research around dementia and wellbeing, in one case exploring the concept of communities of care with the Psychology Department, and in another supporting moves to create a dementia friendly city. Warwick Arts Centre was considered an exemplar of work to bring artists and researchers together, while a number of venues are developing work streams in this area. Humanities research was considered as linking to venues on a day to day basis in areas like music or languages, but this isn’t always referenced in submissions to the REF, and mapping of research across the network would be useful.

There is keen interest in research that moves both practice and teaching forwards. For example linking practice based teaching to the enhancement of the career prospects of students is developing in a number or venues. Consultation also indicated strong interest in how venues with universities could explore new operating models that could impact on the sustainability of venues across the UK arts scene.

“Everything should involve the academics” is a view rooted in establishing and maintaining the value of the venue to the university, and in continually demonstrating the relevance of the arts to academe. This translates into programming with a theoretical focus and ‘an edge’ that academics can relate to, as well as work that connects academic priorities to a market. There are examples of this approach in both the humanities and the sciences. Supporting academics to reach the public and employing artists to catalyse this area of work is seen as valuable. Venues also play a role in encouraging interdisciplinary and cross departmental working among an academic community where the ‘day job’ restricts this approach: “venues provide all sorts of touch points for academics”. This approach requires “legwork - sitting in people’s offices”, but establishes an important platform for venues to contribute across the university’s work.

One experienced cultural researcher pointed to more respect and linkages between arts professionals and academe in today’s universities. This development is partly attributable to the emergence of more academics that understand cultural policy, and more academic posts that directly relate to cultural policy.

10 4.4 Students and teaching Universities are focused more and more on enhancing the student experience and there is a need for programming that is more relevant to students and temporary staff. The consultation revealed that, in some ways, students are a ‘hard to reach’ group, and there is anecdotal evidence that traditional arts venue programmes are more important to international students. On the whole, today’s students are not as interested in being a passive audience, but want a social experience and to contribute to programming and events. Venues are working to develop and exploit their direct link to student’s daily lives through developments like: connections to primary footfall routes, courses being delivered out of arts venues, and in one case the housing of the student union in the arts venue.

When it comes to arts courses, graduate retention can depend on artistic quality. In the case of the conservatoire student attendance is high because its programme is core to their studies. In other venues integration of work with the curriculum gives students opportunities and supports them to be work ready. In these situations a venue’s work is translated into training opportunities for students, and ‘every part of the theatre process is open to learning’. In the case of Derby’s ‘learning theatre’ model where theatre directors work with the teaching staff, over 100 students can be working in the theatre on a given day. Venues are training staff to work with students and to provide skills development and mentoring. They are also training ushers to talk with students about the programme and even providing carousel days for student takeovers of the venue. Derby’s ‘Theatre unwrapped’ applies this philosophy to new productions, with students and the public involved at a pre-preview stage, and supported with learning tools.

More practice based and new pedagogical approaches to teaching are being developed. These can replicate professional working patterns as well as offering experiential learning, bringing students of different disciplines to work together to come up with project ideas. There is a trend towards a more modular approach to courses resulting in course developments like: linking costume making to a module on performance projects; a pilot in building community and citizenship that includes arts practice; and a ‘building better teachers’ course through a social model of learning programme in Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre.

11 4.5 UCAN networking and collaboration One venue director stated “we have more power than we think as a network”, particularly in supporting sustainability in venues in the face of financial pressures. UCAN was also seen as “useful peer group therapy”. Drawing up an inventory of the network’s accumulated resource and collection is an obvious next step to build on the existing benchmarking work of UCAN.

A network based on good peer relations was seen as important as “it’s a lonely job” and the academic and arts environments are quite different. While the network comprises a diverse range of venues it is based on common interests, and has potential for action around unifying topics. The challenge of operating out of venues that are no longer always fit for purpose makes information exchange particularly useful.

Shared programming does go on in the network and there is potential for more, as well as more focus on the art as opposed to the operating platforms. However, co-producing and network touring initiatives should be undertaken cautiously, partly because of the geography of the network. There is interest in a touring network for: small studio spaces; nurturing talent; for co-producing and touring work that engages students; and work based on the social experience of students (eg. Fuerze Bruta). There is also potential for a ‘learning theatre network’ to transfer knowledge, learning and good practice across UCAN venues, as well as a virtual research and learning network. This could link to other networks such as Participation and Engagement in the Arts (Leeds Beckett) `and sector specific institutions such as the National Trust around heritage and living history. Network priorities include: finding out more about students; a business school project to improve university administration for arts venues; and links between venues and developments in contemporary practice and inter-disciplinary working.

4.6 Strategy and funding Venues are increasingly developing longer term (five year) strategies and fundraising frameworks, often involving the senior management of the university. The scope of these plans can extend to: innovation; research; programming; evidence & impact; local community; collaboration with the professional sector; role in cultural quarter developments; students union; and place based partnerships. The rationale is to ensure the venue is seen as a community asset and not just for the university itself. Strategies can also support continuity during times of change in the university as a whole. This approach is also reflected in a more integrated position in the university’s management structure. There are also cases where staff migrating from a university that has already benefited from engaging with cultural developments go on to transform the approach of their new institution.

12 University venues can also be catalysts in the development of place based or local authority cultural strategies, and this in turn can lead to roles in delivering off site facilities and projects, and structural programmes like ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). The consultation process revealed concerns that universities and their venues need to be clear about their role from the outset, and take into account the impacts of funding cuts elsewhere in the sector. It would be all to easy to create unrealistic expectations in partners who are looking for new investment partners. Most of the UCAN longer term and more comprehensive strategies are recent or under development. Capturing learning points from their implementation will be useful across the UCAN membership and beyond.

It is an almost universal truth that arts venues need a diverse funding base for their future sustainability and university venues are no exception. As elsewhere some venues have lost local authority funding, and some UCAN venues are establishing development teams. However, membership and friends schemes appear to be, as yet, underdeveloped in many cases.

The potential for venues to trigger inward investment and biddable funding also supports university interest in their work. Universities can be very supportive of venue fund-raising, bringing their alumni fundraising capacity to bear, or involving venues in European Structural and Investment Funds, (and assisting in the associated reporting requirements). The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Economic and Research Council (ESRC) current emphasis on practice based research that connects with practical outcomes has led to the involvement of university arts venues in some projects and funding applications. There are also cases of venues being included in the development of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme applications, and this may increase as the H2020 funding calls in the field of society and culture progress. However, these funding opportunities often require the venue to follow academic priorities and there was enthusiasm for the development of a Creative Europe application across the network to develop work in the priorities identified by UCAN itself.

The arts funding bodies of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland also work with universities. In the case of Arts Council England (ACE) this has developed into a strategic approach with universities being considered as a ‘fourth leg’ to the ACE three legged arts funding stool comprising commercial income, public funding and private funding. UCAN is exploring collaboration with a dedicated team ACE has put in place to support this new ‘leg’. There are three particularly relevant areas of collaboration: a research grant for a cross network initiative; UCAN members taking the lead for areas of research and development, such as innovative learning models or arts and disability; and responding to priorities identified by the Network. It is likely that Creative Scotland and the Arts Councils of Wales and Northern Ireland will also be interested in collaborating around the priorities of UCAN.

