Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020
Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020
Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020
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Final evaluation, January JANUARY 2020
SECOND CHAPTER
FINAL EVALUATION
1
Front cover image: sea swimmer photographed by Jesse Roth as
part of Lynn Dennison's commission.
This page: artwork by studiodigital student.
Final evaluation, January 2020
CONTENTS
4 1. Introduction
6 2. Developing our artistic programme
8 2.1 Final container installation
9 2.2 Shifting somerset exhibitions
13 2.3. Interactive digital exhibitions
15 2.4 Artist opportunity exhibitions
22 3. Supporting practitioners
27 4. Developing our organisation
32 5. Developing our audiences
34 5.1 Educational strategy
38 5.2 Community events
40 5.3 Digital strategy
43 5.4 Audience feedback
45 6. Key metrics
46 7. Moving into East Quay
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Final evaluation, January 2020
1. Introduction
This report sets out how our project has progressed through
two years, from January 2018 to December 2019. It responds
to question one of the ACE Interim Report form. We focus on
delivery of intended outputs and outcomes, key achievements,
lessons learned, and any substantial changes in our approach or
expectations that have arisen during the course of the project.
We have now completed the project. Our evaluation
commentary here therefore refers to the work of both years of
the project and updates the interim evaluation submitted at the
end of the first year of delivery.
Overall, we have had a strong, positive impact in relation to
the vast majority of the objectives and outcomes we identified
in our original application. The project has been a complex
one with multiple interrelated strands, which has brought its
difficulties. But has also enabled us to achieve a huge amount in
a very short period of time.
The aim of the project overall was to move Contains Art
forward, artistically and developmentally, as we work towards
the expansion of the gallery and its ambitions within the wider
regeneration scheme at East Quay.
In the past year, we have secured the £6 million capital cost
needed to deliver East Quay, including £389,000 from Arts
Council England's Small Capital Grants. The build started on the
9th December 2019 and we expect to be on site for 16 months
with opening of the new galleries in the early summer of 2021.
The programme that is covered by this evaluation report
comprised four strands of work:
• Artistic evolution;
• Audience reach;
• Organisational change; and
• Practitioner progression.
The remainder of this report explores the successes and
otherwise of each strand, in turn, as well as highlighting progress
towards key metrics.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
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Final evaluation, January 2020
2. Developing
our artistic
programme
This central strand of work, around
which all the other strands were formed,
aimed to promote and support public
engagement with tangible, outwardfacing
exhibition outcomes and the
delivery of an off-site programme
for year 2. The following eleven
opportunities were supported:
• Final gallery installation (2018),
awarded to local maker, Helen
Knight.
• Shifting Somerset exhibition (2018)
awarded to Jenny Barron, a local
watercolour realist painter.
• Contemporary landscape exhibition
(2018) awarded to regionally-based,
Lydia Halcrow.
• Digital interactive exhibition (2018)
representing our collaboration with
national body, The Lumen Prize.
• Emergent practice exhibition,
comprising temporary outdoor
works and gallery exhibition (2018)
by Northamptonshire-based artist,
Dylan Fox.
• Final container exhibition (2018)
awarded to Essex-based, Chris
Dobrowolski.
• Shifting Somerset public works
sited around Watchet (2019) by
Somerset artist, Jon England.
• Sculptural installation (2019) sited
on the Esplanade by emergent artist
Jess Ostrowicz.
• Interactive digital installation
(2019) in properties around Watchet
by Laura Dekker, commissioned in
association with Lumen projects.
• Participatory film work (2019)
by Lynn Dennison, working
with Minehead's year-round sea
swimmers.
• Socially-engaged practice research
(2019) by Neville Gabie.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
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Final evaluation, January 2020
2.1 Final container installation
Helen Knight:
News from the Invisible
World
24.03.18—22.04.18
https://youtu.be/KG_
zDYNa5dQ
Helen Knight’s ambitious
installation, News from the
Invisible World, was built onsite
over several weeks during
our winter period. Towards this
end point, Helen had received
support and mentoring since
she was shortlisted for our 2017
installation call out, with a view
to her fulfilling the 2018 slot.
Using pages recycled from old
paper-back books and mud
extracted from the harbour
in Watchet, Helen built a
monumental chrysalis within
a twisted facsimile of our
gallery—literally distorting the
internal exhibition space offkilter.
Painstakingly rendered
in the same materials that line
the gallery; floor to ceiling—it
referenced the gallery’s history
and future transformation.
Audiences were invited to walk
through the angled space to
explore the form inside.
Alongside this installation, we
hosted a small exhibition of
frames and other furnishings
that the artist had made
throughout her career—
many on loan from a private
collection. Artworks by
significant contemporary
artists, including Cornelia Parker
OBE RA, Gilbert and George,
Fiona Banner, and Richard Long
CBE RA, among others, were
on display in frames made by
the artist (from materials as
diverse as old wasp nests and
rusted metal).
Helen admits to feeling
nervous before she took
on this project—her work is
synonymous with intricate
domestic objects reproduced in
cardboard; the container, for all
its limitations, was a significant
increase in scale for the artist.
‘The process of the project was
fascinating to me and this is
where I learnt so much... I have
never had the opportunity to
test this before. It could only be
tried in the arena given to me
by the residency.’
Helen felt as though we had
put a lot of trust in her to
realise such an ambitious
project—supported by the
experience of Tessa Jackson.
Key lesson
The critical tension
between time spent in
residency and immersion
in the project are key to
its success. “In order to
succeed (in an interesting
way), I had to be prepared
to fail” ~ H Knight.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
2.2 Shifting somerset exhibitions
Our Shifting Somerset
exhibitions for this period
provided an opportunity to
build on previous experiences
and outcomes learnt from
working with our regional
practitioners.
The aim was to nurture local
talent—encouraging artists
to take risks, experiment with
their creativity and broaden
their ambition. It also reflects
that resonance for local
audiences is often greater if
artists come from the same
communities as they do.
To reinforce resonance
with our community, the focus
of the brief was primarily
on perspectives of location/
landscape, that would appeal
to our audience segments.
For example, it might be that
they would provide interest to
families or be accompanied by
easily accessible, experiential
events which may be free
Key lesson
Jenny needed to work quite
fast to produce enough
work to fill the gallery
space. This is something to
consider when planning our
new development. Ensure
that the lead-in time for
artists allows for enough
time for progression.
or low cost; or appeal to
the kinds of audiences our
profiling reveals, for example
with a leaning towards
landscape and/or historical
perspectives.
Jenny Barron:
New Perspectives
09.06.18—03.07.18
In this gallery exhibition,
Watchet-based artist, Jenny
Barron, took some of the
colours, motifs, subjects and
themes that she associates
with our small harbour town,
with its essentially maritime
character and historical
associations, to create a series
of new watercolours.
Through more traditional still
life arrangements, some with
the Bristol Channel in the
background, to increasingly
surreal and imaginative
works with dynamic subject
matter, the pieces showed a
progression and development
of the artist’s ideas.
Jenny is an artist well-known
in the community for her
domestic-scaled pieces, and
this exhibition inspired her to
work on a much larger scale.
It was also the first time she
had linked her themes so
closely to the environment
outside of her studio. She said
the exhibition gave her the
freedom to create a cohesive
series of paintings without
necessarily having regard to
their saleability.
Jenny said of her enjoyment
of the education programme
around the exhibition, that she
felt she was able to show some
sides of artistic method and
inspiration that the children
may not have seen before
and was most interested in
their comments and reactions.
Demonstrations, which she
enjoys, can effectively convey a
huge amount of information in
a short time.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Lydia Halcrow:
Mapping Place
22.08.18—30.09.18
Mapping Place was a creative
record of walks along the
North Devon and Somerset
coastlines.
The exhibition was enormously
helpful in developing Lydia’s
practice, She has a tiny studio,
so rarely has the chance to see
a large body of her work out in
one place at the same time.
‘Having the chance to work
with Jon and discuss how
to hang the work, how it all
related and then the time to
work together to try different
ideas within the gallery space
for the exhibition was so
helpful’. It enabled Lydia to see
connections she was unaware
of, and also to get ideas to
help her to push the work
forward.
