Evaluation of the fifth
Welborne Arts Festival
the creative village
11 and 12 June 2005

Summary

The total number of visitors to all the events of Welborne Arts Festival 2005 was around 800, more than ever before.  

About 80 villagers contributed to the festival. Some people contributed in more than one way, so there is some double-counting, but 48 people helped during the festival with organising, catering, stewarding or greeting, over 20 took part in the villagers visual art exhibition and there were 19 flower arrangers. This is particularly encouraging as it suggests we are achieving our underlying objective of community-building. In addition, 140 children from Mattishall and Garvestone schools took part in the workshops run for the festival by Liz McGowan.

The major costs of the festival were met by generous funding and sponsorship from local and national charities, local councils, the lottery and local businesses. The festival raised income from advertising in the programme, sales of the programme, commission on sales of art, catering, sales of concert tickets.    

Achievement of our plans   

Our proposal document for Welborne Arts Festival 2005 stated our objectives, the planned activities, the target audiences, the outcomes, the budget and the funding for each of the planned elements of the festival. The following shows what took place in practice.

Element	Proposals	What we delivered
“Art and soul*	Creative workshops for local children before the   festival, continuing during festival	•  Norfolk community artist, Liz McGowan, held workshops   at Mattishall and Garvestone schools. •  Garvestone children came by bus to work with Liz on the festival site for a day •  Their work created a trail around the church. •  Liz also worked with visitors to the trail at the festival

“Creative Welborne”	A Welborne community arts project	•  Welborne potter, Ruthanne Tudball, and helpers encouraged many visitors to the festival, adults as well as children, to make something from clay •  Their work has been fired and glazed and will shortly be assembled in the grounds of Welborne Village Hall
“Global Welborne”	Links with creative villages and arts organisations in the UK and   worldwide	•  The internet bus was at the festival both days with live internet links to relevant websites (e.g. Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Liz McGowan) and slideshows by local photographers
“Creative fun for families”	Arty activities for families during the festival	•  Marilyn Mann, from the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts held two ‘Global Patterns' workshops for children at each day of the festival and showed some exhibits from the Centre •  Tracy Shalom and Tracey Piggott held a print workshop for children •  Ruthanne Tudball, as above •  Presentations/demonstrations by 6 members of Art Unlimited
“Norfolk music”	Concerts in the church and music of all sorts during the festival	Concerts in the church •  New music from Anton Lukoszevieze, cello, and Rachel Barnes, recorder •  Mediaeval music from Minstrels Gallery Performances each day: •  Retrospect, duo •  Whirligig, folk band •  Morra, folk duo

“Something for all the senses”	Inspiration in the church	•  Flower festival •  Commissioned piece to ‘touch' •  Commissioned sound installation •  Children's quiz and trail
“Norfolk voices”	Readings and storytelling during the festival	•  Storyteller/performer •  Writing workshop •  Memoir writing
“Creative Norfolk”	Demonstrations and displays by Norfolk artists and craftspeople	•  Exhibition by NOVA •  Exhibition by Art Unlimited •  Villagers exhibition

The following planned activities did not take place:

• Workshops only with 2 schools
• It was not possible to arrange ‘lectures' linked to websites or internet links with other small rural communities
• No links made with providers of literature education and development
• The Creative Arts East touring exhibition did not come, but ‘Art Unlimited' exhibition instead. No links made with learning providers  

We did not carry out further visitor research in 2005, following the very helpful feedback in 2004 from the questionnaire analysed by the SOUL project researchers from Norwich City College.

Funding  

We were successful in obtaining funding. The most significant funders were South Norfolk Council, Norwich Town Close Estate Charity (the first year we were supported by a local charity) and the Garfield Weston Foundation (the second time we were supported by a national charity) and the Awards for All lottery fund.

Funding from Norfolk County Council enabled us to commission pieces of work to ‘hear' and to ‘touch'.

A festival of this scale and scope in our tiny village would not be possible without our funders.

NORWICH TOWN CLOSE ESTATE CHARITY

Garfield Weston Foundation

Sponsorship and advertising

With Jo Smallwood's help, Production Bureau videoed the school workshops led by Liz McGowan and the festival itself, all at no cost to us. Following the festival, we were able to present each school with a DVD of Liz working with the schools' own children.

Production Bureau gave us a complete DVD of the whole festival and a short version to stream on the village website. This was great.

The DVD will be very helpful in talking to potential funders and partners in future.

Signed by Me gave us a 50% discount on high quality vinyl signs that we can use in future years, giving directions to the festival and also on the festival site.

As in previous years, screens were loaned by Builders Equipment.

Other local businesses contributed by paying for advertising in our second festival programme. As we look towards the long term sustainability of the festival, we need to try and develop more support from local businesses.