13 4.7 Events and international links UCAN venues are actively working with local, national and international events, and in some instances producing their own international events. European Capital of Culture proposals for the next UK round in 2023 are benefitting from university support, in kind work, and in some instances direct financial investment. This approach is also supporting UK City of Culture proposals for 2021. Venues can both support and help implement these programmes. University venues are also particularly well placed to support thematic or culturally specific events. For example they can involve scientists and artists in National Science Week, or Arabists in a Arab festival. Universities also produce and co-produce their own festivals and events with their venues. Motives range from celebrating a university landmark (for example a university’s 50th year), to creating opportunities for students and artists to engage with professionals (such as Derby’s Departure Lounge Festival), to the exploration of a particular artistic period or practice (such as RWCMD 2017). There is also potential for international programming, co-producing and touring that links to local communities, like Asian arts or Polish theatre.

Many universities have international campuses or partnerships but, on the whole, these aren’t sufficiently translated into projects or opportunities for venues to contribute to international working. Senior management travel to international partners but the question of how to realise associated arts collaborations is unresolved in most instances. Overall the internationalising potential of university venues is underdeveloped. However, there is wide interest in UCAN developing international projects beginning with a Creative Europe collaboration in the first instance.

Successful international working by UCAN venues include the tri-campus initiative at Nottingham. This was developed from workshops on international campuses in China and Malaysia and outcomes include: camaraderie and student engagement across cultures; the involvement of students from science and business; demand for semesters and sandwich courses abroad; and ongoing collaboration.

14 5. Benchmarking

5.1 More in common The Network has developed as a useful forum for comparison despite the wide differences in venue policy, configuration and scope between the venues that constitute it. In some ways the venues have more university linkages in common than similar venue attributes. However, members are able to look at their resources, capacity, outputs and performance in relation to one another. The consultative process indicated that managers found this to be a valuable resource in their work and decision making. As a step towards translating this into meaningful benchmarks and indicators the members undertook a benchmarking exercise as part of the project. The enquiry considered a wide range of information in four key areas: • governance and relationship to the host university • facilities, location and operating platform • programme, activities and financial profile • impacts.

It is tempting to conclude that the absence of like for like comparisons between venues means that the potential for collaboration and joint approaches to development is quite limited. However, all of the arts venues have more factors in common than those that differentiate them. They all have: • connections to the wider community beyond the university itself • both structural and informal links at a variety of ‘touch-points’ with the university • schemes and initiatives to involve students as audience and in the life of the centre • a degree of flexibility in their spaces and facilities to support experimentation and innovation • professional staff to support initiatives elsewhere in the university • a market, audience and embedded trading activity and skills • leverage of inward investment • cultural networks and sectorial impact.

There are also clear trends where a number of different venues are taking forward new development, including: • interdisciplinary project work, particularly in the field of arts and science • participating in, or showcasing and communicating academic research • expanding the scope and reach of the ‘creative campus’ • supporting, hosting or contributing to both under-graduate and post-graduate courses • developing and supporting international links with other campuses, students, staff and venues • providing work experience and pathways to employment for students • improvements to the productivity and efficiency of the relationship between venue and university

15 To quote Mary Stuart, Vice-Chancellor of University of Lincoln: “I don’t think anyone has fully thought through the opportunity presented by university arts venues”.

5.2 The accumulated impact The arts sector as a whole has been becoming more aware of the scale and impacts of university arts venues. The accumulated contribution of these venues is ever more impressive, and represents a major contribution by HEI to the cultural life of the UK. Both university and its wider community have access to an expanding range of excellent facilities that can support local arts development, national and international touring and exhibition, and the creation of new work and partnership projects. A comparative snapshot of benchmarked venues demonstrates this point and is included as Appendix 3.

5.3 The Network The UCAN membership offers a diversity of geo-demography, purpose and operational models. The network crosses established institutional and professional boundaries and offers a strong opportunity to explore potential for, and good practice in, cross-sectorial and inter-disciplinary working. The network can also map its work onto different agendas, and can be an influential portal to push out information, learning and best practice.

UCAN has developed a useful forum for exchanging and comparing information. A number of those consulted testified as to how important the Network was in providing an opportunity for knowledge exchange and in identifying and discussing shared challenges. Consultees also pointed to two comparator networks, the House network (http:// housetheatre.org.uk) and the National Partnership of Arts Centres (NPAC).

This aspect of the Network’s role and activity has the potential to be valuable to a wider set of stakeholders than the members themselves, particularly if supported by a longitudinal approach to assessing the progress of the venues. With this in mind an annual benchmarking return will continue to be a useful exercise for members. This should focus on capturing data that will demonstrate impact against the priorities of the network. For example the following framework could be adopted.

The contribution of the Network to the creative and cultural life of the wider public: • the overall scope of network facilities, collections and programme offer on-site • the overall scope of off-site activity • audience development plans • visitor numbers and profile • audience numbers and profile • participant numbers and profile • strategic, delivery and project partnerships • overall HEI expenditure and net expenditure • fundraising - (including Trusts, individual and corporate)

16 The impact on the student experience: • annual survey of student perceptions across the network • student audience numbers • student participant numbers • artist residencies • professional opportunities (placements, internships, commissions)

The contribution to research: • number of research collaborations • number of research showcase and KE events • number of research projects • published research and conference presentations • number of postgraduate students undertaking arts research • hosting of post-graduate students and projects • specialist facilities and projects • index of research related activity and university achievement

The contribution to learning: • use of the venue for teaching, including numbers of sessions • use of venue staff for teaching and for mentoring and skills development • workshops and masterclasses • action research and self-learning • community education and outreach • links with schools and FE • index of artist engagement and university achievement

The annual returns can be used by each venue in their reporting, as well as condensed into a Network annual report for wider circulation. The returns will provide evidence to underpin future initiatives and funding applications across the UCAN membership.

17 6. Case studies and best practice

A range of best practice emerged in the consultation process and this was further supported with a small number of case study submissions. These are not exhaustive and vary in style and length, but demonstrate the range of work that has developed across the UCAN. The case studies are included as Appendix 4.

6.1 Student Engagement Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) is part of the University of Lincoln and home to over 400 drama and dance students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. However, students did not engage with the venue at any significant level and in 2009/10, for example, only 2% of tickets were dedicated student tickets. In 2011/12 the venue decided to align more closely with the academic programme, with the theatre being used for teaching, public assessments, and extra-curricular performances. Programming began to reflect the timetable of study. The results were impressive with an immediate doubling of student ticket sales and a cultural shift over the last three years. LPAC Producers provides students with industry experience that complements more formalised work experience opportunities and extracurricular staff-led master classes. This has increased graduate employability and led to students being retained within the local arts ecology. LPAC led to all drama and dance students receiving an annual £90 credit which they can use against any performance at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, radically improving student attendances.

6.2 Interns Scheme The Turner Sims Internship programme at the University of Southampton is designed to provide opportunities and training for students planning a career in music administration. The scheme is open to Music students in year 2, with an average commitment of 1 day a week. The four interns work together as a team in programme and marketing, and bookings and administration. They attend departmental and TS meetings with external professionals and participate in running major TS/Department of Music collaborations and concerts. The 2015 interns have expanded the roles to include writing programme notes for classical event programmes, more co-ordinated marketing initiatives particularly to fellow students and (in the case of the Showcase interns) expansion of the Facebook page. The two-year University funding came to an end in January 2016. However such has been the success of the scheme that funding was secured from the Friends of Turner Sims as well as the University centrally to support a further year of the scheme in addition to investment from the Music Department’s budget.

