Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020

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.
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