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APPETITE

STOKE-ON-TRENT AND

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME

EVALUATION BRIEF

Appetite is part of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places

programme and delivers two projects: Stoke-on-Trent (2020 – Mar

2022) and Newcastle-under-Lyme (2020-Oct 2023). We require an

Evaluator for our work across both areas and for the comparison

across both places.

We are looking for an Evaluator who can provide formative and

summative evaluations. Working with our team a comprehensive

evaluation framework will be implemented, to ensure we answer the

three core ACE questions and deliver on our key outcomes. Further

details of our work and our evaluation needs are contained in this

brief. If you are interested in tendering please respond with a proposal

which addresses the points we have requested.

The closing date is: 5pm, Friday 21 August 2020

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OVERVIEW

Appetite, Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle-under-Lyme is a Creative People and Places (CPP)

project, funded by Arts Council England, and led by New Vic Theatre. Creative People and

Places is a national programme that focuses on areas of the UK where engagement levels in

the arts are significantly below the national average.

Now in its third phase for Stoke-on-Trent, Appetite is an award-winning CPP programme,

that produces events, performances and activities designed to get people involved in – and

inspired by – the arts. From taster menus and large-scale outdoor events to street festivals

and light nights, since 2013 it’s put the public at the heart of everything it does, asking them

what they’d like to see and do as well as offering plenty of ways to participate.

Following a successful bid in round one of the new CPP funding, Appetite Newcastle-under-

Lyme is a Phase One expansion project running from April 2020 – March 2023. Appetite, will

expand its work using the model and methodologies tried and tested in Stoke-on-Trent to

create a new programme with consortium partners Keele University, Newcastle BID, and Go

Kidsgrove as well as existing members Partners in Creative Learning; 6 Towns Radio and

Staffordshire University.

Appetite will increase the number of people in Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle-under-Lyme

engaging with and being inspired by the arts by building on the successful delivery of the

programme to date. For Stoke-on-Trent we will be working in close collaboration with our

strategic decision-making group, the Supper Club, to programme high-quality arts activity

and events city-wide. For Newcastle-under-Lyme, we will develop five new community hubs

and a strategic community decision-making group “Supper Club” for the new programme.

Appetite is a consortium led by the New Vic Theatre with Partners in Creative Learning

(PiCL), Staffordshire University, 6Towns Radio, Newcastle-under-Lyme BID, GoKidsgrove and

Keele University. In partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Newcastle Borough

Council, Staffordshire County Council and Aspire.

We will require an Evaluator to consider the following key delivery strands across both

programmes:

1. Artistic Programme - high quality arts experiences in public and non-traditional

spaces.

2. Co-Production & the Appetite model - working with local people through facilitated

community hubs and strategic activities developed with people from Newcastle-

Under-Lyme as part of our Supper Club, local people who come together to co-

programme or design the artistic programme, develop plans, budgets, and evaluate

our impact.

o Strategic hub programme

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o Community Hub programme

3. Volunteering - developing cultural volunteering to support Appetite activity and the

area’s wider arts and cultural sector.

4. Digital Programme - to develop a new way of engaging communities in digital

activity: as audiences as well as disseminating content.

5. Capacity Building - working with local communities to develop skills and experience

to support ongoing, independent arts activity and programming.

6. Learning - what we are learning from our model from Stoke-on-Trent and through a

new action research process in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

APPETITE, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME (2020-2023)

Appetite, Newcastle-under-Lyme is a Phase 1 expansion project which will run from April

2020 – March 2023 and we are looking for an Evaluator to work with us over this period. As

it builds on the success of the existing Stoke-on-Trent project it will benefit significantly

from the learnings and experiences of the delivery team and contributing consortia

members.

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This expansion project realises the interconnection between the two areas, a Borough

Council (Newcastle-under-Lyme) and unitary authority (Stoke-on-Trent), which although

distinct in their identities understands that there is a fluidity between the people that live

work and study in this area which for the purposes of this brief we define as North

Staffordshire.