18 6.3 Corporate Social Responsibility Leicester University has recognised that the Attenborough Arts Centre has a key role to play in its wider corporate social responsibility agenda and has given it a high profile within its new strategy. It supported a fund raising campaign and increased its own revenue investment to enable an ambitious £1.8 million capital development, doubling the building's space, creating Leicestershire’s only contemporary art gallery, extending opening hours to seven days a week, providing a new exhibition programming budget and additional staffing hours for work with schools and community groups. Centre staff take an active part in city cultural planning and participation in the major city festivals often offering subsidised or free space for local artists and performers to create their work. The centre provides opportunities for disabled artists/performers to be seen within a mainstream context and hosts regular community groups involved in supporting disabled young people, or those with mental health problems. Leicester is shifting to American style modular degrees with the potential to include options for students to gain experience in community based arts practice whilst studying for non arts based degrees, connecting students to the wider CSR agenda.

6.4 Arts and Science Pontio is a new arts and innovation centre which opened in Bangor at the end of 2015. It is home to a Theatre, Studio Theatre, Cinema, Innovation Laboratories, collaborative spaces and lecture rooms, Students' Union and restaurants. One of Pontio's aims is to bring the arts and sciences together in new and innovative ways. Pontio is launching a pilot project called SYNTHESIS to commission two different pairs of scientists and artists to develop an idea together as a bridge between both worlds. Joint applications were invited from scientists and artists (in performing arts) for a prize of £2000 per application. Synthesis aims to make a bridge between science and the performing arts through the delivery and development of new work and partnerships.

6.5. Changing perceptions of an HEI Prior to 2011, The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama had been accommodated in an uninspiring 1970’s office block and, despite offering an annual programme of some 300 events per year had a total audience of 6,000 – effectively excluding the general public who were seen as a necessary but unwelcome by-product of performance training. A new capital project turned this approach on its head and audiences were soon to become central to the strategy of the College through the creation of a suite of new performance and rehearsal facilities. Students raised their game, academic and programming staff became more collaborative and ambitious whilst audiences responded in large number, by 2013-14 amounting to over 65,000, a tenfold increase in just 3 years together with associated income. The College was named the number one UK institution for Drama Training in The Guardian’s League Tables in 2015, and Arts Business of the Year by Arts & Business Cymru.

19 6.6 HEI Engagement with the Professional Arts Sector The Royal Welsh College’s new performance facilities allowed the College to embark on a mission to improve its profile within the wider arts industry in a bid to replicate the conditions students would experience upon graduation. Arts organisations were offered new and high quality performance spaces supported by a new role of Head of the Creative Programme, specifically tasked to cultivate relationships with the sector. Welsh National Opera now delivers two annual residencies at the College. (WNO has gone on to replicate this model of engagement on its English Tour). This has led to student instrumentalists and vocalists being placed within the company for further work experience. With the mid-scale touring company, Mid Wales Opera, the College developed an entirely new model of co-production between an HEI and professional producer, featuring college musicians alongside professionals in the pit and College vocalists in the Chorus and understudying solo roles. Partnerships have also been developed with a wide range of organisations in various music genres, dance and drama.. Working alongside the arts sector to deliver enhanced experiences for students and audiences alike, is now fully embedded at the College.

6.7 Arts Centres 2.0 Lancaster University has moved the arts to the centre of its approach to strategic development, expanding work within arts spaces, across the campus, and with the wider community. Lancaster Arts has moved its cafe bar into a gallery space and activate it as a social and event space. The space is operated as a rolling, responsive programme of talks, symposia, micro-exhibitions and experiments with the university collection and leading to the development of the concept of "Art Centres 2.0”. This is a user-led concept of an arts centre, where programmes are co-designed between expert and visitor, and the venue acts as a test space or laboratory.

The next phase expands the co-design philosophy to a City Council venue (the Storey Institute) and there is an aspiration to include other venues with universities, such as Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), that are developing work in this area. Lancaster Arts has framed this work in a comprehensive arts strategy with associated forward, business, and audience development plans.

20 6.8 Creative Europe Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) is a European Platform for Literary Exchange, Translation and Policy Debate. LAF aims to develop intercultural dialogue through literature and translation and highlight lesser-translated literatures. LAF is based at the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture, at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Staff and co-workers are based in several locations in the UK, France and Germany and LAF works in partnership with organisations and individuals across Europe and beyond on activities creating opportunities for new literary connections, collaborations and projects. LAF also acts as a hub to connect individuals, organisations, civil society, cultural NGOs and government bodies and institutions. In 2015 LAF launched the Literary Europe Live (LEuL) project supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. LEuL brings together sixteen festivals and venues to foster and encourage programming that reflects the richness and diversity of the European literary landscape. LEuL also highlights outstanding emerging literary talent and develops live and digital audiences for writing in translation.

6.9 Strategic partnership between the University and Derby Theatre In 2009 the University of Derby established Derby Theatre in the unoccupied Derby Playhouse, restoring a producing theatre to the public and providing the University’s Theatre Arts students with the chance to learn in a professional environment. In 2012 the organisation developed a new business model (Derby Learning Theatre) with the support of Arts Council England. The model produces high quality professional theatre that unlocks learning at every level for audiences, artists, participants, students and staff. Some 125 students have lectures at the theatre every week, and have the opportunity to engage in the professional programme through training, shadowing and assisting schemes enabling them to learn through integration with professional processes. Research on the impact of these programmes is on-going and early findings prove that this model impacts significantly on the students’ confidence, knowledge and employability. The Guardian recently cited it as “increasingly the most crucial theatre in the region because of its emphasis on learning, nurturing and nourishing”.

21 7. Key themes

A number of key themes have emerged from the research, consultation and case studies.

7.1 Higher Education Institutions - HEIs are reaching beyond campus boundaries into their local communities, as well as developing their estate as a community resource. Increasingly universities are contributing to local physical, social and cultural regeneration. Arts venues have a strong contribution to make to the ‘porosity’ of campus boundaries and to creating a reciprocity in university and community relations. They also have the professional capacity and skills to mobilise arts and culture on behalf of the HEI / public interface and in delivering to universities Corporate Social Responsibility.

7.2 Creative human capital - The role of cultural and creative skills and critical capacities is being increasingly recognised as a transferable asset of importance to the economy as a whole. The knowledge and critical thinking of graduates is undervalued in the creative and cultural economy and pathways to professional roles are becoming ever more difficult for young people. Arts venues are developing new approaches to linking practice and professional development with teaching and research. They are also creating new pathways that connect students and researchers with the profession. UCAN has the capacity and reach to provide industry intelligence that can help shape education and training to meet industry requirements.

7.3 Creative Knowledge and R&D - Knowledge transfer is less developed than in other areas, particularly the sciences. New models for collaborative research are emerging, and there is a need to demonstrate the impact of public funding within the arts and humanities. There is a new emphasis on collaborative research frameworks and a clearer understanding of the role of research in the creative economy. The ‘engaged’ academic workforce and practice based research are blurring the line between practitioner and teacher, and there is pressure for a greater understanding of the potential for reciprocity between the two.

