CREATIVE COMMUNITY CONSULTATION TOOLKIT

THIS TOOLKIT IS FOR USE BY ARTS ORGANISATIONS WHO DESIGN AND DELIVER PROGRAMMING FOR AND WITH REGIONAL, RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES.

It offers a streamlined, easy to use workshop process

for engaging with regional communities about the

kinds of arts programming that would be meaningful

in their region.

The aim of this process is to place the voices of communities

at the heart of program design and decision-making,

enabling organisations to deliver arts activities that reflect

a community’s needs and amplify its creative capacities.

Supporting organisations to engage and collaborate

meaningfully with communities maximises limited funds

to achieve high-impact outcomes for funding bodies,

organisations, and communities. All arts organisations

who collaborate with regional and remote communities

already understand the importance of consultation and

engagement, and do not need more general suggestions

about how to do this.

Overview.

The aim of this toolkit is to provide specific, grounded

processes for organisations to make the most of their time

and to gather detailed information that can be used both

in designing activities and later evaluating and reporting.

This toolkit comprises a series of creative prompts

and resources which allow for the distinct needs and

capacities of diverse communities to emerge. It enables

arts organisations to generate insights into community,

creativity, place and legacy and collaborate with

communities to design and deliver arts experiences that

are responsive and relevant. This process supports the

delivery of high-impact outcomes for all stakeholders,

and dramatically builds the potential for productive,

ongoing relationships between funding bodies, arts

organisations, and regional communities.

Overview

This Toolkit was developed through a QUT research project led by Dr Donna Hancox. The processes outlined in this document have been developed for a specifically Australian context and were tested and refined in consultation with urban and regional arts organisations in Queensland, and with the regional communities of Charters Towers and Roma.

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS TOOLKIT ARE:

Efficient and holistic: to provide a one-day process

for consulting with a cross-section of a community. This

process is targeted and holistic, allowing for in-depth

understandings to be produced with limited time and

financial resources.

Capacity-building: to build the capacity within arts

organisations to engage meaningfully with regional

communities to ensure arts activities delivered in the

regions have lasting benefits for communities.

Shared visions: to support organisations and

communities to have the kinds of conversations that

enable the emergence of shared understandings and

visions for creativity in that region.

Collaboration: to support effective collaboration

between arts organisations and communities, where

members of communities are co-designers of creative

experiences, and co-deliver aspects of programs.

Ongoing partnerships: to lay the foundations for long-

term, sustained partnerships between communities,

organisations and funding bodies to leverage multi-year

programming.

Objectives.

The overarching aim is to re-frame the process of regional arts collaboration from a hierarchical one of communities at the bottom, arts organisations in the middle and funding bodies at the top to a dynamic, fluid and equitable relationship between stake-holders all pursuing the same goal.

Benefits.

These processes have been tested with arts organisations and researchers and with community members. As these two short videos demonstrate, the process was engaging and beneficial for all stakeholders.

THE KEY BENEFITS OF THE PROCESSES OUTLINED IN THIS TOOLKIT ARE: Understanding: creative approaches allow for the emergence of new voices that cannot be heard through many forms of consultation, such as focus groups or formal stakeholder meetings. Creative processes get straight to the heart of community issues and ideas, and enable precise insights into the community’s creative potential to surface.

Participation: empowering community members to contribute to program design and delivery increases their level of investment in, and the benefits they draw from, arts activities offered in their region. Highly invested community members can also advocate for the organisation and do some of the work on the ground, maximising resources.

Legacy: delivering arts experiences that are responsive to community needs and build its creative capacity generates lasting impact and benefit for all stakeholders. Additionally, identifying and delivering on shared visions for creativity within a region supports organisations and communities to together build and sustain long-term programs of work, instead of one-off projects.

Value: leveraging the creative capacity within a community allows maximum benefit from arts funding.

ARTS ORGANISATIONS CAN USE THIS TOOLKIT TO FACILITATE A ONE-DAY WORKSHOP THAT EFFECTIVELY ENGAGES DIVERSE MEMBERS OF A COMMUNITY IN A RICH CONVERSATION ABOUT CREATIVITY IN THEIR REGION.

By the end of the workshop, the organisation and

community will have together established a shared

understanding of the community’s needs and

concerns, its creative potential and ambitions.

How to use this toolkit.

INVITE A WIDE RANGE OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ONE-DAY WORKSHOP.

These people may include local artists, people from

different cultural backgrounds, service providers,

members of council, school teachers, young people,

the elderly, and specific community groups.

One of the goals is to bring a community together

through this process. Some of these cohorts may not

have always been involved in discussions about arts

and creativity in their community, and inviting their

contributions increases the richness of ideas, surfaces

diverse perspectives as well as shared values, and

broadens the reach and impact of the arts within a

community. As a number of participants in the two

previous videos state that having a range of people in the

room together was one of the strengths of this process.

People do not have to consider themselves experts

or leaders in their region’s arts sector to contribute

meaningfully to the workshops. The process is designed

to encourage contributions from everyone in the room.

Seek new voices.

Step 1

USE THE CREATIVE PROMPTS TO STIMULATE AND STEER THE CONVERSATION AROUND FOUR KEY THEMES: COMMUNITY, CREATIVITY, PLACE AND LEGACY.

These prompts can be used in any order or

combination, depending on the needs of the arts

organisation and the community.

Each of the creative prompts included explores

specific questions such as “what are you most proud

of in your community?” and “which venues or locations

are under-used/under-valued in your community?”

