If our theatres are like churches, and our community projects like - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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if our theatres are like churches and our community
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If our theatres are like churches, and our community projects like - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Aug 29, 2023 105 likes •739 views

If our theatres are like churches, and our community projects like missions, how and why should we reach everyone else? If we want cultural democracy, genuine culture for all, elitism must make way for creativity and community-led culture.

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If our theatres are like churches, and our community projects like missions, how and why should we reach everyone else?

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“If we want cultural democracy, genuine culture for all, elitism must make way for creativity and community-led culture. We need to offer everyone not only access to the products of creativity, but access to the means and processes of creativity – only then will we have an inclusive culture for, by and with all.” Stella Duffy: Excellence in the arts should not be defined by the metropolitan elite The Guardian June 2017

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c/o Flowerfield Arts Centre 185 Coleraine Road PORTSTEWART BT55 7HU TEL: 028 7083 2588 info@big-telly.com www.big-telly.com

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Big Telly is the longest established independent theatre company in

  • N. Ireland, celebrating its

30th year in 2017

Over the last ten years… Audience 95,500 Participants 34,300

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Everyone who works for Big Telly is involved in creative projects, with

  • ur administrative team

working alongside artists to build meaningful partnerships and realise the full potential of each project in terms of capacity building, economic development, and social impact

www.big-telly.com

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Big Telly makes shows and adventures for audiences inside and

  • utside of conventional theatre

spaces… in theatres, shops, swimming pools, forests, parks, pubs, museums, schools, and on the streets….

www.big-telly.com

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It’s All About Collaboration

We constantly engage in new collaborations and partnerships which inform and challenge our work

Collaboration with:

  • Athletes and divers to present work in swimming pools

www.big-telly.com

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  • Farmers and auctioneers to present work in cattle marts
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  • Town planners and architects to present work in streets
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  • Police service to present invisible theatre in schools
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  • Older men to create mobile sculptures in public spaces
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  • Businesses to present work in commercial contexts
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  • Scientists and artists to present work in shops
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CROSS-SECTORAL WORKING

We continually work across many different sectors: HEALTH & WELL BEING REGENERATION COMMUNITY EDUCATION HERITAGE TOURISM

Access to other potential avenues of funding, marketing, audiences and partners

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  • 1. Reaching non-arts audiences
  • Portable Theatre
  • Comedy Hijack
  • The Little Mermaid
  • Bog People

www.big-telly.com

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Big Telly’s Portable Theatre

Making theatre as accessible, popular and exciting as possible

Four-seater mobile theatre which tours –

  • short pieces of theatre/live ads
  • side-show style illusions/attractions
  • excerpts from work-in-progress
  • short films
  • music performances

www.big-telly.com

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  • Techniques

Designed to engage with groups of people who are not traditional theatre-goers

  • Content

Fifteen minute performance contained five different pieces of theatre each by a different writer Pieces performed for audiences already assembled for completely different events – staff meeting in a bank, a student lecture and a Royal Society of Psychiatrists Conference

  • Learning

Audiences then instantly voted for the piece they’d most like to see become a full length play Feedback: ‘As far as I'm concerned there's nothing like it

  • live performance, I mean. There was something

refreshingly open and simple about sticking up one, two

  • r no arms in the air and just giving an immediate, and

indeed un-mediated, unreasoned, evaluation.’

www.big-telly.com

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The Little Mermaid (2005 & 2006)

Toured NI, Rep. of Ireland, GB, Denmark, Taiwan & Serbia - total of 110 performances reaching over 30,000 audience

www.big-telly.com

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  • Family audience and access programme
  • Photography Exhibition
  • 84% of audiences would like to see more theatre in unusual spaces
  • 80% of audiences were non-theatre goers
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Bog People (2007)

Toured NI, Rep. of Ireland

  • unique collaboration with theatre writers

inspired by the poetry of Seamus Heaney

  • multidisciplinary – working with

environmental, visual arts, Irish Literature/History experts

  • company co-ordinated six outreach

programmes incorporating visual art, the environment and Irish literature with schools; drama workshops with older people and rural community groups

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2. Participatory projects with community buy-in and legacy

  • Tide Will Tell
  • Cultural Envoys
  • Wishing Trees
  • Trade Secrets

www.big-telly.com

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Tide Will Tell

Multi-disciplinary and cross-artform Explores relationship with the sea through workshops, beach sculpture and model boat- building.

  • 1. Research - establishing a story partner in the community
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Tide Will Tell

  • 2. Keeping a coastal diary
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Tide Will Tell

  • 3. Drama and story-telling sessions
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Tide Will Tell

  • 4. A field trip to explore a local beach, learn of its

environmental significance and collect flotsam and driftwood

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Tide Will Tell

  • 5. A craft session using found objects to make model boats
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Tide Will Tell

  • 6. A creative writing workshop where participants invent

stories and poetry inspired by their relationship with the sea, printed on boat sails

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Tide Will Tell

  • 7. A community story-telling event where participants launch

boats as part of an existing local festival. Danny Boy Festival, Limavady, Heart of the Glens Festival, Cushendall. Four- Swans Festival, Ballycastle.