7.4 Addressing embedded and structural barriers - While universities are considered to be the next major wave of arts investors by many, there is an absence of evidence around impact investment outcomes to support this development. There are also challenges for universities in how to work with small cultural organisations, both within their own estates and in the wider community. Yet universities are well placed to develop our understanding of how the mixed cultural economy works. This includes the difficulties that the micro and small scale profile of cultural industries present to large stake-holding organisations, producers and promoters. The Warwick Commission, NESTA and Culture at King’s, along with others, are working to develop our understanding of how the sector works, and UCAN has a unique potential to deliver action research in this area.

22 7.5 University venues - There is a new need to demonstrate the impact of HEIs in relation to the arts sector and the creative economy, linked to universities public-societal agenda and knowledge transfer activities. This includes local regeneration and the contribution of universities in re-shaping old to new knowledge, often with cultural organisations, or in creative clusters and industries. Venues can also trigger and lead the regeneration of their localities, as well as programming and outreach. The emergence of ‘third spaces’, where academic and cultural spaces combine, creates opportunities for shared research. This development is also virtual. The ‘digitally light’ or underdeveloped nature of the cultural sector means that the creation of on-line communities of practice that reach out into the community can be a clear priority.

7.6 Mapping and evaluation - A mapping of the cumulative ‘collection’, assets and impacts of the network and the wider university arts offer will be useful for all organisations and decision makers working in or with the arts. This can be based on the establishing of a set of key indicators that cover cultural, economic and social impacts along with an expansion of benchmarking activity to support effective performance management and advocacy. This information will also support the expansion of the work to develop the professional networks, skills and experience of students into a ‘learning theatre’ type of network.

The international IETM network (http://ietm.org) demonstrates what can be achieved in a membership based network. The research and knowledge exchange of the network is a major force in the development of European performing arts, and the network now has over 500 members.

7.7 Network collaborations - There is wide interest across UCAN in collaboration around co-producing, technical support, and touring. This is focused on work that responds to the university setting (or opportunity), and is tempered with caution about the associated financial risks and the challenges arising from the geography of the network and the differences in capacities and facilities. However, the case for collaborating around productions and touring in areas of shared priority is persuasive. This particularly applies to work aimed at engaging students, as new formats that support more interaction than the simple ‘night out’ are needed, as is work that links to the social lives of students.

23 8. 21st Century Centres for the Arts

The ambitions of UCAN can be summed up as a network of venues that mobilises the knowledge, resources and human capital of their university settings in order to research and develop centres for the arts that anticipate the future. A network of 21st Century Centres for the Arts that builds on the platform of pioneering work described in this report. However UCAN lacks capacity to support joint working and project development at present. By focusing this work under the following five key themes it will be possible to develop a project portfolio that secures funding for the priority developments, and a project plan that matches resources with objectives.

8.1 The Knowledge Exchange The Knowledge Exchange will map UCAN cultural assets and resources to support developments across the sector as well as improving the effectiveness and sustainability of UCAN arts venues. The network will expand its coordinated work, professional linkages, and communications to the cultural sector. The scope of the mapping exercise will include the composition of the total collection and inventory of cultural assets. It should also address geo-demographic reach, strategic partnerships and transferable skills to support links to the wider arts sector and provide a good platform for advocacy and profile raising. A regular UCAN newsletter would be an effective and efficient method of keeping both the wider sector and academic partners aware of the latest developments. Thematic reports and case studies can support innovation across the sector.

8.2 The Third Space The 21st Century Centre for the Arts is a ‘third space’ to explore how arts venues can best deliver in the future. The expertise, knowledge and resources of HEI will be brought to collaborations to pioneer new approaches, including: community engagement, inter- disciplinary practice, and new pedagogies of teaching. There are a range of key issues for the project to explore, including: links between venues and developments in contemporary practice and inter-disciplinary working; involving young people; the artist; and the network-wide ‘virtual arts venue’. There is also an opportunity for UCAN to partner with a business school from a network university to improve university administration for arts venues.

24 8.3 The Research Engine The Research Engine provides R&D for the sector, including research into: new operating platforms, the learning theatre, health and wellbeing, arts & science, young people / digital natives and the arts. The learning theatre concept is most developed in Derby Theatre, but is taking root in a variety of ways in venues across the network. Network venues are also increasingly exploring the factors that contribute to the risk averse habits of young audiences, using their campus catchment to experiment with new approaches that can translate into action research. A number of UCAN members have developed work with their academic colleagues around: health and wellbeing, arts & science, research showcasing, the changing habits of emerging arts audiences, and the arts and social and physical regeneration. This work is attracting the attention of potential research partners like the Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England and has potential in the longer term to be incorporated into Horizon 2020 funded research with partner universities.

8.4 The Creative Campus The Creative Campus works with local partners and national agencies to support local development, community education and outreach, new public use of the campus, and partnerships within the arts sector. There is a range of excellent work developing across the network. For example in Leicester the arts play an important role in delivering the university’s Corporate Social Responsibility. In Lancaster the arts are central to the university’s developing role as a community asset, and in Lincoln the arts offer supports the whole arts economy of the city. In each case the arts venue is the resource that makes this work possible. It has the facilities and expert capacity to link the resources and intellectual work of the university with the communities and professional sectors that surround it. Artists and arts professionals have a skill set and practice that can work between academics, professionals and communities of interest in any discipline, from classical languages to science and engineering.

8.5 The Active Network The Active Network will expand, customise and replicate the learning theatre model to actively enhance the skill sets of young people in preparation for work in the cultural and creative sector. It will do this through placements across the network, online learning tools, co-producing and touring clusters, work with students and young people, collaborative working such as a hybrid student theatre company. New capacity to develop this work can be supported with network commissioned artists as practice based PhD students, and through incorporating network managers into the academic environment through fellowships and academic positions.

25 9. What Next for UCAN?

UCAN currently has no dedicated capacity or resources beyond the resources of its members. However, venues with universities are perfectly placed to work together to develop themes into projects that, in turn, will secure the funds to provide the network capacity needed for delivery. Members of the network should build on previous benchmarking and prepare a 2016 research exercise aimed at all arts venues with universities across the UK to identify full impact and best practice. This work should increase the membership of the network as well as providing powerful evidence to support future capital, revenue and project funding bids. The potential for PhD studentships and secondments should be explored to support this work.

The potential contribution of UCAN to internationally and nationally significant events can be an important resource. The network can develop the themes of events by bringing their academic and student partners to the project, as well as providing a wide geographic reach through their facilities and expertise.

The network can support 2023 European Capital of Culture and 2021 UK City of Culture bidding and delivery, as well as thematic years like the BFI Britain on Film Programme, and annual events like National Science Day, where an interdisciplinary approach is at the fore.

A UCAN conference event in 2016 would be an effective first step in raising awareness and creating future partnerships, including international partners for future work. The event should aim to: • showcase the facilities, best practice, innovation and best practice of UCAN members, and the cumulative impact of the network • explore the interdisciplinary work and potential of the network with the wider arts sector and the academic community • demonstrate innovative approaches to community engagement and to student engagement • result in an advocacy document to stimulate collaboration with the arts sector, and research papers and presentations to stimulate collaboration with the academic community • involve potential international partners.

26 The network priorities identified in the report should be translated into projects through a process of consultation with potential partners and funders. This will require some initial financial support to commission freelance or seconded UCAN capacity to prepare:

• A funding proposal for Arts Council England, Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Wales to take forward a project that brings together the priorities around engagement with students and young people (expanding the learning theatre, digital natives research, joint programming and co-producing, and the associated knowledge exchange).

