Contains Art Evaluation Report 2020

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.
38