Appetite has already built some awareness and engagement with residents in Newcastle-

under-Lyme Borough both through its delivery in Stoke-on-Trent and through The

Homecoming an annual outdoor circus festival in Newcastle-under-Lyme Town Centre, this

is also funded by Arts Council England through National Lottery Project Grants. The

programme carried out a process of consultation in Jan & Feb 2020 to create a baseline of

engagement and audit of current cultural activity.

Further details of these delivery strands and our key outcomes for Newcastle-under-Lyme

can be found in Appendix 1.

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APPETITE, STOKE-ON-TRENT (2020-2022)

Following a successful bid in round one of CPP funding partners have been delivering the

CPP programme for Stoke-on-Trent, named Appetite, over a six-year period since 2013.

Local partners made a successful bid for follow on funding for a further three-year

programme of activity and as a consequence Appetite Phase 3 is now scheduled to run

between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2022. Since the summer of 2013 Appetite has brought a

feast of family friendly, breath-taking arts events to Stoke-on-Trent to be enjoyed by

thousands across the city. Working with our community decision makers, the Supper Club,

since 2013 Appetite has engaged 485,061 audience members, 50,014 participants, 1,189

artists and 1,501 volunteers.

Appetite, Stoke-on-Trent, require support in evaluating the next 2 years of the project.

Specifically, there are two aspects to the work, Supper Clubs, the co-production driving

force from which the programme originates, and the Big Feast a weekend festival which

brings the best outdoor arts to Hanley City Centre.

This third phase includes five core activities which form the focus of this evaluation:

Supper Clubs and Takeaways (go see trips)

Big Feast event, or substitute, 2020, August 2021, August 2022

Festival and Events commissioning

City wide volunteer strategy

Artsbank - sharing resources to strengthen capacity and expertise

This is a pivotal period for Appetite, Stoke-on-Trent, with a focus on creating a responsive

business model for the future with a focus on legacy.

Specifically, this evaluation programme should evidence change against benchmarks set in

round 1 and 2 of the programme (2013-2019); and should exist within a wider place-based

research framework referencing: Cultural Destinations North Staffordshire; Stoke-on-Trent

City Centre’s new Business Improvement District; and Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Cultural

Strategy.

Further details of these delivery strands and our key outcomes for Stoke-on-Trent can be

found in Appendix 2

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EVALUATION BRIEF FOR OUR PROGRAMMES

Appetite require independent formative and summative evaluation support. This evaluation

will provide the team with regular insight to support the action learning approach of the two

programmes. Whilst summative evaluation will provide evidence of our impacts on people

and place (social and economic) and outline how the projects have delivered against the

targets set in the business plans and audience development plans.

The Stoke-on-Trent programme runs currently until March 2022, and Newcastle-under-

Lyme programme runs until October 2023.

The evaluation will meet Arts Council England’s requirements around Creative People and

Places:

Creative People and Places is an Arts Council England flagship programme which has been

active for over seven years. As part of the ongoing evaluation of the delivery programmes

Arts Council ask all programmes to evidence the following outcomes:

1. More people from places of least engagement experiencing and inspired by the

arts (and culture).

2. Excellence of art (and culture) and excellence of the process of engaging

communities is achieved.

3. Successful approaches to engagement are identified, learnings embedded and

shared across the sector/place.

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Our evaluation should answer those three questions by considering the following in relation

to the programmes in Newcastle-Under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent, through:

Thorough evaluation of our programme strands and their impact for people and

place (social and economic)

Interrogation of our existing model and how that is flexible and responsive to new

people in a new place and what impact: inspiration, co-production and place-making

is having and the wider impacts that brings.

Understanding of successful partnerships with local arts, culture and non-arts

organisations developed through the programme

In addition, Arts Council England require all programmes to collect full postcodes from all

audiences, which are then profiled nationally by The Audience Agency using their Audience

Spectrum segmentation tool.

The data collected by our evaluator and programme team will need to be uploaded to The

Audience Agency on a quarterly basis to add to the broader data set for CPP.

Our aim of the evaluation is to:

• Understand the demographic profiles of attenders, participants, volunteers and

others that engage in the programmes;

• Gain a better understanding of participants and audiences’ interests, motivations,

behaviours and attitudes towards the arts;

• Provide robust research and data to support evidence towards the three Arts Council

England questions;

• Understand which approaches to arts engagement and local decision-making tested

on the programmes are the most successful;

• Establish a series of case studies on people and the impact we have made.