• A project proposal to the Creative Europe Cooperation Projects programme of 2016 to develop the C21st Arts Centre concept. There will be a requirement to identify and then work with at least two other networks or clusters of university arts venues in Europe which have similar priorities.

27 APPENDIX 1 UCAN membership

• Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk • Derby Theatre – University of Derby – www.derbytheatre.co.uk • Attenborough Arts Centre – University of Leicester –www.attenborougharts.com • Exeter Northcott – University of Exeter – www.exeternorthcott.co.uk • The Gardyne Theatre – Dundee College – www.gardynetheatre.org.uk • Gulbenkian – University of Kent – www.thegulbenkian.co.uk • ICIA Bath – University of Bath – www.bath.ac.uk/icia/home/index.php • Ivy Arts Centre – University of Surrey – www.surrey.ac.uk/schoolofarts/facilities/ivy • Leeds College of Music - http://www.lcm.ac.uk • Lincoln Performing Arts Centre – University of Lincoln – www.lpac.co.uk • Live at LICA – University of Lancaster – www.liveatlica.org • Macrobert Arts Centre – University of Stirling – www.macrobert.org • Nottingham Lakeside Arts – University of Nottingham - www.lakesidearts.org.uk • Peninsula Arts – University of Plymouth - www.peninsula-arts.co.uk/ • Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre – Bangor University –www.pontio.co.uk • Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama - www.rwcmd.ac.uk • Taliesin Arts Centre – Swansea University – www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk • Turner Sims / The Nuffield / John Hansard Gallery – University of Southampton – www.turnersims.co.uk / www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk / www.hansardgallery.org.uk • Warwick Arts Centre – University of Warwick – www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

28 APPENDIX 2 References

Documents and Links

• Changing Education Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson, 2008, RSAnimate • house (http://housetheatre.org.uk/) • Arts Development UK, Local Authority Arts Investment & Partnership Survey 2015 • Beyond the Creative Campus -Reflections on the evolving relationship between higher education and the creative economy, Comunian & Gilmore, 2015 • Blog/ How can Universities help develop the Social Entrepreneurs of the Future? - RSA • Adding Value through collaboration, University of London • The Conservatoire Way, CUK Strategic Plan 2013 -2015 • Achieving REF-able ‘impact’ in the arts and humanities, David Gauntlett, 2015 • Future Arts Centres Blog, 2015 • KE Hubs for the Creative Economy, AHRC, 2015 • Scotland’s Creative Economy: the Role of Universities, 2010 • The Cultural Knowledge Ecology, A discussion paper on partnerships between HEIs and cultural organisations, Sarah Fisher 2012 • Enriching Britain:Culture, Creativity and Growth, The 2015 Report by the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value • Turner Sims intern blogs: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/music/2015/03/31/our-year-as-turner- sims-interns-a-professional-experience-we-can-never-forget/ http://blog.soton.ac.uk/music/2015/04/02/showcasing-our-interns/

UCAN members also provided a range of research, strategic and planning documents from their universities.

29 APPENDIX 3 Benchmarking

Venue & Facilities Footfall & Turnover Teaching & Research University Peninsula Arts, Auditorium -240 capacity Footfall - 48,924 Use of facilities within Plymouth Theatre - 250 capacity Ticket Income- £35,495 teaching in all subject University 4 Studios University income as % areas. Gallery 330 sq. m. of turnover - 62% Linking to Faculty of Arts 1 Cinema screen -128 capacity & Humanities research (cap) centre. 3 rehearsal spaces

Attenborough (Access to) concert hall 250 Footfall - 65.000 Medical elective course Arts Centre, cap Tickets- 8,572 model being developed University of Auditorium - 110 capacity University income as % into other disciplines. Leicester 2 studios (70 & 40 cap) of turnover - 60% Developing museums Gallery 350 sq. m. studies offer. 2 small exhibition spaces Linking to medical Fine Art Collection research. Cafe / bar Lincoln Auditorium 444 cap Footfall - not recorded Production skills module. Performing Arts 3 studios (60, 60, 90 sq. m.) Tickets - 18,966 Programme includes Centre (LPAC), Visual arts space under dev’t University income as % research outputs (eg. University of Small uni collection (not of turnover - 58% festivals and Lincoln displayed) conferences). Scene dock In house cafe (incl. small scale programming) Nottingham Concert Hall 206 cap Footfall - 172,091 Contributes to teaching Lakeside Arts, Theatre 220 cap Tickets - 69,969 on School of English University of 5 gallery spaces University income as % modules, archaeology, Nottingham Uni Museum & Gallery of turnover - 42% and Classics. Perf Arts Studio 60 cap Language research Visual Arts & Learning Studios through outreach (30 cap each) learning team, and digital Two cafes (contracts) research through Parkland & amphitheatre programming Lancaster Arts at The Great Hall 600 cap Footfall - 34,230 Contribute to arts Lancaster Studio theatre 220 cap Tickets 10,000 administration courses, University Gallery over 2 floors University income as % including student Collections of turnover - 58% mentoring and Rehearsal spaces showcasing work. Small cafe / bar Small book shop

30 Venue & Facilities Footfall & Turnover Teaching & Research University Macrobert Arts Auditorium 468 cap Footfall - 200,000 29 events contributed to Centre, Studio space 100 cap Gallery Tickets 96,547 research and KT. Project University of space University income as % partner with UoS on a Stirling 1 screen 138 cap of turnover - 11% range of research. 2 rehearsal spaces Small workshop & paint frame In house cafe/bar and restaurant Film in main auditorium Warwick Arts Butterworth Hall 1300 - 2000 Footfall - 240,000 Centre, cap Tickets 234,887 University of Theatre 550 cap University income as % Warwick 2 large studios of turnover - 24% Gallery 450 sq. m. 1 screen 225 cap 2 rehearsal spaces Backstage workshop Restaurant, cafe & bar Bookshop, conference room, music centre, and retail space Sculpture trail around campus

Ivy Arts Centre & Concert Hall 120 cap Footfall - t.b.c Some events connect Performing Arts Auditorium 197 cap Tickets 11,332 directly with teaching Technology 5 studios University income as % and are incorporated into Studios, Gallery 52 sq. ft. of turnover - t.bc student courses. University of University Art Collection Venue for research Surrey 3 screen / projection facilities events, lectures, outwith venue symposia and 20 rehearsal rooms conferences. Pottery worshop

Gulbenkian, Concert Hall 530 cap Footfall - 112,656 Occasional access to University of Auditorium 340 cap Tickets 102,689 Concert Hall Kent 2 screens University income as % cafe / bar of turnover - 13% cafe performance space 200 cap Royal Welsh Concert Hall 400 cap Footfall - 150,000 All visiting performing College of Music Auditorium 180 cap Tickets 67,000 artists deliver and Drama, 2 studios 100 & 70 cap University income as % masterclasses. University of Gallery 200 sq. m. of turnover - 67% South Wales 5 rehearsal spaces 2 workshops Catering contracted out Performance foyer 250 cap Exeter Northcott Great Hall (hired from Uni) Footfall - not measured Theatre, 1,400 cap Tickets 65,000 University of Auditorium 460 cap University income as % Exeter Studio (in negotiation) of turnover - 9% In-house bar and franchised cafe Sculpture park on campus