There were challenges with
how to best install in the
space and how the work
would react to things like
the damp and salty sea air,
especially one piece which
was entirely paper-based,
unprotected by glass. The
conversations we had with
visitors and other artists
during the exhibition and
seeing the children respond to
testing out materials like mud
and blackberries was really
inspirational—and is something
Lydia will carry forward. She is
now aiming to do more junior
level workshops around using
found materials to experiment
with in the future.
‘Jon was very open to my
ideas and incredibly trusting
in my vision both of the work
that should be included in the
show and how we hang it...
crucially he also gave me the
confidence to believe in some
of my original ideas in terms of
how to hang the rust plates. It
was such an important learning
for me not to judge the work
and the installation mid-way
through, but to have faith to
see it through to the end’.
Key lesson
The Autumn Art Day,
which was framed around
Lydia’s work was really
well supported. There were
some challenges around
having a good idea of
numbers attending—but
this would be hard to get
around as people often
sign up late or drop in last
minute as they are passing,
so flexibility has to be in
the plan.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Jon England;
Hour Hands
27.03.19-present
https://youtu.be/PqK-
TuEUoG28
Jon England is an experienced
Somerset-based artist, whose
meticulously-researched work
often has a historical reference
and uses labour-intensive
methods of production. For
Contains Art, Jon's commission
comprised a series of works
sited in and around the town
two of which were 'nail' works
(images formed by thousands
of nails) and the others largescale
photographic works (a
new departure for Jon). All
took the historic mineral line
that once ran from the Brendon
Hill's into Watchet's port, as
their inspiration.
"I wrestled for a considerable
period, exploring multiple
strands of research and many
potential processes before
eventually returning to a
previously utilised process of
transcribing archive imagery
through dot-matrices of tens of
thousands of nails. [...].
I feel that the obvious nature
of the labour involved is a key
factor in the overwhelming
public appreciation of this work,
experienced both in person and
online and the many positive
conversations elicited. The
question of whether my practice
can simultaneously benefit from
and effectively question the
nostalgia elicited by industrial
history is a concern with scope
for further exploration.
Having received such a positive
reception from the town’s
population and visitors alike I
felt I had the freedom to explore
more untried and untested
ideas and went on to produce
a series of photographs of nails
as anthropomorphised forms
acting as metaphors for the
struggle and exploitation of
that historic workforce. Installed
in dispersed locations across
the town these pushed my
work in new directions, utilising
technology not previously
explored and allowing me
to work more quickly and
intuitively whilst retaining an
obvious relationship to the initial
nail work. [...].
I am thankful to the Contains
Art team for their support
and flexibility as I diverted my
energy away from a previously
proposed second body of work
and for finding a small amount
of budget for the printing
of these photographs. Their
‘discovery’ by the public and the
subsequent online commentary
and sharing of their locations
on forums such as the We Love
Watchet Facebook page has
added a positive extra layer of
engagement. It is my desire
that these would have been
much greater in number with a
greater diversity of scales and
locations - both internal and
external - but this also came up
against the constraints of time
and budget."
Jon's very popular nail piece at
the Market House Museum has
since been purchased by the
Museum and will now remain
there permanently.
Key lesson
The siting of works outside
of a gallery setting,
inevitably brings a host
of new challenges. With
so many works included
in Jon's commission,
the major difficulty
came in whether and
how to provide useful
interpretation materials
that are publicly accessible
and meet the needs of
both artist and audiences.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Final evaluation, January 2020
2.3. Interactive digital exhibitions
Lumen Prize
Adventures in Digital Art
14.07.18—12.08.18
https://youtu.be/3ogkicoz4eY
Lumen Prize: Adventures
in Digital Art used the
latest technology to enable
audiences to see the world
differently. It was a partnership
exhibition curated with
Contains Art.
The Lumen Prize is awarded
annually and celebrates the
very best art being created
with technology today
through a global competition,
exhibitions and events
worldwide.
The selected works in the
exhibition featured interactive
and immersive digital artworks
by three international artists
previously selected for The
Lumen Prize. It was important
to us in our brief to Lumen
Prize that these works should
explore what is social and
collaborative about digital,
celebrating the value of such
experiences.
The Lumen Prize shows was
one of the most rewarding
shows we’ve ever put on
in terms of engaging with
new audiences. It is hard to
overstate the impact of this
exhibition in Watchet. We
drew in a whole new crowd
of people who had never until
then be quite brave enough
to step through the doors.
We were easily busier than
we have ever been. Word
and excitement spread faster
around the community than
it had even when we showed
some Matisse cut-outs the
previous year. We hosted
hundreds of school children,
many of whom came back
again and again with their
families over the following
weeks. A mum at the school
told us that her daughter has
pronounced the day of their
visit to the Lumen show to
have been ‘the best day of
school I’ve ever had’.
The exhibition captured the
strength of new technologies,
art, participation and spectacle.
Lumen described the
experience as a total pleasure
and that we were a team
who were highly professional
and eager to build on our
knowledge of art that engages
with technology. We were
invited as guest speaker to the
2018 Lumen Award ceremony,
specifically in recognition
of our strength in engaging
audiences. We look forward to
partnering with Lumen again
for our 2019 season.
Key lessons
Through this exhibition we
built many new and lasting
relationships with harderto-reach
members of the
community. Generations
both old and young were
drawn to the exhibition
for the interactive art and
virtual reality technology,
many of whom would
otherwise never have
had the opportunity
to experience it. The
strength of word-of-mouth
advertising became an
essential tool for bringing
communities to our door,
and return visits.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Laura Dekker
Making Us
Lumen Projects
20/07/19-01/09/19
https://youtu.be/
ICXhJQhqhVQ
Building on the success of our
partnership with the Lumen
Prize in 2018, we decided
to jointly commission a
digital artists with them, now
operating as Lumen Projects,
in 2019. The brief asked for
submissions for a multisite,
interactive, networked
installation in a series of
locations around the town.
Laura Dekker's subsequent
work, which Laura’s work
explores the interplay of nature
and technology through human
intervention, was placed in
locations including at Contains
Art, Andrew’s Fish and Chip
Shop on Liddymore Road,
Albert’s ‘Ardware on Swain
Street and Pebbles Tavern on
Market Street.
In each, the use of a modern
technology, the Xbox Kinect,
allowed the viewer to
become part of the work,
playing with and controlling
how layers of technological
and natural imagery, filmed in
Watchet, were revealed and
superimposed. This
interaction was of course,
fun, but also integral to the
questions being raised by the
artist – how as humans have
we sought to use, shepherd
and circumvent the natural
world to our ends?
"CA's ambitious goal was
to keep all the installations
permanently accessible to
public[...] In the end I think it
would have worked better to
have all the installations fully
inside the shops - it worked
well in the containers and at
Pebbles, but much was lost in
the shop window installations
[...]. Perhaps a different
technology should have been
used from the start; or given the
choice of technology, and more
time, slightly different setups
might have been used. Even
with hindsight, I'm not sure
what would have been the best
approach - risk free or not? I
certainly appreciated that CA
were up for taking the risk.
The opening night and
the kids' workshop were
lovely occasions - really well
organised, well attended and
fun. I know a lot of work, from a
lot of people, went into making
things work so smoothly. And
the technology all worked well,
showing the artworks at their
best. It was good to be there to
see how audiences responded
and interacted, and to get their
direct feedback. I like CA's
choice to have only a small
amount of written information
at most of the installation sites.
The risk, particularly with these
artworks, would be that some
people might not make sense
of it. But I think it was right to
take that risk.
In spending time in Watchet,
seeking out, capturing and
editing the video pieces,
experiencing Watchet in some
of its tiniest detail (down to the
rust, mud, etc.!), I became very
fond of the people and the
places. I wanted the artworks
to be really *for Watchet*, not
just *about* Watchet. I hope
people did enjoy having them
there over the summer."
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Final evaluation, January 2020
2.4 Artist opportunity exhibitions
Dylan Fox:
Rituals of Tourism
28.04.18—03.06.18
For our emerging artist slot we
selected recent graduate, Dylan
Fox. Rituals of Tourism was
based on Fox’s early childhood
memories of visiting the
seaside; exploring the beach,
racing to get candyfloss, saving
room for fish and chips, and
finding a suitable postcard to
send home.