Partners

As the festival grows, so does the number and range of partners. This year saw new partners:

•  The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts – workshops during the festival

•  North Norfolk Association of Visual Artists (NOVA) - exhibition

•  Art Unlimited - exhibition

•  Keystone Development Partnership – internet bus

Organisation

As the festival has expanded, so has the organising committee, which this year included Anna English, Bill English, Fred Elson, Anton Lukoszevieze, Ruthanne Tudball, Tracy Shalom, Mike Webb. Each member of the committee put a great deal of time, effort, enthusiasm and commitment into the festival, which would not happen without them.

Behind the scenes, we had advice and support from:

• Florence Ellis – South Norfolk Council
• The South Norfolk Festivals Network (co-ordinated by Alistair Winch from Creative Arts East)
• Mari Martin – Norfolk County Council

We again employed two outside professionals:  

• Andy Croft – designer of the flyers, posters and the programme
• Paul Dickson – promotion services

Lessons learnt

As always, we have reviewed what went well, what didn't and learnt lessons for the future. The main points are summarised below, but are not in any order of priority.

What went well

• More villagers, advertisers, and funders came to the opening ‘thank you' event
• Performances by local estate agent and musician, Noel Alexander, at the opening event and during the festival
• ‘Artist in residence' Liz McGowan's work with the schools and during the festival worked very well and successfully linked with the festival
• The DVD of the festival
• Many visitors to the festival, adults as well as children, made something from clay as part of Ruthanne Tudball's community art project. Their work has been fired and glazed and will shortly be assembled in the grounds of Welborne Village Hall.  
• The villagers' exhibition was excellent, comparing very well with the exhibitions by the artists' groups
• It was very good having several things going on at once (music, storytelling, workshops) as well as the static exhibitions
• Music during the festival was especially successful
• Sales of advertising in the programme contributed over £600 of income. Also sales of the programme were far better than last year
• The peripatetic storyteller  
• The new festival signs with our new ‘logo' added a professional touch
• Really good programme of demonstrations by Art Unlimited artists. Holding the demonstrations in the same marquee as their exhibition was successful
• The AA direction signs added ‘status'
• Meeting and greeting visitors worked very well and provided a central ‘point' during the festival to say what was going on and where
• The internet bus with website links and slideshows worked well, but possibly need to allow more room to move around inside the bus in future
• Our first festival theme - the creative village - provided a useful framework
• We successfully avoided disruption by separating children's activities from other activities
• Made use of the whole of the churchyard

What didn't go so well

• The weather! It was cold and drizzling for all day Saturday and much of Sunday
• The marquee for music and literature  proved to be in the wrong place because poor weather meant that few people were having refreshments outside  
• There were not enough AA signs and they were not in the right places
• Separate flyers for the festival and the concerts (one of the lessons from 2004!) did not work
• The concerts were enjoyable but we did not sell many tickets       
• Very few participants in literary events
• The map and programmes of activities on a noticeboard did not work very well
• Difficulties with arrangements at one of the schools
• The sound installation in the church was not very inspirational and, for some, irritating  

Lessons for the future

• Continue the search for longer-term commitments from funders
• Need to decide on and book musicians early for concerts
• Must sell more tickets for the concerts
• More activities should be tied to the theme of the festival
• Continue to search for more people on the organising committee to build sustainability for the future and share workload
• At a minimum, we need someone(s) to take on responsibility for: advertising the concerts and selling tickets; selling advertising in the programme
• One design, A4-folded, A5 size, flyer for all elements of the festival
• Advertise in the Open Studios booklet
• Need to reconsider the location of each element on the festival site, particularly the music and literary elements
• Build the literary element of the festival, learning from what has worked well
• Need to agree with the AA the right places for signs
• Need to do an insert for the programme with each day's events and a site map
• Build on the success of the peripatetic storyteller who collected his audience by going around, beating a drum and calling people to join him – a Welborne Arts Festival ‘village crier'
• Need to consider how to make more income e.g. charge for entrance, ‘entrance by programme', car parking
• Better signing to the internet bus
• Still scope for higher prices for catering?
• Need to co-ordinate festival activities in the church with the PCC to avoid difficulties and misunderstandings
• Need to consider having security guards throughout each day of the festival (particularly to prevent theft) as well as overnight security
• We want more visitors to the festival to further justify our efforts and to bring down the average cost per visitor

Additional activities in future years suggested by visitors in 2005

• Get some ‘big name' musicians, storytellers, writers, painters involved in the festival
• Musical workshops for children, perhaps culminating in a concert
• Concert or other entertainment in marquees or the church in the week before the festival
• Junior village art competition

What next?

The 2005 festival was bigger in scale and wider in scope than in previous years. Our challenge is to continue to build on what we have achieved, while not over-stretching ourselves, or spoiling the village atmosphere of the occasion.

Planning for 2006 has already begun and the search for funding will begin shortly.

19 August 2005