31 Venue & Facilities Footfall & Turnover Teaching & Research University Aberystwyth Arts Concert Hall 1,250 cap Footfall - 700,000 Occasional contribution Centre, Auditorium 312 cap Tickets 385,000 to taught courses. Aberystwyth Studio 80 cap (excludes 165,000 University 4 Gallery spaces gallery visits) 1 Screen cinema 120 cap University income as % Can screen in theatre of turnover - 6% 2 rehearsal spaces Workshops (2D, 3D, ceramics, photography) 4 dance studios Bookshop, craft & design shop, 18 creative industry studios Derby Theatre, Main auditorium 539 cap Footfall - 110,000 31 learning events and University of Studio 110 capacity Tickets - 79,000 780 lectures Derby Rehearsal space 30 & 20 cap University income as % 14 artists engaged for Workshop space 30 & 20 cap of turnover - 17% learning activities Restaurant 40 covers Research themes Cafe 40 covers includes: Educational Psychological Identity, conflict & representation Society, Religion, &Belief Int Systems and Tech Transfer

32 APPENDIX 4 Case Studies

A4.1 Student Engagement Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC) is part of the University of Lincoln and home to over 400 drama and dance students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. However, students did not engage with the venue at any significant level and in 2009/10, for example, only 2% of tickets were dedicated student tickets. New pricing structures did little to improve the situation that was rooted in a ‘them and us’ separation between the venue and the student and academic body. In 2011/12 the venue decided to align more closely with the academic programme, with the theatre being used for teaching, public assessments, and extra-curricular performances. Programming began to reflect the timetable of study. The results were impressive with an immediate doubling of student ticket sales and a cultural shift over the last three years. The venue also built relationships with companies like Paines Plough to present work for a younger demographic, and the development of closer linkages to specific degree modules was supported with research into student behaviour. The latter identified the importance of ‘buy-in’ from the academic team, with patterns of attendance often reflecting the popularity of lecturers. A sense of ownership has developed in the student cohort that has progressed with this integrated approach to programming, teaching and performance opportunities.

LPAC Producers are a group of young people up to 25 years of age that meet weekly to: influence programming and operations; promote and produce events for younger audiences and the wider audience; and directly commission new work. The programme is run through Lincolnshire One Venues with support from the Paul Hamlyn and Esmee Fairbairn Foundations. The Fresh Arts Fayre arose from this initiative and connects Lincoln’s arts organisations with students as a fringe event at the Freshers Fayre. LPAC Producers provides students with industry experience that complements more formalised work experience opportunities and extracurricular staff-led master classes. This has increased graduate employability and led to students being retained within the local arts ecology; a success story that can be used by the University to aid undergraduate recruitment – increasingly important with the marketisation of higher education.

With the introduction of higher tuition fees in 2012, University of Lincoln looked to minimise additional course related costs to students incurred above fees in a bid to ensure continued accessibility. When LPAC reviewed how best to ensure universal accessibility it was decided that the simplest way was for all drama and dance students to receive an annual £90 credit paid through the College of Arts’ central budget, which they can use against any performance at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre. This credit can

33 be used on non-course related work, and many students choose to budget the use of their credit, retaining its use for the lower priced course related work and spending their own money on higher priced entertainment with student credit tickets accounting for only 60% of the total tickets purchase by eligible students.

Following the implementation of the above initiatives, by 2013/14 student tickets accounted for 24% of all tickets issued. As the venue has got better at recording additional demographic information where student tickets are unavailable, it is now in a position to infer that the true level of student attendance is probably somewhere nearer 35-40% of total audience – a substantial improvement.

A4.2 Interns Scheme The Turner Sims Internship programme at the University of Southampton is a collaboration between the Department of Music and the University's concert hall Turner Sims. Designed to provide opportunities and training for students planning a career in music administration, the scheme was launched in 2013, with the first interns beginning their posts in January 2014. The scheme was launched in 2013, with the first interns beginning their posts in January 2014. The scheme is open to Music students in year 2, with average commitment of 1 day a week (in total), mainly during term. Posts begin in January of year 2, and continue until January of year 3 to allow students who wish to do a year 3 research project in music administration to set up and complete research during the internship, for writing up in semester 2 of their third year.

Four internships are available. Two Programme and Marketing Interns work with TS staff on compiling and designing programmes, soliciting advertising and drafting texts, and contribute to print and digital marketing strategy. Two Southampton Showcase Interns handle bookings and administration for Showcase performances, including promotion and career training for Showcase performers (the most advanced undergraduate and postgraduate student musicians). The four interns work together as a team, meeting regularly with TS and Department of Music managers to plan duties, identify training needs and assess the scheme benefits. Programme and marketing interns roles include: -Designing the programmes for most classical music concerts at Turner Sims (15-20 publications), sourcing material (eg artists biogs, programme notes), inputting it and creating adverts to fill gaps. -Contacting artists, agents, and programme note writers to request material and to commission notes for selected programmes -Contributing to conversations over who to commission notes from, and layout of publications -Student marketing for selected TS events (including trumpeter Jay Phelps' tribute to Miles Davis, and vocal group Naturally 7); they ‘adopted’ some events and worked on marketing those to their student peers -Listings, compiling press clippings, promoting the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust ticket scheme, nurturing relationships with key Students' Union/student contacts.

34 Showcase interns main activities during 2014 included: -Recruiting and organising musicians on the Showcase scheme for advanced performers -Concert management for Showcase concerts, including campus events such as UCAS visit days and university Open Days -Promotion of student performers through social media - setup and management of the Showcase Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SouthamptonShowcase) -Helping Showcase performers to assemble promotional material -Organising training sessions for Showcase performers, including visits from the Musicians Union and a workshop with marketing professionals on how to promote yourself as a musician -Initial build of a new 'Book a Student Musician' website, to be completed and launched by the 2015 interns.

All four interns were invited to departmental and TS meetings with external professionals and participate in running major TS/Department of Music collaborations and concerts. They also participated in the recruitment and appointment of the 2015 interns, helping to revise adverts and applications, reviewing applications, and participating in the interview panels. The students themselves produced blog posts about their year as interns, describing the benefits of the scheme and the skills they acquired.

The 2015 interns have expanded the roles to include writing programme notes for classical event programmes, more co-ordinated marketing initiatives particularly to fellow students and (in the case of the Showcase interns) expansion of the Facebook page. The two-year University funding comes to an end in January 2016. However such has been the success of the scheme and the desire of the partners to continue it that funding was secured from the Friends of Turner Sims as well as the University centrally to support a further year of the scheme in addition to investment from the Music Department’s budget.

A4.3 Corporate Social Responsibility The Attenborough Arts centre is part of the University of Leicester. Created in 1999 through the dynamic patronage of Leicester born Richard Attenborough, its original remit was to provide access to the arts for disabled people within a purpose built, award winning building. Initially sited within the context of the University's department of adult education, the centre offered a range of subsidised arts based courses for disabled people delivered by practicing artists. In recent years the centre has widened its remit developing a year round programme of inclusive performances, events and exhibitions becoming a client of the Arts Council in 2012 in recognition of its commitment to disability arts and inclusive practice.

35 Leicester University has recognised that the centre has a key role to play in its wider corporate social responsibility agenda and has given it a high profile within its new strategy. It supported a fund raising campaign and increased its own revenue investment to enable an ambitious £1.8 million capital development, doubling the building's space and creating Leicestershire’s only contemporary art gallery. This is a major new asset for the city since the City Council had closed their own gallery some years ago and been unable to take forward their own plans for a new space.