As an adult, these activities
became rituals. They were
important steps in ensuring a
trip to the seaside lived
up to expectations. Dylan
turned these rituals into a
series of new works, each
addressing some of the artist’s
more recent experiences of
gender transition, playing with
the balance between these
formative memories and the
much harsher reality of
living as a transgender adult.
Many of these works also
highlighted how these realities
affect the wider transgender
community, using the exhibition
as a platform to voice
these problems.
Rituals of Tourism explored
different methods of
collaboration, such as a series
of artist led walks where
members of the public could
steer the direction taken and
the topic of conversation.
This opened up questions
of authorship, collaboration
and community that Dylan
envisions will help develop
future participatory works.
Dylan’s practice explores the
physical, medical, emotional
and social aspects of
gender transition; specifically
the frustration felt with
inefficient transgender
healthcare pathways. His
work is hinged on how social
constructs affect people,
aiming to question and shift
these by generating work
through social interaction,
working with other artists and
the public.
A key part of this exhibition
for audiences was the process
of finding ephemeral works
around the town, such as
beermats, postcard stands,
free candyfloss, deckchairs,
and windbreaks—the gallery
acting as a Tourist Information
Centre and exploration point
for each work and event.
Key lessons
Candyfloss brought a
young audience, that Dylan
hadn’t anticipated, to the
performance—embracing
this was paramount to its
success. It also highlighted
a need to more formally
consider our use of nongender
specific pronouns
when communicating with
the LGBTQI+ community.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
After spending some time in
the town prior to developing
this exhibition, Dylan became
aware of the strong sense
of community within the
townspeople, which heavily
influenced the works. When
engaging directly with this
community during the show,
his expectations were met and,
at times, exceeded in regards
to the public engagement with
the works and the response to
the show.
One of the lessons learned
from the translation of
participatory works from
urban areas to our rurally
isolated town was that
preconceptions surrounding
audiences need to be
considered on both sides.
Dylan admits that he also
found maintaining a high
level of engagement to be
a challenge, due to living
so far away and needing to
be present so often. This
is certainly something that
he will have to consider for
future exhibitions, finding a
balance within the works and
the public programme that
engages the public in a way
that is achievable given time
and distance factors.
Watchet, with its ancient port
is, contrary to expectation,
home to a well established
bi-annual trans convention.
This made the work feel more
relevant, and appropriate
that our organisation should
acknowledge and enjoy
conversation surrounding
LGBTQI+ questions. Dylan’s
work, with its stance of
protest and assertion of trans
acceptance, was met by an
audience who were more
informed and enlightened than
perhaps the artist could have
expected. If anything, we found
that our audiences would
actively seek conversations
around trans issues, offering
new and unexpected
connections for the artist,
delivering new outcomes.
Dylan describes how they
‘became aware of how diverse
and divergent the community
was’.
Our audiences said the
exhibition provided ‘thought
provoking installations
surrounding gender
discussions’ and that there
was an ‘openness and sense of
celebration’, the events ‘always
felt inclusive and relaxed’.
Younger audiences were
encouraged by free candyfloss.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Chris Dobrowolski:
Transit Transition
06.10.18—04.11.18
https://youtu.be/Gwe7sE97i1E
Chris Dobrowlolski was
brought to our attention by
Tessa Jackson who knew of the
artist from his residency as part
of the British Antarctic Survey.
Chris was selected for his
makeshift aesthetic and
celebration of modest
materials—this exhibition would
be the final container exhibition
before we prepared for our
new development—it was
essential to our brief that the
artist should honour the nature
of the gallery, its fabrication
and its future transformation.
The artist directly addressed
this time of metamorphosis
for the shipping container
art gallery that has housed
exhibitions on the quayside for
five years now.
“I’m emphasising what a
shipping container is—a
space that’s very purpose is
to be in constant transition.
Essentially it’s an art exhibition
about shipping containers in a
shipping container.”
Chris took what was a simple
starting point and through a
series of mechanical, playful,
even absurd works, which often
repurposed household objects,
explored the unexpected,
makeshift and haphazard
nature of transition over time.
In this, his work also looked
to the future of the shipping
containers at the East Quay,
where the gallery container
is expected to be repurposed
once again into a community
workshop.
“The primary use of a
shipping container is to
move manufactured goods
from where the work force is
cheap to where people have
money. Taken out of this cycle
of exploitation the Watchet
container is also taking its own
course, subverting this box of
exploitation into a space that
nurtures the community.”
Chris was also influenced
by Watchet’s connection
to Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the
Ancient Mariner’, which was
referenced frequently in the
exhibition—used to draw out a
sense of the romantic seafaring
tradition and contrast it with
our more banal contemporary
world of global consumer
capitalism. “An image I
found on the internet that
has haunted me is that of a
shipping container accidentally
lost overboard. Like the
wandering albatross it appears
to be destined to drift forever.”
Chris found the location an
unusual place to show work
partly because of the broad
range of people that visit.
He noted our reputation that
attracts the people you would
expect to visit an art gallery
but also having a genuine
passing trade of locals and
tourists who ordinarily wouldn’t
visit an art gallery. This is partly
down to the location but he
thought this may be a result of
the shipping container itself—
having an accessible down-toearth
quality about it which
people find unintimidating.
He mentions our particularly
good outreach, as well as
a lot of school visits. When
invited to give an artist talk,
we held the event in our local
pub, a small venue recognised
for its intimate folk gigs and
award-winning cider, which
Chris enjoyed for its diverse
interaction and lack of
pretention.
Chris found the space was
quite an interesting challenge
to show work in but found
it suited him very well. He
made a lot of new works to
fit the space, and we found
that the spectacle of this—
Chris built a model railway
through the container walls,
leaving a lasting legacy of
the exhibition—along with
other interactive, mechanical
and kinectic pieces, appealed
to an audience who would
appreciate the simplicity of its
craft and playful delivery.
Chris was really impressed
with the number visitors we
managed to attract and our
online presence. Our ‘simple,
but well made, promotional
film had over one and a half
thousand hits before the end of
the exhibition’.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Asked what our audiences
thought of the final container
exhibition, they answered that
it was a ‘really well-considered
and conceived exhibition
specifically responding to
the history and character of
the containers’. It was ‘fun,
challenging, and unpretentious.’
“A great exhibition—connecting
on so many levels. I enjoyed
the delightful humour, the
inventiveness, the playfulness
and also that it was thought
provoking as well as original.
My four year old grandson was
mesmerised and very excited,
which was wonderful, and also
importantly that it managed to
engage and stimulate one so
young.”
Facebook comment from a
Watchet resident.
Key lessons
The challenge of this
exhibition was not knowing
if the work would correctly
capture the sentiment and
mood surrounding this
chapter in our history—it
was important to us that
the exhibition should be
entirely new and interesting
for the artist and audiences,
but that it should also
reference and deal with
the issues surrounding
how we celebrate this
seminal moment for our
organisation.
We will need to refer
to these experiences
when planning for our
exhibition that opens our
new gallery—negotiating
the balance between
audience expectations
and our narrative as an
organisation.
It’s important that we
maintain a journey from
these experiences and carry
our audiences forward
into the new gallery, whilst
embracing a new crowd
of visitors and establishing
new relationships.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Lynn Dennison
Sea Swimmers
18.10.19-30.11.19
https://youtu.be/Mz1hr1xTC6c
Artist Lynn Dennison worked
with the local community of
year-round sea swimmers,
producing two complementary
film works shown at Watchet
Boat Museum - one projected
onto the windows and visible
to audiences at night from
outside the building. Lynn
filmed local sea swimmers
monthly, over the course of
nearly a year, from the
same stretch of beach in
Minehead, where swimmers
met regularly. The resultant
film observed the interaction
and relationship of the
swimmers with land and
water showing their differing
experiences and emotions as
they move from
land to seashore, into water,
and back out again.
Although filmed monthly,
throughout the year, the
limited land-based reference
points made the changing
seasons hard to discern, but
the swimmers faced all kinds
of weather and conditions.
Across the year, on any given
swim, the swimmers
confronted varying sea
temperatures, tidal swells, rain,
hailstorms, sun, sewerage and
levels of serenity.
"It has been a real pleasure
working with Contains Art on
the Sea swimmers project.
