Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Manchester : B - Drama
Portfolio title: Legacy and culture at the Olympics: evaluation, evidence and local cultural management
This portfolio presents research which critically and reflexively explores issues of evaluation and legacy in relation to cultural programming for the London 2012 Olympics. It focuses on the specific case of a regional cultural programme funded by the Legacy Trust UK, the Lottery-funded body established specifically for the purposes of developing the Olympic legacy nation-wide. The research is presented in three key stages:
(1) A report commissioned by Arts Council England, which sought to establish a framework for future evaluation (“WE PLAY”, Gilmore & Miles [50% each], 2011). This research drew on Gilmore’s previous professional practice as an evaluation research manager, working to support evidence-based policy, performance management and advocacy for cultural organisations. The WE PLAY report guided a series of independent consultancy research exercises, reported at http://weplayevaluation.org/.
(2) The issues raised by developing this framework were subsequently reflected on critically in a journal article - “Counting eyeballs, soundbites and ‘plings’” (Gilmore 2012) – addressing the evaluation methodologies for evidencing participation in the Cultural Olympiad.
(3) Following the Olympics, and the delivery of the cultural programme, further primary research was undertaken in 2013 to explore how stakeholders had used the evaluation research to help define the legacy of the programme locally and to combine evaluation data with their own narratives of cultural value, in a manner frequently at odds with the ‘official’ narratives of legacy, impact and evidence (“Evaluating regional legacies of the Cultural Olympiad”, Gilmore, 2013 [conference paper]). This research questions the validity and efficacy of the production of different forms of knowledge which participants rely on to inform their practice, and reveals the agency of and constraints on local arts organisations, agencies and practitioners, caught up in a nexus of instrumental measures for policy making and appraisal.