The University has also increased its investment in new staff to extend opening hours to seven days a week, providing a new exhibition programming budget and additional staffing hours for work with schools and community groups The centre is now certified to deliver and assess the national arts award scheme, fostering links to SEN schools.

Centre staff have been encouraged to take an active part in city cultural planning and participation in the major city festivals often offering subsidised or free space for local artists and performers to create their work. The centre now hosts regular scratch and showcase platforms for emerging talent with the aim of providing opportunities for disabled artists/performers to be seen within a mainstream context.

Another important strand of work is hosting regular community groups involved in supporting disabled young people, or those with mental health problems in arts based activity including weekly tea dances, poetry clubs, drama and craft activity.

Although the University does not run formal drama or fine art courses it has recognised that the arts centre has a role to play in developing the wider student experience linked to citizenship. A 3rd year medical elective takes place each year to create "better doctors" who think beyond medical models of disability by working on arts and health projects. Discussions are now underway to roll this model out within PGCE courses to strengthen teachers understanding of how the arts can be used within the core curriculum.

Leicester is shifting to American style modular degrees, with opportunities to select Minor and Major subjects. Discussions are underway as to whether there may be opportunities to include options for students to gain experience in community based arts practice whilst studying for non arts based degrees. This is seen as an exciting opportunity to connect students to the wider CSR agenda whilst further adding to the profile and value of the Arts Centre to the University.

36 A4.4 Arts and Science Pontio is a new arts and innovation centre which opened in Bangor at the end of 2015. It is home to a Theatre, Studio Theatre, Cinema, Innovation Laboratories, collaborative spaces and lecture rooms, Students' Union and restaurants. One of Pontio's aims is to bring the arts and sciences together in new and innovative ways. Pontio is launching a pilot project called SYNTHESIS to commission two different pairs of scientists and artists to develop an idea together as a bridge between both worlds. Joint applications were invited from scientists and artists (in performing arts) for a prize of £2000 per application. Synthesis aims are to: make a bridge between science and the performing arts; deliver and develop new work; and develop a new partnership. The approach is to work through a number of themes: -Responses that draw inspiration from the Pontio Building -The environment (with a need to describe the context, e.g. location, sustainability, society and community etc.) -Engaging with and inspiring families and children under 12 years old and inspire them. -Arts and science and the elderly/people living with dementia -Combining the virtual (e.g. digital) and real worlds. -Contemporary circus which takes advantage of Pontio's facilities and features -Consideration for the Welsh language and the bilingual community.

A4.5. Changing perceptions of an HEI Prior to 2011, The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama had been accommodated in an uninspiring 1970’s office block neighbouring Bute Park in Cardiff City Centre. Despite offering an annual programme amounting to some 300 events per year, the total audience amounted to 6,000 – effectively playing only to the wider College community and excluding the general public due to limited audience facilities. Audiences at this time could have been characterised as a necessary but unwelcome by-product of performance training. But audiences were soon to become central to the strategy of the College through the creation of a suite of new performance and rehearsal facilities that could for the first time, comfortably accommodate sizeable audiences. The aims of the capital project were to enable the College to mirror industry conditions - preparing students better for their careers through up to date facilities, to raise performance standards and to throw the College’s doors wide open to the public thereby generating significant new income streams from ticket sales, external hires & additional development fundraising.

The College unveiled its new performance facilities in June 2011, comprising the 400 seat Dora Stoutzker Concert Hall, 200 seat Richard Burton Theatre, an attractive and spacious performance foyer space overlooking Bute Park, Linbury Gallery exhibition space, cafe/ bar and a number of rehearsal studios.

37 The facilities achieved their aims almost instantaneously as students raised their game, academic and programming staff became more collaborative and ambitious whilst audiences responded in large number, by 2013-14 amounting to over 65,000, a tenfold increase in just 3 years together with associated income.

The enhanced facilities have also allowed the College to develop its own repertoire – offering free foyer events, regular concert series, higher profile visiting artists, large scale design exhibitions, symphony orchestra concerts, fully staged operas & musical theatre productions and a more ambitious drama programme including newly commissioned works. BBC Television chose the College to become the home of the bi-annual BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize. The national exposure generated by these events and the increasing profile of the performance programme has aided recruitment, enabling the College to appeal more effectively to the best students from within the UK and internationally in what is a fiercely competitive conservatoire market. The College was named the number one UK institution for Drama Training in The Guardian’s League Tables in 2015, and Arts Business of the Year by Arts & Business Cymru. The College has also established a valuable funding link with the Arts Council of Wales through grants enabling touring of self-produced work. Audiences for the College’s free weekly jazz foyer sessions frequently top 200 alongside non-traditional Conservatoire concerts by artists as varied as Camille O’Sullivan and Suggs.

From a starting operational model which could have been characterised as an inward facing academic institution, since 2011 the College has established itself as an outward looking, collaborative and ambitious city centre arts venue with loyal and growing audiences who place equal value on the work of young artists in training and established international stars.

A4.6 HEI Engagement with the Professional Arts Sector Prior to the opening of the Royal Welsh College’s new performance facilities in 2011, there was little formal engagement between the institution and the professional arts sector. This all changed when the College embarked on a mission to improve its profile within the wider arts industry in a bid to replicate the conditions students would experience upon graduation. The strategy was based of offering arts organisations new and high quality performance spaces and appointing a new role of Head of the Creative Programme, specifically tasked to cultivate relationships with the sector.

Welsh National Opera now delivers two annual residencies at the College featuring appearances by the WNO Orchestra and Chorus. The two organisations have collaborated together on side-by-side concerts, where members of the WNO Orchestra perform alongside RWCMD students in different formations.

38 This format gives WNO the opportunity to programme smaller scale repertory that they would never otherwise perform, and the students with invaluable performance experience. WNO has gone on to replicate this model of engagement on its English Tour, working similarly with Birmingham Conservatoire. Elsewhere, the College hosts the annual WNO Orchestra and National Opera Studio concert featuring mainstream opera repertoire and opportunities for College vocalists to learn from NOS artists & WNO Soloists. This has led to student instrumentalists and vocalists being placed within the company for further work experience and, in the future, the College has an expectation of even greater integration with WNO’s Young Artists Programme.

With the mid-scale touring company, Mid Wales Opera, the College developed an entirely new model of co-production between an HEI and professional producer. The College and the company agreed to collaborate on a new touring production of Handel’s Acis & Galatea, which featured college musicians alongside professionals in the pit under MWO Artistic Director Nicholas Cleobury, and College vocalists in the Chorus and understudying solo roles. The fully staged production premiered in the College’s Richard Burton Theatre in January 2014 and subsequently toured Wales & England, receiving 4* and 5* reviews in the national press.

The advantage to MWO was in mounting a baroque opera production they might not have otherwise afforded, giving their first ever performances in Cardiff along with access to the rehearsal spaces of the College. The College in return received the benefit a first professional collaboration and touring production, increased profile and unbeatable experience for student musicians, singers, conductors, designers and stage managers, working on a brand new professional touring production. The College and MWO plan to collaborate again on Handel’s Semele in 2017.

With contemporary opera specialists, Music Theatre Wales, the College embarked in 2012 on a formal 3 year partnership which secured significant funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. This partnership delivered MTW concerts of new operatic works at the College, the company’s artistic directors leading contemporary opera scenes for the Vocal Departrment and Composition students attending rehearsals for MTW’s production of The Trial by Philip Glass and getting to spend time with Glass himself.