We are also interested in understanding what similarities and differences there are between

the two Appetite programmes. We would like to understand if the different profiles of

Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent residents’ impact on the approaches around

engagement. And to what extent residents cross over between the two programme areas.

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ADDITIONAL PARTNER REQUIREMENTS AND CONSIDERATIONS

Audience Finder, The Audience Agency

Use of Audience Finder is not a requirement of Creative People and Places programmes

nationally. However, Appetite has where possible tried to embed the framework into their

evaluation in Stoke-on-Trent and has found the ability to access the data through the central

dashboard to be useful. Therefore, this requirement should be considered in the approach,

especially as we expand into Newcastle-under-Lyme.

We are also interested in the mosaic profiles as part of the segmentation carried out by The

Audience Agency and how this correlates to our partners work for support and

demonstrable impact on people in the place.

Insight & Impact Toolkit

All places as part of the New CPP programme will be using the Insight & Impact Toolkit

regularly for our Newcastle-under-Lyme work. This is a new development and how it’s

embedded into the wider evaluation will be part of the work of the Evaluator and the

Appetite Team.

Without Walls

Appetite work closely with the Without Walls (WW) network. As WW is an Arts Council NPO,

they are required to collect data using the Audience Finder framework.

Secondary data

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The area has benefited from project grants and funds in recent years, therefore there is now

a large body of evidence relating to the area and arts and cultural engagement. The

following data will be made available to the Evaluator:

Appetite – Years 1-6 evaluation reports

The Homecoming – Years 1 – 4 evaluation reports

Cultural Destinations Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire – Years 1-3 evaluation

reports

The Philip Astley Project NLHF evaluation report

Circus: Past Present Future Arts Council England Evaluation report

Newcastle-under-Lyme Consultation 2019

EVALUATION PROGRAMME OUTPUTS

The key requirements to be achieved by the Evaluator will include:

Design of an evaluation framework for both programmes, by end of September

2020. This may include:

o approaches to measuring the impact of the programmes

o delivery at projects, events and activities of various scales

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o working with the Appetite team to audit, update and implementation of data

and evaluation collection across all activities

Set up research tools and provide training to the Appetite team, partners and

volunteers – to be reviewed annually.

Deliver primary research across both programmes at appropriate times in the year to

be agreed (i.e. discussion groups at Supper Clubs, partnership interviews, convene

focus groups with new attenders).

Commission, brief and manage fieldworkers at key events and activities in the annual

programme.

Work with the Appetite Team to regularly supply data to ACE, and other strategic

partnerships by set deadlines.

Create three case studies per year for each programme, as agreed with the Appetite

Team for public dissemination.

A summative evaluation report, per programme, at the end of each year that

evaluates the impact of each Programme and the combined impact of both, due

March 2021, March 2022

For the Newcastle programme provide a baseline in year 1 (20/21) to measure

change in years 2 (21/22) and 3 (22/23) and 4 (23/23 – Mar to October).

For the Stoke programme provide a final report in March 2022, which reflects on the

changes from the benchmarks set in rounds 1 and 2.

For the Newcastle programme provide a final report in October 2023.

Present the findings from the annual summative reports to the Appetite Consortium

and potentially to the New Vic Theatre Board Sub-Group.

Meet with the Appetite Director and Appetite General Manager and wider project

team (where applicable) regularly to discuss findings on formative evaluation.

Evaluation will be used for:

• Learning: to be applied across the programme, the wider cultural sector and other

sectors where appropriate;

• Development: applying learning to develop people, programme activity and the

approaches used to engage audiences;

• Advocacy: using data to support communications, partnership development and

attracting resources and investment;

• Demonstrating impact: providing data and learning to share with peers and other

stakeholders;

• Measuring success: ensuring targets are met and the programme is achieving its

overall aims.

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PROJECT LEAD

The evaluator will report to the Appetite General Manager, who is accountable to the

Appetite Director and Managing Director at the New Vic Theatre.