Because I wanted to structure
the project around a monthly
visit to capture the idea of
swimming throughout the
year, there was a considerable
amount of organisation each
month, coinciding diaries with
tide times, and this was always
managed without problems
and with apparent calm.
It was such a great project to
do because swimming makes
everyone so happy and there
was always such a good
atmosphere! My work often
references aspects of water
and the sea; sometimes water
engulfs a domestic scene
as a metaphor for memory,
the passage of time and
temporality. But it can also be
about an excess of emotion,
perhaps relating to a nostalgia
for a deep connection with
nature, and this is what I was
interested in exploring further
through this work. I wanted
the work to document the
change the swim brings about,
so I focused on the entry and
exit to and from the water for
the final work. Formally I liked
the idea of showing the figure
going in and coming out of the
water in this cyclical motion
throughout the year. As well
as enabling me to realise this
idea, which I had been thinking
about for some time, the
project has provided me with a
lot of material for further work,
and I would like to continue to
work with this material along
with footage from a ‘Go Pro”
worn by swimmers, to make
another work which focuses
more on the experience from
the swimmers viewpoint.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
During the setup of the
installation, I was given
invaluable help from Tessa
Jackson, Jess Prendergrast
and Jon Barrett, both in the
curation of the work and in
the show build, resulting in an
installation that I was really
happy with. It was quite a
complicated build, not only
because of my own vision for
how the work should appear,
but also due to the nature of
the building and necessary
restrictions, but Jon worked
tirelessly to achieve what we
had set out to do.
I had worked with public
engagement before, mostly
with workshops and talks,
but this project gave me the
opportunity to really engage
with a community group and
get to know them well, and
making these relationships
helped hugely with the way
the project took shape. I
hope that I have made lasting
connections with both the
team at Contains Art and the
sea swimmers."
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Jess Ostrowicz
Ode to Yankee Jack
July-October 2019
Royal College of Art PHD
graduate, Jess Ostowicz
was commissioned to create
a sculptural heritage tribute
to John Short (Yankee
Jack). The ambition was that
the work would echo the
sound of Yankee Jack's voice
through its seven inset pipes
achieving the musical notes
attributed to the celebrated
shanty singer,, which would,
in effect, ‘play’ in the changing
wind across the harbour.
The wall was constructed in
the local drystone tradition to
house these pipes. The pipes
themselves were 3-D printed
at Imperial College, London.
In the event, the project
proved much more complex
and challenging than anticipated
by either the team at
Contains Art or the artist
herself. Initially, this was because
planning permission
was required due to the piece
being sited in a conservation
area. This delayed the installation
a little but otherwise was
little more than an administrative
headache.
More problematically, the
stability of the sculpture was
compromised early on by local
teenagers climbing on it,
meaning that consequently
adaptations to the construction
process has to be made,
adding both cost and time for
the artist. Further, the sound
element of the piece was not
wholly effective, unless physcially
blown by audience members,
which in turn led to some
public frustration. None of
these challenges undermined
the visual impact of the work,
which animated engagement
and discussion over the busy
summer months. Nonetheless,
it provided strong learning for
us as an organisation, whilst
also reinforcing our belief that
taking risks is an important
part of the way that we support
emergent artists.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
3. Supporting practitioners
As well as the support that
we offer practitioners through
the exhibition programme
opportunities described in
the previous section, we
also undertake various other
activities intended to help
artists on their journey’s. For
the last few years we have
run a series of ‘container
conversations’ that provide a
place for discussion, debate
and critique for our artists’
community. We held four such
talks in 2018 and the same
in 2019, experimenting with
different formats as we consider
the evolution of the series and
the move to larger gallery in
due course. Some of the talks
are explored in more detail in
the following pages.
We also held a series of
conversations with local
practitioners who are
interested in taking studios
and working closely with us
in the new development. This
enabled us to understand
practitioner needs, hopes and
ideas and to connect them
firmly to the East Quay as it
moves forward. This work was
followed up at the start of 2019
with a Symposium, bringing
together the artist community
in developing ideas about
what is possible in the new
building. We were delighted to
welcome Bedwyr Williams as a
guest speaker at the event. A
second Symposium was also
held in December 2019, again
exploring future thinking in
regards to East Quay. This time,
we welcomed feminist artist
Rachel Ara to speak
Jenny Barron
New Perspectives
We have run a series of
speaker events during the
past that have been very
successful with creative and
public audiences alike. The
format of these evolved as we
have run the events. The most
interesting variant proved to
be a kind of ‘conversational’
Q&A format, which provided
a relaxed non-formal set-up
and also enabled those who
might not be comfortable in a
more traditional ‘speaker’ role
to agree and engage with the
process.
Jenny Barron’s container
conversation, which
accompanied her exhibition,
was the first opportunity for
many to hear this well-known
local artist speak first-hand
about her influences and
approach to her work.
Jenny led the conversation
through a conversational q&a
that was conducted during the
daytime—our first event of this
kind, having previously held
talks during the evening, often
on a Friday night.
We had looked extensively
at our audience profile for
Jenny’s work and decided
that the most attractive
format would be to hold the
conversation over Sunday
brunch in our container
courtyard. This was also part
of initiative to offer more
daytime cultural events and
weekend activities.
Dylan Fox
Rituals of Tourism
Responding to Dylan’s playful
approach to engagement and
because his works were sited
out and about in the town as
well as in the gallery, we reimagined
the format for his
‘container conversation’. He
was joined by lecturer Renee
Pfister for a walking tour of his
works, complete with stop for
ice-cream, pop into the pub for
a pint (and to see his beer mat
works) and dip in the ‘boating
lake’ (to see his wind breaks)
and finished with fish and chips
eaten around a conversational
table at the containers (having
taken in his postcard works
that were available from the
chippie).
The different format was very
much enjoyed by participants,
although it was harder work
to secure an audience than
when delivering the kind of
event we have become wellknown
for. This did not diminish
the impact of the event for
participants however, with
several commenting that the
smaller numbers (10 versus
the usual 20 or so for such
events) gave a chance to have
deeper and more involved
conversations, an opportunity
that was valuable given the
complexity and sensitivity of
the subject of Dylan’s work.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Lumen Prize
Adventures in Digital Art
Following the success of Jenny
Barron’s daytime container
conversation, we reverted
to our original Friday night
format for this talk with Jack
Addis of Lumen Prize and Nick
Lambert (Director of Research,
Ravensbourne University
London) that addressed the
subject of art and technology.
This was, in part, designed to
attract our regular audience
of evening culture-goers, but
also a reflection of the different
audience who would be
attending this event.
In an exhibition that attracted
audiences of all ages, this talk
was aimed at the artistic and
historical context of digital
artworks—a subject that was
best suited to an evening
talk for regional artists and
intrigued audiences. The
success of the event was the
comparisons between digital
and contemporary art history.
Chris Dobrowolski
Antarctica
This event was held in one of
our local pubs, a venue that is
recognised for its modest size,
charm, good cider, and folk gigs.
Chris supports his practice
with his own brand of artist
talks—previously enjoying
a season long run at the
Edinburgh Fringe. These talks
are deliberately low-fi events
that highlight Chris’s sense
of artistic failure, a comedic
device that felt best suited
to this venue and its history
of music gigs, and open-mic
performances.
Chris’s performance, an hourand-a-half
long ‘holiday snap’
journey through his residency
with the British Antarctic
Survey, gives an insight into
the personality and practice
of the artist in ways that a
conventional q&a couldn’t.
Some of the praise for the
event:
‘Chris D at Pebbles was
outstanding. He was
entertaining but mostly opened
my eyes to an extraordinary
style of art!’
‘Chris Dobrowolski talk
at Pebbles inspired and
entertained me’
‘Chris Dobrowolski was the best
ever in CAs history for me’
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Jon England
Hour hands
We returned to our traditional
format for Jon England's container
conversation, held in the
container gallery, with Simon
Morrissey of Foreground
providing the other conversational
partner. The subject
matter ranged from heritage
to public engagement and
from manual technique to
philosophical approaches. Audiences
expressed the value of
the opportunity to hear from
Jon early in his commission,
particularly in light of the fact
that the timing of his installations
across the year meant
we did not hold a more traditional
private view event.