Elsewhere, the Royal Welsh College has become the Cardiff performance home of Sinfonia Cymru, The Welsh Sinfonia, baroque choir Cantemus and leading Welsh brass champions, The Cory Band. Likewise for touring theatre companies Mappa Mundi and the highly popular Black Rat – the touring arm of Blackwood’s Miners Institute. In drama, the College has commissioned new writing in partnership with The Royal Court, Paines Plough and Sherman Theatre Cymru as well as working extensively with the National Theatre of Wales. A short play commissioned by the College in 2013, Pomona by Alasdair McDowell has gone on to runs at the Royal Exchange Manchester and London’s National Theatre winning numerous awards for its author and director Ned Bennett along the way.

39 The success of the College’s jazz programme was recognised with a first ever grant from the Arts Council of Wales to tour student jazz ensembles in 2013 alongside professional headline artists, creating a circuit with venues from across Wales together with a Cardiff based annual jazz festival. The College was also able to supplement ACW funding with additional Trusts & Foundations including the Colwinston Trust, who strongly support this strand. Whilst the jazz work continues, the Arts Council, impressed by the level of partnership, energy and artistic excellence to be found at the College has recently awarded significant funding to kickstart a long term strategic alliance which will further enhance the programme offer in Cardiff and take more College produced work out on the road, assisting RWCMD to fulfil its core aim to be the National Conservatoire of Wales.

To mark the Centenary of the Russian Revolution in 2017, the College has embarked on perhaps its most ambitious collaboration yet. Leading a consortium of nearly every arts organisation based in Cardiff, from WNO to the National Museum of Wales from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to the National Dance Company of Wales. The College plans to deliver a yearlong festival of Russian culture across music, drama, opera, dance, visual art, film and in digital space.

The notion of working alongside the arts sector to deliver enhanced experiences for students and audiences alike, is now fully embedded at the College. The College is perceived as an essential and willing partner by many of the leading arts organisations of Wales, making for a more rounded and exciting arts ecology.

A4.7 Arts Centres 2.0 Lancaster University has moved the arts to the centre of its approach to strategic development. This ambitious approach is expanding work within arts spaces, across the campus, and with the wider community. The seasons OPEN2014 & OPEN2015 saw Lancaster Arts move its cafe bar into the gallery and activate it as a social space for users (including research colleagues, students) to host their own talks, exhibitions and activities. The space is also used to signpost, discuss and shape future programming ideas in public facing ways, inviting guests (artists and peers) to join and help shape thinking. At the same time the gallery became an event space, including hosting an ‘Algorave’ linked to the theme of networks. Contemporary exhibitions are no longer curated in the usual way, but the space is operated as a rolling, responsive programme of talks, symposia, micro-exhibitions and experiments with the university collection. This results in ephemeral material for display and (temporary) installation, and will eventually create a visual record/ imprint/document of what’s been going on for new visitors to look at.

These experiences contributed to the development of the concept of "Art Centres 2.0”, discussed at the No Boundaries 2015 symposium on arts and culture as a more user-led concept of an arts centre, a place where programmes are co-designed between expert and visitor. This approach is rooted in a university orientated value system linked to learning and knowledge exchange, and takes advantage of the research and

40 development capacity of a venue located within a university that can act as a test space or laboratory. The next phase expands the co-design philosophy to a City Council venue (the Storey Institute). This phase includes a season of 'art & politics' in which debating events/panels provide the ‘way in’ for audiences to arts practice. This will run concurrently with a peer to peer convention for academics, local arts partners,and stakeholders to think about sustainable contexts for the Storey and visual/digital arts in the region. This work is currently supported by Creative Exchange funding and the aim is to secure research funding to expand the work as a platform to inform wider sector thinking. There is also an aspiration to expand the UCAN network to include other venues with universities, such as Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), that are developing work in this area. Lancaster Arts has framed this work in a comprehensive arts strategy with associated forward, business, and audience development plans.

A4.8 Creative Europe Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) is a European Platform for Literary Exchange, Translation and Policy Debate. LAF aims to develop intercultural dialogue through literature and translation and highlight lesser-translated literatures. LAF is based at the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture, at Aberystwyth University in Wales, United Kingdom, and are part of the newly established Institute for Literature, Languages and Creative Arts. Outside our headquarters office in Aberystwyth, staff and co-workers are based in several locations in the UK, France and Germany. LAF works in partnership with organisations and individuals across Europe and beyond on a range of activities creating opportunities for new literary connections, acting as a catalyst for collaborations and projects, as well as monitoring translation activities and debating policy in the field of literature and translation. Acting as a hub for contact between individuals and organisations, as well as an interface between the civil society of cultural NGOs on the one hand, and the government bodies and institutions which support cultural activities at national and European level on the other, LAF is not only a resource but primarily an enabler and multiplier.

In 2015 LAF launched the Literary Europe Live (LEuL) project supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. LEuL brings together sixteen festivals and venues to foster and encourage programming that reflects the richness and diversity of the European literary landscape. LEuL also highlights outstanding emerging literary talent and develops live and digital audiences for writing in translation. LEuL has been selected for funding under the Platforms strand of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union as one of three successful applicants from among forty-seven.

The grant of 455,425 Euro supports the first year of the project Literary Europe Live launched by LAF as leader of the sixteen-member platform.

41 A4.9 Strategic partnership between the University and Derby Theatre In 2009 the University of Derby, acting in the manner of a genuinely ‘civic university’, set up Derby Theatre in the then empty city centre building that previously housed Derby Playhouse. This restored a producing theatre to the county at the same time as providing the University’s Theatre Arts students with the chance to learn in a professional environment. In 2012 the organisation developed a new business model (Derby Learning Theatre) with the support of Arts Council England. The model now shapes, influences and transforms the landscape of theatre and learning: producing high quality professional theatre that unlocks learning at every level for audiences, artists, participants, students and staff. The aims is to further open the theatre-making process with learning and engagement opportunities for all, including those from the most deprived backgrounds, becoming a laboratory where excellence is thriving and celebrated.

Derby Theatre is part of the University of Derby Group but operates as an independent registered charity. The University’s annual revenue grant to the Theatre is in addition to a separately contracted rental agreement for teaching spaces and associated teaching costs. 125 students every week have lectures at the theatre and have the opportunity to engage in the professional programme through training, shadowing and assisting schemes enabling them to learn through integration with professional processes. Research on the impact of these programmes is on-going and early findings prove that this model impacts significantly on the students’ confidence, knowledge and employability. Thus far the £2.5m of capital expenditure, plus the revenue support, demonstrates the University’s financial commitment to a public-facing professional theatre with artistic excellence at its core. Derby Theatre is working to be a resilient cultural resource for the city and a new model of working for other HEIs to learn from.

The long-term partnership with the University was key to Derby Theatre achieving ACE NPO status, as well as securing core funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and the Times Higher Education Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts. The Guardian recently cited it as “increasingly the most crucial theatre in the region because of its emphasis on learning, nurturing and nourishing”. Add to this the additional funding from key funders, an innovative community engagement programme and high rates of student employment and this partnership seems to have been successful for all stakeholders.

e. [email protected] t. +44 (0) 775 825 1105 w. http://drewwylie.net

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