What we do
Our specialism
Creativity, insight, divergence, strategy, change
Supporting creativity and creative learning, in policy, strategy and practice, is central to our work.
We help schools, arts organisations, government departments and others to develop creative skills, approaches and environments. We support young people to develop their own creative projects and ideas.
We help organisations build a picture of multiple learning journeys at a macro-level and to react accordingly. And we help public, charitable and commercial organisations to develop their own creative journeys.
We support organisations and collaborations to harness the power of creativity and artistry to make genuine change towards social and environmental challenges.
We help young people to harness the arts to make their own projects towards the UN sustainable development goals. We support cultural organisations to maximise their social and environmental impact. We explore creative and arts-rich ways to tackle systems-level and local-level sustainability challenges.
Young Voices for Nature The Young Voices for Nature project is empowering young people from across the UK to make story-telling films to make change for nature. The project is set up by WWF, the RSPB and the National Trust and run by World Pencil. |
|
Culture on purpose: inclusive growth opportunities for culture A Introduction to a chapter produced for British Council, as part of their book on Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth |
|
What are arts, culture, creative industries and cultural heritage? Before looking at some of the impacts of culture, it is important quickly to take stock and clarify what culture is, or at least to clarify some of the differing definitions of what it is. This is relevant for various reasons: |
We help organisations develop and grow strategies where individuals have the freedom to excel in what they can do, within a harmonious framework where individual contributions fit well together towards a common purpose.
Hurdles and recommendations for realising opportunities for culture on purpose The final section in a paper on economic opportunities for the cultural sector in addressing social challenges: the hurdles and recommendations for realising these opportunities. |
A key flavour of how we work is to bring a very broad range of disciplines and topics to bear on any given challenge or opportunity. This opens up questions beyond day-to-day working and yields answers from surprising places.
For example, we've brought AI, cybercrime, climate change, international development, blockchain, and human nature into education planning workshops. And we're bringing young people, behavioural scientists and artists together to look at wicked problem-solving.
Support and consultancy
Through creative, bespoke support, we help organisations and communities to develop skills and insights, and to achieve significant impact. More on support and consultancy...
We help cultural and education organisations with strategic development around purpose, vision and values, creative cultures, education and learning, and income generation.
We work with teams and partnerships to co-design symbiotic plans for activity, skills and behaviours development.
Nesta Nesta is the UK's innovation agency for social good, set up 25 years ago as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. We were commissioned by Nesta to undertake a consultative analysis of playful learning landscapes in the UK for young children, looking particularly at how you can build places and environments in which children will spontaneously play in ways that encourage learning, even more than they naturally do! |
|
from Silos to Synergies: toolkit for cultural partnerships from Silos to Synergies is a toolkit for the cultural partnerships. It draws on work we have been doing for the past ten years supporting partnerships and collaboration in the cultural sector, including with Cultural Education Partnerships. We are developing an extensive set of tools, resources, interviews and insights from across the cultural partnership-working landscape in England, which will be published during 2023. |
|
Fly-through mapping: Cultural Learning Stakeholders in Hampshire Fly-through film of cultural learning stakeholders in Hampshire - a different approach for visualising mapping data. |
We provide training around a broad range of topics, including creative skills, environments and behaviours, agile methods, developing young people's ideas, peer-to-peer learning and young leadership, and supporting progression.
And we run co-design sessions and hacks to address a wide range of challenges and opportunities, bringing diverse teams and imaginations together to forge brilliant ideas and pragmatic plans.
Young people's music in South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset Results of a consultation with 500 young people on their engagement with and aspirations for music |
|
Music and social impact toolkit 'Hitting the spot' is a toolkit, designed for music organisations who want to understand better and to develop the social impact of their music activity and strategy. |
|
musinc We've been working with musinc on developing the Music and Social Impact toolkit, as well as supporting them with organisational development around social impact. |
Often the best way to find out what's going on is to ask people, but in the right way.
We run consultative research for evaluations, strategy development audits, and uncovering innovative approaches to creative learning and real-world problem-solving.