"The In-Conversation event
with respected curator Simon
Morrissey of Foreground was
a fantastic opportunity to
further my thinking regarding
the production of works for
the public realm as well as an
enjoyable evening".
The event was concluded with
the recording of a podcast as
part of as series called 'Last
Writes' that we are producing
in collaboration with artist
Chris Jelley. This was the
second in the series, with four
more recorded over the year
at various events. The subject
- what would your funeral
be like - afford audiences a
chance to understand more
about the lives and interests
of artists but in an unconventional
format, and has proved
very popular.
Lynn Dennison
Sea Swimming
For the opening of Lynn
Dennison's installation at the
Watchet Boat Museum, we
combined our usual private
view with a container conversation,
pairing Lynn with
Beth French, a local women
who had recently attempted
to swim seven global channels,
and been the subject of
a powerful independent film
- Against the Tides - charting
her physical and personal
journey. The film itself was also
shown later in the year to a
packed audience, again in the
Boat Museum.
" Naomi and Jess at Contains
Art organised a (delicious,
home cooked) dinner for the
opening; it was a really special
occasion with the team, the
swimmers, friends and associates
all attending. An “In conversation”
was held between
Jess Prendergrast, myself and
Beth French, channel swimmer
and motivational speaker,
whose story was fascinating
and impressive. This provided
a great angle to talk about
sea swimming and the project,
and the informal and friendly
nature of the event put me
at ease and made for a really
enjoyable evening."
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Bedwyr Williams,
Contains Art Sypmosium
January 2019
25
Final evaluation, January 2020
26
Rachel Ara,
Contains Art Sypmosium
December 2019
Final evaluation, January 2020
4. Developing our organisation
This strand of work covers
five aspects: partnership
building, governance changes,
resourcing, and consultant
support in curating and retail.
Most significantly, we have
expended considerable time
and effort to developing solid
and diverse partnerships
with local and national
organisations. This reflects that
as we expand our programme
and activities, we also need to
expand our horizons, to ensure
we are ‘plugged in’ to the right
networks both regionally and
nationally.
Throughout year one, and
heading into our transition
period, we looked to cement
our existing relationships and
expand ourselves more widely
on the regional and national
stage.
We therefore supported
an opportunity in 2018 to
promote a touring exhibition
and publication from a
previous Contains Art initiated
exhibition, New Wave: An Arts
Education.
New Wave was a project
initiated by Toni Davey RWA,
supported by Contains Art and
Somerset Art Works to explore
the values of arts education
for our economy, society, and
humanity.
Toni Davey and her husband
Andy (director of Contains Art)
helped a generation of young
people in West Somerset to
think. They did so through
their roles as art teachers at
the comprehensive school
in Minehead. Alongside her
teaching role, Toni always
remained a successful
practicing artist. In the New
Wave exhibition, which was
first shown at Contains Art in
Watchet in September 2017,
she was also curator. The
project showcased new works
by 30 of Toni and Andy’s exstudents,
each responding to
Hokusai’s iconic woodcut, ‘The
Great Wave of Kanagawa’, a
piece that has held a personal
fascination for Toni over several
decades.
This exhibition and publication
was subsequently toured
regionally to both RWA Bristol
and Black Swan Arts, Frome.
The publication remains an
important aspect of CA’s
merchandise.
New Wave shows the thirst and
talent for creativity with which
just a few of the young people
from that school emerged and
headed out into the world. But
the project’s impact is much
more than this. It speaks to the
value of art for young people at
a time when it is being stripped
from school curriculums. In so
doing it provides a vital but
uncomfortable comment on
the impact of arts education—
demonstrating rather than
bemoaning what will be lost
if the current side-lining of
creative subjects from our
schools is not arrested.
We will continued this
incentive throughout our year
two programme with South
West Heritage Trust and an
educational partnership with
Somerset Museums to deliver
an exhibition at the museum
with artworks created by our
local schoolchildren in West
Somerset (see educational
section of this report).
Within that our educational
engagement officer, Cat Smith,
led a group of schoolchildren
from Danesfield middle
school in a project with
local monoprint artist, Lynn
Mowat, to produce artworks
inspired by Doris Hatt, who is
celebrated in a retrospective at
Somerset Museum, in Taunton.
The childrens’ artwork, created
during sessions at Contains
Art, was shown at the museum
alongside the Hatt exhibition.
For most children, if not all,
this was the first time that their
artwork had been seen publicly.
The intention in this, as with
much of that strand of work,
is that the exhibition fosters
a new audience of West
Somerset children and families
for the museum, who would
otherwise have been hard to
reach, but also empowers a
generation of local children
to believe that the creative
subjects has value, particularly
at a time when this is seeming
less certain for younger
audiences in our district.
During our transition period
in 2019, with our gallery
programme off-site, and in
advance of the building work
commencing for our new
development, we continued to
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Final evaluation, January 2020
open our studios and gallery
for use with partner events,
educational resources, studio
& cpd projects. We worked
working with Somerset Wildlife
Trust to deliver a family-friendly
environmental art adventure—a
weekend event in Spring to
celebrate the rich, but lesserdocumented,
marine biology
along our stretch of coastline. It
is events like these, and future
partnerships between ourselves
and regional bodies that brings
a diversity of activity to our
containers during this time of
transition, and helps to engender
some of the cultural make-up
of the development that we
will inherit— with its varying
business and artistic practices.
Our work with Somerset
Wildlife Trust carries forward a
narrative of science, heritage
and art crossovers for us that
continues our series of geologyinspired
cpd exhibitions,
Marking Time. Continuing that
theme, 2018 saw the artists
involved take the initiative to
host a touring show of their
work, with a new exhibition held
in Lyme Regis during the annual
fossil festival on the south coast.
This was an important step
for this group of artists who
began their project through
mentoring and development
with Contains Art, and now had
the confidence and autonomy
to bring their work to an
entirely new audience—and
simultaneously promoted our
brand to a neighbouring region.
Equally, we supported
Somerset Art Works as a
venue for their creative bursary
pathway, which was awarded
to Georgina Towler, resident
studio holder at Contains Art,
as part of the Somerset Art
Weeks Festival. One of four
Key lessons
Investing in partnership
building can be a very time
consuming activity. We
need to become better at
judging what to say yes
to and what to resist. We
recognise that long term,
strong partnerships with
multiple organisations is
vital, but also that if not
properly resourced this
work can easily undermine
other more public-facing
aspects of our work. This
is not to learn not to do it,
but to be considered and
careful about implications,
and to make sure
resourcing is appropriate in
advance.
28
Final evaluation, January 2020
bursary artists, the award gave
the artists access to mentoring
support with the initiative to
create a new work as part
of Somerset Open Studios.
Contains Art offered our
courtyard and external walls of
the containers for Georgina to
explore a dramatic expansion
in the scale of her work, which
introduced 3-dimensional
forms into her practice. It was
a fantastic opportunity for her
to push ideas in a new direction
and create a piece of public art.
Our visitors said that it
was ‘lovely to see Georgina
exploring a new way of
working’. Georgina has now
travelled to New Zealand in
a hiatus from her studio and
opportunity to inform her
practice with new surroundings.
Other work streams under this
strand have included continued
due diligence work on the
merger of Contains Art with
Onion Collective, which we
had hoped to implement in
advance of the new building
opening. This has involved
expert advice received from
legal firm Latham & Watkins
(provided pro bono under the
Trustlaw initiative) and from
our VAT and finance advisors
Francis Clark. The upshot of
this work has been that we
have concluded not to merge
the two organisations. This
reflects the vagaries of the
Capital Goods Scheme which
means that we cannot merge
without risking paying back
the VAT on the build. Instead,
we are now exploring detailed
29
Final evaluation, January 2020
back-office alignment to
increase efficiencies as well
as undertaking separate legal
due diligence on the option
of Contains Art becoming a
charity.
In related strands, Tessa
Jackson has continued to
support us to develop the
plans for East Quay and our
artistic programme in the new
building, with the building
now on site and programming
in train for the first three
years. Our separate Audience
Development Plan was entirely
updated in 2019 (see right)
to encompass the much
wider activities, audiences
and opportunities within
the East Quay project, now
encompassing seven strands
of work, rather than the three
which have been the focus of
our efforts over the last few
years (community, education,
digital). The four new strands
are: contemporary practice,
heritage, events/music and
enterprise.