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Tide Will Tell

  • 8. Legacy

Celebratory postcards printed for each school

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www.big-telly.com

CULTURAL ENVOYS

Part of ten year Spring Chickens Intergenerational Programme

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Wishing Trees

Cross-sectoral collaboration with community stakeholders, traders, police and community safety and mental health awareness groups

www.big-telly.com

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Wishing Trees

www.big-telly.com

Partners – Causeway Rural and Urban Network and PSNI

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Wishing Trees

www.big-telly.com

Facilitated workshop sessions 16 schools 28 community groups 10 older people’s groups 3 libraries 70 businesses Total 60 sessions 3,000 participants

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Wishing Trees

www.big-telly.com

2,000 additional wishes gathered outside facilitated sessions by ‘wish agents’ who consist of artists, businesses & their staff and the wider community

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5,000 ribbons

Wishing Trees

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Wishing Trees

www.big-telly.com

Community celebration event

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TRADE SECRETS

Funded through Heritage Lottery Programme 30 local businesses Allianz Arts & Business NI Award Winner 2017 – Corporate Responsibility

www.big-telly.com

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1.Steering group for project set up and meetings with businesses scheduled in partnership with Causeway Museum Service and Coleraine Chamber of

  • Commerce. Continued face-to-face

dialogue with shops/businesses throughout the project.

  • 2. Facilitated sessions to explain project

and provide training to staff

  • 3. Visitor’s books placed in all shop

locations

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  • 4. Public drop in days for collection of images, photographs, etc.
  • 5. Research on the heritage/previous uses each shop
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  • 6. Call-out for artists to design/make the boxes
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  • 7. Facilitated sessions with 315 older people in 21 care homes and

200 adults not in care settings to collect stories/memories

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  • 8. Collection of visitor’s books from shops
  • 9. Archiving of content onto NI Archive
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  • 10. Memory boxes designed and manufactured
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  • 11. Marketing materials designed and produced to promote project and

exhibition

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  • 12. Exhibition launch of all 30 boxes in Portstewart
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  • 13. Boxes are installed into shops in Coleraine, Portstewart and

Portrush to form a Heritage Trail

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  • 14. Facilitated sessions with a selection of the boxes around the 21

care homes involved in the initial stage of the project, as well as additional care/community/educational settings

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  • 15. Images and stories from the project are used to design and

manufacture a Trade Secrets Board Game

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3. Replacing consultation with dialogue

  • Creative Shops Project
  • Games

www.big-telly.com

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Creative Shops Project

Total audiences of 14k & participants of 4k over 2 years TYPES OF ACTIVITY: participatory art installations - multimedia exhibitions - small scale theatre - multicultural festivals - youth theatre projects - displays by sports clubs - workshops & sharing by dance & craft experts - open rehearsals – storytelling - film making & screening - poetry slams – ‘Desert Island’ discs

www.big-telly.com

Creative Shops Project intercepts shoppers and passers-by, inviting them to take part in informal cultural encounters which are an introduction to the arts and a portal to other arts /activity within the area.

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1. Projects often focus on unique cultural heritage of town

www.big-telly.com

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  • 2. Use empty shops as headquarters for the project
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  • 3. Artists in residence – e.g. sculptors, dancers, theatre-makers, film makers, choreographers,

composers – according to what the community needs

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  • 4. A programme of activity to attract all age ranges from the community
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Games

Interactive theatre-led experiences

www.big-telly.com

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Each game involves 15-20 locations including businesses, libraries, schools & parks and a maximum audience of 300 per day. Private and Public sector commissions.

www.big-telly.com

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Evaluation

The instruments we use to understand who our audience/participants are include –

  • incentivised questionnaires which gather a range of information, create comprehensive mailing

lists for the company and give us useful statistics on the demographic of our audiences.

  • Evaluation forms are completed by facilitators and participants on every project
  • Information received is analysed and used to inform our future programme of work, strategic

planning and marketing

  • An increasingly high degree of user feedback and response is collected through the audience

feedback sections of our website, including statistics on website use.

  • Audience data collected in conjunction with venues/box office records
  • Experimentation using survey monkey evaluation programme through Facebook
  • Analytic tools through twitter and facebook
  • One-to-one interviews; One-to-one telephone interview. Vox pops
  • Focus groups as part of outreach activity conducted by our Creative shops Director and creative

facilitator

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www.big-telly.com

Example based on our Creative Shops Programme

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www.big-telly.com

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www.big-telly.com

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Project management and evaluation All core staff have recently undergone training delivered by CENI to deliver key evaluation frameworks for impact measurement of our work to show levels of contribution towards government

  • utcomes.

External evaluation: peer/critical reviews; promoter feedback; audience questionnaires; user feedback/response via website and social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram); venues/box office records; media monitoring; surveys through Facebook/Twitter; one- to-one interviews; vox pops; specific beneficiary data; other capture methods (for Creative Shops and Spring Chickens Programmes - story-telling, testimonies, logbooks, webchats, photo diaries, scrap books/maps, video/audio diaries, graffiti walls) Internal evaluation via regular team meetings: What has the project produced? How did it meet

  • bjectives? What were the outcomes? What were the difficulties, how were they overcome? What

would we do differently? What worked well? Key lessons learnt? Future project plans? www.big- telly.com

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www.big-telly.com Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter @BigTellyNI @CreativeShopsPrj info@big-telly.com GET IN TOUCH...

www.facebook.com/bigtellyni

www.big-telly.com