We do face-to-face, online consultations and data-based analysis, and prefer to use participatory and creative techniques - giving people's imagination a voice.
Nesta Nesta is the UK's innovation agency for social good, set up 25 years ago as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. We were commissioned by Nesta to undertake a consultative analysis of playful learning landscapes in the UK for young children, looking particularly at how you can build places and environments in which children will spontaneously play in ways that encourage learning, even more than they naturally do! |
|
Artswork We've undertaken several consultancy commissions for Artswork, principally around developing their programme of support for cultural education partnerships. |
|
British Council We undertook a consultative analysis around the economic potential for cultural impact on purpose, as part of the British Council's Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth programme, working with Nordicity. |
We are very focussed on real impact.
We support the design and delivery of programme evaluations, specialising in creative learning, arts and social impact.
And, through training, talks, and toolkits we help organisations to incorporate evaluation, impact assessment, action research and a clear sense of purpose into what they do and how they work.
Nordicity We're working with Nordicity on a national evaluation of the In Harmony programme for Arts Council England |
|
Arts Council England We're supporting ACE with evaluating the In Harmony programme, and mapping and strategy for the creative arts in the early years in England. |
|
Reseo For over 15 years, RESEO has been the unique European network for education, participation and creative learning in opera and dance. We contributed to RESEO's conference on evaluation of opera and dance work with children and young people. |
Productions
We create tools, experiences and communications to put across big ideas and make complex scenarios accessible to people who want to change them. More on our publications
We produce online, paper-based and workshop-based toolkits for professional skills development.
from Silos to Synergies: toolkit for cultural partnerships from Silos to Synergies is a toolkit for the cultural partnerships. It draws on work we have been doing for the past ten years supporting partnerships and collaboration in the cultural sector, including with Cultural Education Partnerships. We are developing an extensive set of tools, resources, interviews and insights from across the cultural partnership-working landscape in England, which will be published during 2023. |
|
Resources for cultural education partnerships A set of tools and resources to support the strategy and development of cultural education partnerships |
|
Music and social impact toolkit 'Hitting the spot' is a toolkit, designed for music organisations who want to understand better and to develop the social impact of their music activity and strategy. |
We develop innovative ways to explore and represent often complex data sets in highly accessible ways.
We make online data dashboards and maps for making sense of big data. We make posters for a permanent presence on office walls. And we create 3D visualisations to make complexity more manageable, without having to over-simplify it.
Fly-through mapping: Cultural Learning Stakeholders in Hampshire Fly-through film of cultural learning stakeholders in Hampshire - a different approach for visualising mapping data. |
|
Data dashboard for early years arts and culture A dashboard of maps and charts presenting data related to arts and culture in the early years |
|
Pupil Premium Gap in English Schools An online map showing Primary and Secondary schools in England, indicating the extent of the gap in performance between students eligible for and not eligible for pupil premium funding ("Pupil Premium Gap"). |
We talk widely on creativity, education, arts and culture, journeys and futures.
Royal Opera House Bridge We ran a Commission for Enquiry on 'Whose Excellence is it anyway' at ROH Bridge's conference, 'The Paths Children Take' |
|
Artswork We contributed to Artswork's 2016 conference a session on Arts Education Purpose and the future of jobs. |
Projects and programmes
We develop charitable projects with broad partnerships to bring about significant change where it’s needed and where we can make a difference
Creative Impact is a programme to support children and young people to discover how they can harness their abilities in the arts to achieve sustainable development goals, through creating their own authentic experiences of making change.
The early years are a vital period when arts, culture and creativity can have a deep impact, but often overlooked in policy. We've been pulling together insights and strategies to inform this agenda.
What We Could Be is a programme of talks, training and strategy co-design with students and organisations looking at the future of work and innovative ideas for how young people could harness the arts professionally for tomorrow’s societal challenges, and how best to prepare them now.
“What’s the least we need to do for young people to fulfil their potential in the creative arts?” We're developing the Light Touch Paper programme - an action research community looking at self-directed learning and facilitative, minimally invasive teaching and learning.