The evaluator will be required to work with other members of the Appetite team as

required.

BUDGET

£35,000 (2020 – October 2023) (excl. VAT)

£42,000 (2020-October 2023) (incl. VAT)

Additional budget available for fieldworkers.

The contract will run from September 2020 – October 2023. A payment schedule will be

agreed prior to starting the contract. The contract will be subject to renegotiation each year,

with either party able to withdraw after a three-month notice period.

RESPONSE TO TENDER

To respond to our opportunity, we require:

- A proposal which summarises your approach and evaluation methodology to our

brief and the context of our work considering both our programmes (maximum 2000

words)

- Details of how you will manage the project, including an indicative timetable for the

work

- Examples demonstrating how you will present the evaluation findings to ensure they

are accessible and impactful

- Details of key members of the team who will work on the project outlining their

relevant skills and experience

- A case study of your recent work which relates most closely to our programme

- A breakdown of how the fee will be used across your organisation, and across the

programme of work

- Contact details for two referees for whom you have previously undertaken

comparable work

Deadline:

Please email your proposal and quote to heather@appetitestoke.co.uk by 5pm, Friday 21

August 2020.

If shortlisted, interviews will be held in the week commencing 31 August 2020.

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Please contact Heather Dowler (Appetite General Manager) at

heather@appetitestoke.co.uk if you have any questions about this tender.

Timelines:

Applications opens: 20 July 2020

Applications close: 21 August 2020 at 5pm

Interviews: w.c 31 August 2020

Programme of work begins: 14 September 2020

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APPENDIX 1 – NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME KEY PROGRAMME STRANDS

1. Artistic Programme: INSPIRATION

Underpinning all of our work is the belief that working with: curating, presenting and programming professional artists’ and their work brings the most value to people and place. The artistic programme will be:

A predominantly curated, presented professional programme; if the work does not exist we will work with our community hubs to commission new work from professional artists.

Although artform might not be known, we will ensure that the art is the highest quality we can deliver through leadership of the Appetite Director, New Vic Theatre Artistic Director and our Quality Assurance Framework.

We will consider not only what arts experiences our community wants, but also what we need; we will encourage new artistic experiences and risk-taking supported by the Appetite team.

We will ensure that appetite audiences engage with the best art and culture that country has to offer, by partnering with professional artists and arts organisations local, national and international.

The programme will inspire, entertain and start a conversation about what art is relevant and interesting for the diverse area of Newcastle-under-Lyme

We are committed to the Creative Case for Diversity and will measure our success and challenges in presenting work from artists’ of all backgrounds.

The artistic programme is co-programmed, co-produced and co-designed through our co-

production model led by our Appetite Director and broader Appetite team. We will use our

consultation, our Audience Development Strategy and local knowledge by the team and our

community partners to develop programmes that are appropriate, relevant and radically

different to what has happened before.

2. Co-Production & the Appetite model

a. The Appetite model

b. Strategic Hub programme

Newly formed strategic hub (Supper Club) will prioritise art that brings communities

together, reaches the largest numbers of people, develops sense of place and develops civic

pride for the people and place of the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. This strand of

work will look to develop projects that have ‘spectacle, impact and presence’, developing

one-off events, ongoing programmes or festivals that can be high-profile, not necessarily

large-scale.

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c. Community Hub programme

Working with up to five communities of geography or interest per year to consider what

artistic projects, events or activities they’d like to deliver in response to our values, mission

and vision. Community hubs for year one will include:

Keele University: a focus on how the general public and neighbouring communities

engage with the resources and research of the university in public spaces in town

centres or the wider-borough

Aspire Housing: working strategically with Aspire to consider artists or art projects

that are responsive to the interests of the communities and locations that Aspire

customers live.

Kidsgrove Town Centre: by connecting Go Kidsgrove with other community

organisations and individuals from the area we will develop a vision and programme

of activities with Kidsgrove. Opportunities include: Connectivity by rail and potential

HS2, the canal network and access to a population of over 20,000 people.

A community of interest around protected characteristics currently under-

represented in arts engagement locally: particularly people from ethnic minority

groups or people with disabilities.