In terms of retail and branding
support we have been working
with global retail consultancy
FITCH to develop a new brand
and all associated materials,
logos, designs etc which
will then feed into our retail
approach and a new website
for the East Quay development
which will come on stream in
2020 in advance of opening.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Artist Joanne Horrobin being
filmed by Jesse Roth.
31
Final evaluation, January 2020
5. Developing our audiences
This strand aimed to maximise
the impact of our artistic
programme through several
strands. The first was the
ongoing implementation of
our Audience and Community
Development Plan, based
around three areas which come
together and interconnect—
community engagement work,
and education and digital
strategies and associated
action plans, each of which
have been developed in
collaboration with our new
Digital and Educational
Engagement officers, made
possible to recruit directly
by the funding from the Arts
Council. As above, this plan has
now been fullly updated.
Several aspects are explored
in more detail in the following
sections, namely:
• the co-creation of an
educational programme and
vision with local schools;
• a series of public events
tied to our educational
workstream and made
possible by a grant from
Awards for All;
• dedicated and expanded
digital activities designed
explicitly to reach younger
and especially teenage
audiences in different ways
and;
• artistic consultation work
with primary-age children
with a view to connecting
them to and giving them
a stake in the new gallery,
and supported by a small
grant from the Somerset
Community Foundation.
A critical factor in enabling the
implementation of each of these
audience-focused workstreams
was the funding from the Arts
Council which allowed us to
recruit two new posts, each for
one day a week—an educational
engagement officer and a
digital engagement officer.
For each the first task was
to develop a comprehensive
action plan of activities, putting
the meat on the bones of the
strategic approach set out in
our Audience Plan. Adapting
the resourcing was not
straightforward and it became
clear that two very limited
posts may not be the best way
to maximise impact. See key
lessons box for our revised
approach.
Key lessons
We realised quite quickly
that one day a week with
our digital and educational
engagement officers was
not enough to fulfil all
that we wanted from our
Audience Plan. In order to
make a more substantial
impact to our outcomes,
we therefore reviewed our
approach in the autumn of
2018 and sought substantial
additional funding around
our digital strand (see
section 5.3). This led to
substantial re-framing of
engagement staff funding
therefore in 2019, following
an options and resource
review that is ongoing.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
Local schoolchildren learning watercolour
technique with artist Jenny Barron.
33
Final evaluation, January 2020
5.1 Educational strategy
We have made substantial
progress in our educational
work since 2018 following
the recruitment of Cat Smith,
a qualified teacher, with
significant arts experience, as
our Educational Engagement
officer. She works for us 3
days a week, with additional
resourcing secured via the
West Somerset Opportunity
Area in order to set up after
school art clubs in local middle
schools and to coordinate our
Studio Digital project. Having
now made successful links with
our thirteen most local schools
and beyond, school exhibition
visits have become a regular
activity.
Achievements in the past two
years include:
• Hosted 18 school visits
involving hundreds of
children across 24 classes/
groups (ages 4 to 13).
• Developed solid working
relationships with a wider
portfolio of schools,
including all 6 West
Somerset Academies Trust
(WSAT) schools (4 first, 2
middle schools), plus 7 other
schools west of Taunton.
• Co-created an education
strategy, developed as
a result of several key
pieces of work including a
strategic 5-year ‘visioning’
exercise in collaboration
with 11 Headteachers
and arts coordinators, as
well as through creative
consultations with local
school children, and
consultation with artists also.
• Created tailored activities
and workshops to
complement exhibition visits
by schools.
• Facilitated multiple artists
workshops in school.
• Created a successful
‘Passport’ participation
activity, aimed at 4-8 year
olds, encouraging summer
holiday visits to Contains Art.
• Established two after-school
art clubs at Danesfield
Middle School and Minehead
Middle enabling students to
work with a range of artists.
• Hosted two students’
exhibitions and facilitated
one more at The Museum of
Somerset.
• Become an active Arts
Award Centre, with 34
students obtaining ‘Explore’
with exemplary feedback
and 72 children obtaining
‘Discover’.
• Registered as an Arts
Award Partner, providing
continued support to the 6
WSAT schools and one other
as they embark on their
Artsmark journey; supported
another West Somerset
primary school in submitting
their case study and entering
their first pupils for Arts
Award, resulting in a ‘Gold’
Artsmark award.
• Embedded firm working
partnerships with other
local cultural education
organisations such as Hauser
and Wirth, The Museum of
Somerset and joined the
Cultural Learning Alliance of
local organisations, as well
as those further afield such
as Deborah Curtis’s House of
Fairy Tales.
• Designed a series of school
holiday workshops, linking
9-13 year olds with a range
of different artists and art
forms including glass fusion,
ceramics, monoprinting,
photography, bookbinding,
veneer wood work and
drawing.
• Provided continued support
to University Centre
Somerset’s fine art degree
students with crits, work
experience and connections.
• Successful delivery of an
ACE-funded collaborative
project between Contains
Art and The Museum of
Somerset, working with
students from Danesfield
Middle School and a local
artist.
• Carried out 3 successful
rounds of Studio Digital with
24 often hard-to-engage
students, having completed
the programme.
We have now developed very
positive relationships with
all local schools, for which
we intend to maximise the
impact in East Quay, having
overcome substantial barriers
that initially proved difficult
to tackle for a variety of
reasons. The strategic 5-year
‘visioning’ exercise of October
2018 brought many of these
schools together to hear
about the work we are doing
and our ambitions for the
future. This also provided a
platform for the schools’ senior
leaders to discuss the current
barriers that prevent school
engagement and student
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Final evaluation, January 2020
access to high quality, rich and
varied creative experiences.
The ‘art mapping’ creative
consultation exercise revealed
children’s understanding and
experience of arts provision,
both within school and the
locality. It also revealed
children’s desire to explore
unconventional forms of
art within which they can
be immersed, art they can
interact with, art that is big or
art that surprises them. The
art mapping also revealed
how the children had limited
understanding of the range of
creative career opportunities
and that they perceived jobs
and careers in the creative
industries as an unobtainable
‘dream’. We intend to reverse
this viewpoint for future
generations of schoolchildren
here.
The ‘visioning’ exercise, art
mapping creative consultations,
artist conferences alongside
our experiences and reflections,
have fed into our co-created
education strategy, detailing
Contains Arts offer for the near
future. Over the next five years
we will seek to achieve all that
it envisages, transforming arts
education across a large rural
area.
There were two exhibitions
which proved highly
successful with the schools
in 2018. These were Lumen’s
Adventures in Digital Art and
Chris Dobrowolski’s Transit
Transition. Both exhibitions
were participatory in nature,
which children and young
people responded well to.
They developed children’s
conceptual understanding
of what art can be and went
a long way to dismissing
negative gallery perceptions
where children are made to feel
uneasy. Our programming will
follow this lead, ensuring that
interactivity, participation are
front and centre as a means
to build lifelong connections
to contemporary art that
challenges assumptions for
children and their families.
‘I never realised this [Lumen’s
digital works] could be art.’
School pupil.
The two after-school art clubs,
funded through the West
Somerset Opportunity Area,
have successfully enabled us
regular access into the two
local middle schools: Minehead
Middle and Danesfield Middle
(both of whom had previously
proved difficult to engage).
These clubs have linked artists
with students through a series
of hands-on workshops,
focusing on a variety of
different artforms including
wirework, plaster casting,
drawing, iPad art, sculpture and
printing. The art clubs enabled
Contains Art to become a
regular fixture within these
schools, building vital working
relationships with staff and
students alike. The two clubs
have culminated in a highly
successful exhibition, attended
by over 120 people including
the students themselves, their
families, local school staff and
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Final evaluation, January 2020
the artists they had worked
with. Alongside working
with the various artists, they
have been supported by
our Education Engagement
Officer to achieve Arts Award
‘Explore’, with the moderator
describing their work as
‘exemplary in all 4 parts for
assessment’ and commenting
on their ‘insightful detail’. We
now hope to develop this
further to ensure there is a
lead-in with ‘Discover’ and
lead-out with ‘Bronze’ and
‘Silver’. The legacy of these
clubs is evident with both
middle schools now offering
extra-curricular art clubs,
where before there was little
other than sports.