The prompts and questions are open-ended in order to

encourage depth discussion rather than mere answers;

they are also highly targeted in order to focus the

conversation and generate insights that usefully inform

and direct programming.

The prompts can be mixed and matched depending on

the context and the type of insights you are hoping to

elicit during the workshop.

Encourage wild ideas.

Step 2

COLLATE THE KEY IDEAS EMERGING FROM THE DISCUSSION ON A WHITEBOARD OR ON BUTCHER’S PAPER.

Together with the group, identify patterns or

trends. For instance, what feature or element of the

community did the group feel most proud of? Was a

particular venue or place frequently identified as an

under-valued or under-used space? What creative skills

were commonly mentioned as those that would be

valuable in the community?

The purpose of this activity is to collaboratively

develop a clear understanding of the community’s

needs, creative capacity and ambitions. This process

can also highlight to workshop participants that their

shared values and hopes for their community outweigh

their differences.

Identify shared values.

Step 3

ASK WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS TO BRAINSTORM ARTS OR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES THAT ADDRESS EACH OF THE DISCUSSION PROMPTS: COMMUNITY, CREATIVITY, PLACE, AND LEGACY.

Break the workshop participants into smaller groups of 4-5 people for this activity. Encourage groups to consider how to respond to the issues and areas of need they identified in steps 2 and 3, and also to brainstorm the kinds of arts activities that would draw on and amplify the strengths and capacity of their community. Prompt groups to consider:

How to ensure a diverse range of people and activities are included (e.g. diversity in terms of age, gender, cultural background, art forms)

What talent and expertise already exists in the community?

What talent or expertise might they need to bring in?

What avenues for funding might be available for such a project?

How could the legacy or longevity of the project be ensured?

Ask the groups to share ideas with each other. This process can reveal specific arts programming ideas that arts organisations may then work to develop.

Have each group present their ideas to the whole group, and use this time to reiterate what you feel the main messages and issue were, and to also gather feedback on the process.

Imagine responsive arts experiences or activities.

Step 4

DR DONNA HANCOXDonna Hancox is the Associate Director of the Creative Lab at Queensland University of Technology. Her research is focussed on transformative creative practice and social impact, particularly the role of stories and creative technology in amplifying marginalized voices. In the past two years she has led research projects working with refugee and asylum seeker communities around the notions of belonging and inclusion that deployed arts led methods for data collection; and large scale digital storytelling projects in regional and remote Australia. Currently Donna is a Chief Investigator on the 2018 ARC Linkage project The Role of the Creative Arts in Regional Australia: a social impact model. In 2017 she was awarded a Smithsonian Research Fellowship to collaborate with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. Donna grew up in Roma.

DR SASHA MACKAYSasha Mackay is a Research Associate in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She is a former creative producer at social impact arts organisation Creative Regions, where she designed and led oral history and digital storytelling projects with and for regional communities. Sasha’s PhD, awarded in 2015, investigated life narrative as a form of participation in public service media and the profound challenges and exciting opportunities that arise when institutions such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation invite audiences to be content-creators and storytellers. Her research areas include participatory arts, digital storytelling, and public service media. Sasha grew up in Jericho in Western Queensland.

BRYAN CRAWFORDBryan Crawford has worked in the digital media industry for over 20 years. He is recognised in his field as a multi-skilled professional working at the cutting edge of digital media production. Bryan is currently completing his Masters of Philosophy in creative industries. In addition to producing video and photography for television, advertising, social media and other web platforms, he has been involved in community digital story telling collaborations with Queensland University of Technology over the past 15 years.

L to R: Dr Sasha Mackay, Dr Donna Hancox and Bryan Crawford.

The team.

WHAT DOES COMMUNITY MEAN TO YOU?

Community

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WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR

COMMUNITY?

Community

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WHO ARE THE MOST VISIBLE GROUPS AT

PUBLIC EVENTS IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

Community

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Creativity

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CREATIVITY

IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

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Creativity

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN CREATING

SUCCESSFUL ARTS ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS?

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Creativity

WHAT CREATIVE SKILLS ARE NEEDED IN YOUR

COMMUNITY?

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Place

WHICH VENUES OR LOCATIONS ARE UNDER-

USED/UNDER-VALUED IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

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WHAT WOULD A VIBRANT MAIN STREET LOOK LIKE?

Place

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WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT WHERE YOU LIVE?

Place

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HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO

SEE YOUR COMMUNITY GROW OVER

THE NEXT 5 YEARS?

Legacy

GROWING COMMUNITY

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Legacy

WHAT ROLE DO THE CREATIVE

ARTS HAVE IN THE FUTURE

OF YOUR COMMUNITY?

FUTURE ROLES

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Legacy

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE

OF AN ARTS PROJECT THAT

LEFT A POSITIVE LEGACY IN THE COMMUNITY?

POSITIVE LEGACY

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Poster #1

Ground Rules1

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DEFER JUDGEMENT

ENCOURAGE WILD IDEAS

BUILD ON THE IDEAS OF OTHERS

BE INCLUSIVE

STAY FOCUSSED ON THE TOPIC

BE WILLING TO FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AND UNSURE

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Poster #2

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Remember1

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YOU ARE THE EXPERTS ON YOUR COMMUNITY

THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS IS PARTICIPATION

THE GOAL ISN’T AGREEMENT, IT’S GREATER UNDERSTANDING

Name Tags

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