A visitor explores the Showground of the World exhibition, Photo by Drew Forsyth Showground of the World: the histories of Belle Vue Evaluation Report Written by Vittoria Caradonna, Kate Campbell-Payne and Dr. Abigail Gilmore, University of Manchester, July 2014 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 4 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 9 2. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................ 11 AIMS AND OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT ..................................................................... 11 TARGET AUDIENCES ........................................................................................................ 12 3. EVALUATION METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 14 4. FINDINGS ......................................................................................................................... 15 A) HERITAGE WILL BE RECORDED AND IDENTIFIED: .......................................... 15 THE SHOWGROUND OF THE WORLD EXHIBITION ................................................... 16 THE BELLE VUE ROADSHOW ...................................................................................... 19 THE BELLE VUE WALKING TOUR ............................................................................... 20 DIGITAL MAPPING AND ENGAGEMENT ..................................................................... 23 B) HERITAGE WILL BE BETTER EXPLAINED AND INTERPRETED: ........................... 26 C) MORE PEOPLE AND A WIDER RANGE OF PEOPLE WILL HAVE ENGAGED IN HERITAGE: INCREASING AUDIENCE AND AWARENESS ............................................ 28 .............................................................................................................................................. 30 DEMOGRAPHICS ............................................................................................................... 31 MEDIA PROFILE AND COVERAGE .................................................................................. 33 D) PEOPLE WILL HAVE HAD AN ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCE: INTERACTION WITH ARTS AND CULTURAL ELEMENT OF THE PROJECT ................................................... 34 WORKSHOPS, TALKS AND PERFORMANCES .......................................................... 34 E) PEOPLE WILL HAVE LEARNT ABOUT HERITAGE: ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE AND INCREASING VISIBILITY .......................................................................................... 37 F) PEOPLE WILL HAVE VOLUNTEERED TIME: VOLUNTEERS EXPERIENCE ........... 38 G) PEOPLE WILL HAVE DEVELOPED SKILLS: VOLUNTEERS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES .................................................................................................................... 40 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................... 41 LEARNING POINTS ............................................................................................................ 42 LEGACY ............................................................................................................................... 43 APPENDIX II ............................................................................................................................ 45 APPENDIX III ........................................................................................................................... 47 FOREWORD Despite the fact that it closed its doors over a generation ago Belle Vue remains one of Manchester’s best-known popular attractions. Its memory has been kept alive by campaigns on social media for it to be brought back, by a stream of local history books and by regular features in newspapers and on TV. Of all the nineteenth-century visitor attractions in Manchester few have left anything like as powerful or as emotional a hold on the city’s imagination. More importantly perhaps none has left such a substantial documentary record to enrich and augment people's memories. The Showground of the World project details how Manchester Histories took the fragmented memories of visitors and workers, and combined this with documents, exhibitions, workshops, lectures, school visits and events to retell the story of Belle Vue. It did so in a way that was genuinely collaborative and inclusive, bringing together institutional collections, personal collectors, curators and academics, volunteers, actors and fans from all over the city and beyond to create a new history. This was no dry and stodgy tale of business success and failure where people are told what really happened but was based on a new way of engaging people with their heritage, not as passive spectators but as genuine collaborators or partners in the creation of new narratives. This was a remarkable achievement - one of Manchester’s recent cultural highlights and I am delighted to commend this account of how it brought this about. Michael Powell, Chetham’s Library and home of the Belle Vue Archive EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This evaluation report explores the activities and outcomes of the Showground of the World (SOTW) project, which took place between September 2013 and March 2014, culminating in a walking tour, public talks, an exhibition and other activities during the Manchester Histories Festival (MHF), 21st – 30th March 2014. The project’s focus was on the histories and community legacy of Belle Vue, a theme park which once occupied 165 acres in East Manchester. Activities consisted of 23 events including talks, a digital mapping project, performances, walking tours and screenings taking place in and around two main hubs: an exhibition located at the Flat Iron building in central Manchester and the Belle Vue Roadshow at the Gorton Monastery. The project was made possible by the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, attracting 2825 visits to its exhibition and events over the course of ten days, bringing together existing and new audiences. In the spirit of the Festival, SOTW’s range of events was designed to uncover and make visible the wealth of memories, personal stories and informal histories of Belle Vue and explore opportunities for capacity building around the value and legacy of these histories to Manchester communities. The project was led by Claire Turner, Director, Manchester Histories, and managed on a day to day basis by Ella Byford, a freelance project manager. To help manage the project, a steering group was established comprising community members with different affiliations and relationships to Belle Vue and its histories (see appendix for membership). Manchester Histories is the charitable organization and delivery body for the biennial Manchester Histories Festival (MHF), along with other events in the Greater Manchester area. MHF is governed by the Manchester Histories Board of Trustees and managed by a Director working with a small core voluntary team, with support from a larger team of 44 volunteers during the Festival period. Most events were specifically commissioned and designed for the festival. An exhibition was produced, bringing together disparate archives and collections, and was curated by the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. A number of the events were led by local historians, collectors or by the people who had themselves worked in Belle Vue’s main attractions. All volunteered their time and knowledge to support the project, and in addition a number of MHF’s volunteers and local residents were trained specifically for SOTW activities, from invigilating the exhibition, to oral histories recording, and acting. The project also benefited from the experience and expertise of Manchester Histories in delivering performance-based approaches to public engagement with heritage. Monkey Business an interactive game run by theatre company, The Larks, and the Manchester Guided Tours and Lip Service’s interactive walking tour were highlights of this approach in SOTW, facilitating intergenerational exchanges in a relaxed, fun atmosphere. The evaluation research was commissioned by Manchester Histories to examine whether and how the project has met its objectives. It has employed visitor, event organiser, venue, and volunteer surveys over the period of the festival, integrated with media and demographic analysis. A post-event focus group and series of interviews have been conducted with key stakeholders from the steering group and management team. The main findings of the evaluation are: Showground of the World in numbers 2825 total attendances 2100 exhibition visits 645 Belle Vue Roadshow visitors 80 walking tour participants 276 participants in the Monkey Business interactive game (including Belle Vue Roadshow and Town Hall performances) 23 Belle Vue related events during the Manchester Histories Festival period 12 people were trained to collect oral histories prior to the exhibition, 7 from Gorton 14 volunteers were trained to collect oral histories during the exhibition New audiences for heritage events and venues The Belle Vue project was very successful in attracting new audiences to heritage activities and events. A large proportion of the visitors were new audiences for heritage events and spaces; of those responding to the visitor survey. almost half (49%) were first-time attenders of a history/heritage event; 84% were new audiences to the Manchester