I achieved being able to explore
and investigate materials and
techniques because before
I wanted to stick to what I
know but now I feel more
adventurous. Also, I can
challenge myself and go for
harder options now.
Danesfield Middle School pupil
The Summer School, also
funded by the West Somerset
Opportunity Area, provided
an opportunity for those who
had been unable to engage
with the after-school art clubs
and provided a series of five
practical artist-led workshops.
The children were able to
engage with new art forms,
tools and techniques that they
were unlikely to experience in
school. As well as developing
children’s creativity through
engagement with new art
forms, the social benefits were
also noted by several parents
who were keen for their
children to make new friends
and develop in confidence.
My daughter thoroughly
enjoyed the workshops and is
so excited that her work has
been chosen to be displayed
in an exhibition. She really
liked the way the artists
encouraged her to explore new
ideas, especially when she was
struggling to think of what to
do next.
Parent
Both of my children
commented on how relaxed
they felt in a new environment.
They socially integrated with
new young people and artists
and were genuinely excited
for every session. The art
workshops inspired more
spontaneous creativity at
home, using taught ideas and
researching on the internet.
My son has massively gained
confidence in his creative
abilities as he has previously
struggled with this in the
school environment.
Parent
Next steps
• Develop teachers’ expertise
and creativity by facilitating
a series of skills sharing
workshops, delivered for
teachers by teachers and
artists.
• Develop online education
resources, including a blog
to document our education
offer, links to artists and
planning tools along with
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Final evaluation, January 2020
physical as well as digital
resources.
• Celebrate progression
in creative learning and
develop further ongoing
relationships with children
and young people by
considering multiple
platforms for celebration i.e.
student magazine, billboards,
online student gallery,
physical exhibitions, end-ofyear
award etc.
• Support schools in modifying
their art curriculum to
ensure consistency, which
in turn aids transition and
progression, both within and
between schools.
• Collaborate with other
West Somerset youth
organisations in order to
develop continuous 0-25
provision (Contains Art,
Clowns, Minehead Eye and
Homestart) that provides a
joined-up approach which
will make a real difference.
• Develop greater engagement
and more meaningful
relationships with West
Somerset College and its
students through Studio
Digital.
• Ensure progression is
available for students to
engage with opportunities at
Contains Art i.e. develop Arts
Award capacity (by offering
‘Discover’ and accessing
training which enables us to
offer ‘Bronze’ and ‘Silver’),
work experience placements,
digital commission work etc.
• Devise an education
programme with targeted
local schools which aims to
raise aspirations through
engagement and with artists,
Artsmark and Arts Award,
drawing upon partnerships
with Hauser and Wirth’s
Director of Education Debbie
Hillyerd and The House of
Fairy Tales’ creator Deborah
Curtis to assist in programme
design.
Students at the Museum of Somerset in our Schools in Museums partnership with SWHT.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
5.2 Community events
Since its inception, Contains Art
has hosted regular community
events and activities—always
provided free of charge to
participants—to encourage the
community at large and families
more particularly to engage
with the organisation and the
exhibitions that it hosts. The
focus is always of fun, practical
activities, good food and a
welcoming atmosphere.
These two years been no
different, and with the support
of a small award from Awards
for All, we have again hosted
many community activities over
the past two years, including:
• Springtime workshops at
Easter 2018 built around
the installation by Helen
Knight—with Helen delivering
workshops about origami
techniques for children.
• Summer Kids Art Day in July
2018 built around the Lumen
exhibition, with workshops
focused on illusion, sound art
and film.
• Autumn Art Day in October
2018 built around Lydia
Halcrow’s exhibition with
textures mapping and sun
exposure painting activities.
• Two messy art workshops
during the Easter holidays in
April 2019.
• Summer Kids Art Day in
July 2019 alongside Laura
Dekker's installations.
• Autumn Art Day in the Boat
Museum in October 2019,
alongside Lynn Dennison's
installation.
An important shift over these
two years has seen in the reach
of these events expand, no
doubt as a result of a marked
increase in our digital presence
and marketing activity (see
next section). This meant what
had been a very local audience,
primarily limited to Watchet
families (mainly ‘up our street”
in terms of segmentation),
appeared to be expanding to
families from much further
afield, actively seeking out
creative activities with for
their children (trips and treats
profile).
The implications are twofold:
on the one hand this is
a very positive development,
signalling both a wider reach
and a mark of the quality of
our events; on the other hand,
if this trend continues it has
implications for resourcing
and for an understanding of
the profile of who attends
and benefits from our events.
Of course, all are welcome
and we are very proud of
feedback about how many
people have met new people
at our events, but we do need
also to be conscious of how
a shift in attendance patterns
may impact on who feels
comfortable to attend and
whether these events continue
to be an effective means by
which to welcome in and reach
out to those who are naturally
harder to engage.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
A young participant at
Kids Art Day in 2019.
39
Final evaluation, January 2020
5.3 Digital strategy
The focus of our digital strand
of work is, as with educational
and community, intertwined
with our artistic programme,
was in 2018 boosted and
given real attention by the
Lumen Prize, Adventures in
Digital Art exhibition, which
reinforced our view that this is
a strong route to engagement
with a teenage audience.
Consequently, we worked with
Lumen Projects again in 2019.
We continued our attention
on social media for promotion
and engagement, using
facebook, twitter and
instagram and increasingly
using paid advertising on
these platforms to boost
reach. This has had a tangible
impact on audiences and we
will continue to monitor reach
and value.
We also continued our
successful approach of
creating our own video
content around the exhibitions
programme, in 2018 making
short films for Helen Knight
and Chris Dobrowolski’s
exhibitions, each of which had
wide reach, and which help
also to cement our reputation
for high quality video content.
In 2019, we also created video
flyers for both Jon England
and Laura Dekker's work, again
with significant reach.
With the help of our digital
engagement officer, in 2018,
we also produced a series
of short films in support of
the wider community of
artists involved in Somerset
Art Weeks. As above, we
have always successfully
presented films in parallel with
our exhibitions programme ,
however, in this instance, we
felt it would be rewarding
to make short films of those
artists who represent the
diversity of artists working
in West Somerset. This also
meant that the wider SAW
community of artists benefitted
from the content we were
commissioning, due to crosspromotion
with Somerset Art
Works. These three films can
be found at the following links:
https://youtu.be/AD-
M6M2MO7E
https://youtu.be/
Rr5mUW0ZQZs
https://youtu.be/7hIxQCJoR_8
Most significantly, however, in
terms of our digital approach
has been the launch of our
studiodigital initiative in
Autumn 2018, running through
2019 and into 2020
This ambitious programme
works with young people in
West Somerset to help them
explore digital and creative
futures and careers. It is our
response to the social mobility
challenge in West Somerset,
and our recognition that digital
engagement must be deep
and meaningful, especially
with a teenage audience, if
it is to have any substantial
impact in a world flooded with
content.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
The project is supported
over two years by the West
Somerset Opportunity Area
fund and serves to boost the
budget and resource we have
available in this area, as well
as filling the gap in match
funding for our Arts Council
grant that was left when we
were unsuccessful with our
Tudor Trust application in 2017.
The project launched with its
first cohort in October half
term 2018 and we have worked
regularly with that group
over four months with an
enthusiastic, diverse group of
local teenagers. We introduced
them to bloggers, YouTubers,
filmmakers, graphic designers,
VR creators, photographers
and gamers, all of whom
they have worked with them
to help them learn skills and
develop their ideas. In October
2018, we visited Plymouth as
a group, working with RIO to
introduce them to innovative
digital companies and
entrepreneurs and in February
took them to London to visit
the gaming exhibition at the
V&A, the ‘all that I know is on
the internet’ exhibition at the
Photographers’ Gallery and to
an interactive VR experience
at the Saatchi Gallery.
In 2019, we experimented
with different approaches,
for example working with a
group of students as part of
a work experience placement
and with a smaller group
of excluded students from
the West Somerset College.
These different approaches
presented their own
challenges but also equipped
us with some detailed learning
about how to more effectively
engage a teenage audience.
Overall our studiodigital
engagement with the often
difficult to engage 14-17 agegroup
has been positive.