We’ll develop a series of “Take Aways” based on specific interests for strategic group visits

to the very best events, festivals, programmes to create shared experiences and learning

across the Borough.

3. Volunteering

We’ll continue our work to develop a Volunteer Strategy which includes recruitment of

volunteers from Newcastle-under-Lyme borough. The Volunteer Strategy will include:

Cultural Reporters scheme allowing local people to develop digital skills and

influence – blog, vlog, digital broadcast, podcasting

Ambassador scheme will see existing volunteers in libraries and communities

develop skills and confidence to signpost local people to arts and culture in their

area.

4. Digital Programme

We’ll look to improve our multi-channel dissemination for the Appetite programme by

creating new content, reaching new audiences and improving the discoverability of our

video content online.

We’ll increase opportunities for people to engage in art performances by livestreaming

events, using accessible digital streaming technology to host behind-the-scenes tours and

interviews during the programme. We’ll use digital media to support peer-level learning and

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also provide a platform for Appetite to share learning over the web through presentations,

seminars, or workshops.

5. Capacity Building

We will work with new and existing community, amateur and professional organisations to

develop their capacity when developing projects to include the arts and working with artists.

Using Arts Bank’s resources and developing new relationships we’ll offer surgeries, support

applications for funds to National Lottery Project Grants and other funding streams and

enable access to expertise to develop vision and opportunity for local groups.

6. Learning

Our Audience Development Strategy demonstrates how we’ll create, build and maintain

relationships with audiences using our learning from the Stoke-on-Trent programme and

what we have understood from our prior work through partners New Vic Theatre and

NULBID (Circus Past, Present and Future, Philip Astley Project and The Homecoming) and

recent consultation as part of our development phase.

We’ll work with the existing infrastructure to understand local audiences, development aims

and objectives and work collaboratively. The strategy will remain flexible as the programme

develops with community hubs and our strategic hub (Supper Club). Action research,

feedback and evaluation will feed into the evolving strategy, as will work with partners.

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

The key outcomes and impact as stated in our Business Plan are:

More people from Newcastle-Under-Lyme regularly experiencing and being inspired

by the arts

Ongoing, high-quality arts and cultural events programming within the area

More people will be taking part in the decision-making process about making and

producing art

Greater knowledge, skills and confidence within communities to deliver quality arts

events

More cultural organisations and artists will be working in partnership to raise

awareness of cultural activity taking place locally

Embedded arts development practice within local artistic organisations that is

different to or in addition to current practice

More people volunteer within arts and cultural activities

A strengthened local infrastructure: more artists, attracting a diverse range of

funding, using more arts spaces and resources

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A greater interest from national artists and organisations to work with and for

people in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Local town centres are thriving as hubs of cultural activity

A model is shared of how to reach under-engaged communities with the arts

Collaborative working across local authority boundaries which began with the UK

City of Culture bid is embedded

Stakeholders have evidence that culture can drive regeneration

The effectiveness of learning gathered from Appetite, Stoke-on-Trent when applied

to a new social landscape is tested

APPENDIX 2 – STOKE-ON-TRENT KEY PROGRAMME STRANDS

1. Artistic programme

Our main artistic programme is THE BIG FEAST. This is the largest outdoor arts festival in

Stoke-on-Trent, developed by Appetite in Phase 1 and delivered annually over the past six

years. The festival forges links with the best regional, UK and international artists and will

continue to platform all artforms, seeking to create partnerships with museums, libraries

and other arts and cultural organisations.

Programmed and delivered in partnership with our Supper Club, Big Feast delivers

spectacle, impact and presence, drawing people to the City by ensuring local people

experience the highest quality work.

Big Feast will enable us to deliver Appetite’s ambition that Stoke-on-Trent is a place where

artists want to come and work with local people to increase arts engagement.

We continue to develop our TAKEAWAYS ‘go and see’ programme to follow in the success

of our 2018 pilot that enabled 212 people from Stoke-on-Trent to experience Swan Lake at

the Royal Opera House. This will be in conjunction with the Newcastle-under-Lyme

programme. We regularly engage Appetite audiences with local NPOs, including the New

Vic Theatre, but we’ll also make two visits to NPOs outside our region per year, acting as a

broker for our local communities to access some of the nation’s best artwork.