We have sought out some
challenging groups of young
people to build confidence and
resilience in themselves whilst
unlocking a wide range of
digital skills that they are often
unaware they even have.
Most recently, as above, we
worked with a group of 5
young people as an alternative
provision week, all of whom
have BESD and are currently
working on a reduced
timetable, tailoring the project
to their common interest in
quad biking to create a quad
bike centre promo film. These
young people had become
completely disengaged
with education, but by the
end were making creative
decisions, using professional
equipment and editing
software and brimming with
confidence having learnt new
skills founded in their existing
technical know-how.
Our next studiodigital project
aims to link with local youth
centres to establish a new
youth provision solely for this
older age group whereby we
are planning to work with a
projection mapper to create
41
Final evaluation, January 2020
a visual spectacle on the
hoardings of the East Quay
Development.
‘Editing is actually pretty cool!
I never realised how films are
put together and what amazing
things you can do.’
Alternative provision student
from West Somerset College
It is hard to understate the
impact of this work even in
such a short space of time,
with just a few young people.
They have been inspired, are
excited about their futures
and full of ideas. The project
is already demonstrating that
digital engagement of real
value can be achieved but that
it needs resources, ideas and
to be anything but superficial.
Cohort 2 will launch in the
Spring of 2019, with two more
in 2020.
This project also necessitated
a review of the way that we
were resourcing digital work,
integrating the digital officer
work with the delivery of
studiodigital using producers
and facilitators as appropriate.
key lessons
Developing meaningful
digital connections with a
younger teenage audience
requires deeper, more
targeted engagement than
other audiences due to the
scale of competition for
attention. It must offer them
real value and interest. But,
digital is also a powerful
route to engagement
with a cohort who might
otherwise be very hard
to connect with. Doing it
well takes time, resourcing
and inventiveness. Our
experimentation with
different formats has
highlighted some especially
effective mechanisms and
others that require more
consideration and close
liaison with the schools.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
5.4 Audience feedback
“Strong programme, consistently stimulating, vivid presence.”
“Inspired me , entertained, and demonstrated that true art is not about decoration.”
“Opened my eyes to an extraordinary style of art!”
“The talk enabled me to engage in a different way and the food was delicious”
“The professionalism (with smiles) of it all, its aspirations and a very real rootedness. It is
becoming an institution which is vital to the town and area from the ground up but with broad
horizons and good eyesight”
“Local easy going and friendly. One can often chat to the artist and see friends who are also
visiting, sometimes those with whom contact has been lost or infrequent.”
“That art of an international standard happens here in remote Somerset.”
“The opportunity to show children artists’ work, and in some cases meet them, and have workshops
for small numbers. To see a different styles. But also, as an adult, I also appreciate these.”
“They are always interesting and the team have made huge efforts in many differing directions. I
like to support good and interesting regional artists.”
“The willingness to work alongside artists and develop exhibitions and events in partnership. The
team have created something which really does feel ‘owned’ by the local community - so much of
what’s happened seems unlikely and rare - massive congratulations!”
“Exhibitions from a variety of talent from local to international reputations. The container space is
more often an inspiration than a restriction.”
“Art on my doorstep.”
“Connection with fine art, with the sea, and with the paper mill historical culture.”
“More of the same, in a space or set of spaces that enable more of the substance, breadth and
quality. It would be very good to know that Contains Art will be here in a year, for nine years
growing and developing, and by then also having generated a very real legacy in two-way
encounters and relationships with a broader hinterland of makers and audience. It does a lot,
generates more, and legacy/archive maybe more publications would be appropriate in themselves
but also to lock some of this ‘in’. It’s important and not easy to say so with authentic conviction!”
“A far wider range of activity would be possible with a permanent building with artist work
spaces, spaces for adult art classes, film facility, cafe/social hub.”
“You lot are brill x”
“Best ever in CA’s history for me”
Quotes and figures (next page) from our audience survey conducted in December 2018. Survey not
conducted in 2019 due to not having a physical space.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
92%
88%
88%
93%
85%
96%
92%
90%
90%
98%
98%
say the staff are helpful.
say they have met new people through our community events.
say it’s fun.
say the art at Contains Art challenges me to think differently.
think that Contains Art offers something different to other galleries.
feel welcomed at community events.
say the location is part of the charm.
find it inspiring.
feel comfortable visiting Contains Art.
say the artists and staff are friendly at community events.
say we show an interesting range of work.
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Final evaluation, January 2020
6. Key metrics
Numbers benefitting from our activity
Item Target Actual 2018 Actual 2019 Total
Artists 68 44 23 67
Participants 216 234 125 359
Audience (live) 25340 14,777 14000 28777
Audience (broadcast, online, in writing)* 43200 22,264 17169 39433
Total 68824 37,319 31317 68636
Results of our activity
Item Target Actual 2019 Actual 2019 Total
Number of new products
or commissions
Periods of employment for artists
(in days)
Number of performance or
exhibition days
Number of sessions for education,
training, or participation
52 48 15 63
188 98 110 208
191 126 388 514
44 22 21 43
*To note, the numbers for periods of employment for artists include expenditure from within the
studiodigital programme which exceeds the total needed for the ACE-funded programme alone,
but also of course also comes with more activity. Only the financial input from that project that
directly relates to items under a Second Chapter is included in the match calculations, but impact is
larger and more wide-ranging, as shown in the data above.
*A data below relate to 2018 + 2019 totals.
25,220
178,283
total facebook
video views
audience served by
facebook posts
216,166
10,498 Instagram
likes
twitter impressions
from 1,418 followers
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Final evaluation, January 2020
7. moving into east quay
As we end our 2019 season,
we are delighted that the
East Quay scheme has now
started on site. In early 2019,
we heard we were successful
with a major bid to the Coastal
Communities Fund for £5.0m
towards a capital cost for
phase 1 of around £6.0m, with
grants also committed from
funders including the Esmee
Fairbairn Foundation, Magnox
Socio-Economic Fund and
the Coastal Revival Fund.
In October 2019, we learnt
we had also been successful
with a Small Capital Grants
application to Arts Council
England for £389,000, taking
the total secured to £6.0m and
enabling us to get on site.
Predictably, the impact
of Brexit and some
unanticipated engineering
challenges mean we still have
a capital fundraising aspiration
of around £450,000 which we
hope to secure in the coming
months, but we are confident
of our ability to now deliver
the build.
During this year, in which are
on site at East Quay, we will
operate through outreach
work and artforms that are
not necessarily based in a
traditional gallery setting,
in particular commissioning
artists to work with the
community into the lead up
to the opening show which
will have community of place
as its focus (working title,
More Together Than Alone).
Following his initial work with
us in 2019, we are intending to
work with Neville Gabie to cocurate
this exhibition framed
around a piece of socially
engaged practice.
Alongside this activity, we
are now working to secure
the gallery programme for
the first two-three years
of East Quay, alongside a
comprehensive audience
development strategy, as set
out in our updated Audience
Development Plan. The
focus is on exhibitions and
commissions within three core
themes that speak to our place
and our audiences. These
are: identity and belonging,
community and place and
climate and change.
Throughout this coming year
we continue to develop our
educational partnerships
with local schools, deliver
studiodigital and build
our regional presence and
partnerships. In particular, we
are looking to really boost
our educational work in
recognition of the evidence
of cultural capital in positively
affecting social mobility
outcomes for young people.
We are also looking to boost
our heritage-based work,
following the huge success
of our Wansbrough project
in 2017/18, and have recently
been awarded a substantial
Heritage Lottery Fund Grant
for a cultural-heritage project
that will focus on performance
artforms as a mechanism
of heritage engagement -
theatre, music, folksongs,
costume, spoken word.
We will continue to need
grant funding support for
our artistic programme and
educational initiatives in
the lead up to opening of
East Quay, and anticipate
submitting a project grant
application in the next two
months to enable delivery, and
in particular to commission
artists for the early exhibitions
in the new gallery. Moving
forward, we intend to apply to
become a National Portfolio
Organisation when the next
round opens this Autumn,
and have firm ambitions to
become one of the most
imaginative, challenging placeand
community-based arts
organisations in the UK.
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Final containsart.co.uk
evaluation, January 2020
47