THE FESTIVAL & EVENT PROGRAMME is a programme developed with Stoke-on-Trent City

Council, working with grassroots organisations to develop small-scale arts events. The

project team will support the groups to establish a network to raise artistic aspirations,

share learning and sustain activity. This programme will continue to be developed so that

the quality of the applications and activity can continue to grow. There is an opportunity for

the recipients of funding to join the Supper Club following each programme.

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2. Co-Production Programme

The Supper Club is a network of local people who work together to develop quality arts

events that are ambitious and accessible to a wide range of people from Stoke-on-Trent.

Supper Club members:

• Support decision-making and help to develop the Appetite programme

• Attend Appetite events and other selected cultural events

• Share opportunities to see art events across the UK as part of our Takeaway programme

• Get support from Appetite in developing their own projects and cultural events

Through our Equality Plan, we will ensure the Supper Club is fairly and fully representative

of the demographics of the city based on age, ethnicity, disability and gender. We will

constantly review membership and look to invite more individuals to represent

communities across the city.

3. Digital Programme

We will add resources and content to the Artsbank (our online resource to support

community groups to access toolkits and information, to inspire and increase cultural

activity for the city and further afield), promoting the Artsbank to local groups, working

with the City Council and other stakeholders. Digital Dissemination

We’ll look to improve our multi-channel dissemination for the Appetite programme by

creating new content, reaching new audiences and improving the discoverability of our

video content online.

We’ll increase opportunities for people to engage in art performances by live streaming

events, using accessible digital streaming technology to host behind-the-scenes tours and

interviews during the programme.

We’ll use digital media to support peer-level learning and also provide a platform for

Appetite to share learning over the web through presentations, seminars, or workshops.

4. Volunteering Programme

We’ll continue our work to develop a Volunteer Strategy, working alongside the Newcastle

programme, to support the wider City cultural infrastructure, working with partners already

engaged in extensive volunteer programmes locally, including consortium partners 6 Towns

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Radio and New Vic Theatre. Our Volunteer Strategy will include a Cultural Reporter and

Ambassador scheme and through the Artsbank a volunteer bank and training resource. Our

volunteering programme will:

• offer promotion and recognition of arts and cultural volunteering and local opportunities,

to develop the quality of the volunteering experience by supporting good practice standards

and improving access to training and peer support networks

• improve access to a wider range of arts and cultural volunteering opportunities through

our local cultural networks

• demonstrate the impact of arts and cultural volunteering to individuals, organisations and

communities by developing appropriate methods of measurement

Through 6 Towns Radio and other partnerships we will provide opportunities for local

people to access a range of arts events and gain new skills in media, radio broadcasting and

social media.

5. Evaluation programme

Working to build on the success of work done to date of the programme. We’ll continue to

use a model of Participatory Action Research that uses creative tools to engage research

participants. We are committed to learning, adapting and changing to what the evaluation

is showing us.

STOKE-ON-TRENT OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

The key outcomes and impact as stated in our Business Plan are:

More people in Stoke-on-Trent regularly experiencing and being inspired the arts

The Big Feast will be a staple event for the city as part of its cultural strategy

More people taking part in the decision-making process about making and producing

art in the city

Greater knowledge, skills and confidence within communities to deliver quality

cultural events

More cultural organisations and artists working in partnership to raise awareness of

cultural activity taking place in the city

An audience development strategy with SMART objectives

A stronger more connected volunteering programme to support culture across the

city

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A better understanding of and robust research into arts audiences in Stoke-on-Trent

More opportunities for grassroots organisations to access funding and develop

events through the Festival and Event Fund

A wider understanding of how to achieve artistic quality using our Quality Assurance

Framework

A city in which people engage with the arts on a regular basis

A model of how to reach under-engaged communities with the arts

Raised expectations of the quality of art taking place here

A belief that arts activity will be sustained

Sustainable projects, networks and organisations developing arts audiences

The city established as a key region to host international art events, residencies and

seminars about art