Research and evaluation are key elements in a learning culture, and therefore part of the Thinking Practice offer. Mark is confident with numbers and stories, and thinks the cultural sector needs both in evaluating its work.
Mark’s ability to synthesise disparate sources into short, sharp, fresh thinking can be seen in publications such as Faster But Slower, Slower But Faster, a summary of over 75 documents relating to the Creative People & Places programme. Mark also relishes the challenge of presenting findings in stimulating ways. Faster But Slower, Slower But Faste, may not be the best report on arts engagement, but it’s probably the only one structured around the sonnet form, with a sonnet for an executive summary.
Mark has worked on large-scale project evaluations combining qualitative information with quantitative data. Mark sees the evaluation of a project as an opportunity for collective learning of all involved, not just the deliverers or commissioners of a project, so often brings people together for evaluation workshops. He worked extensively with adaptations of the Most Significant Change method, as a way of encouraging more participatory evaluations.
Mark has also worked on the evaluation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Inquiry Into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations, as well other recent work for Dance Hub Birmingham, The Duncairn and Cork Council’s Shared Island project, “The Ties That Bind Us”, a partnership between the UNESCO Cities of Literature in Manchester and Nanjing, China; Hard Art/Empathy Museum’s In Case of Emergency and the Baring Foundation’s Arts Programme first five years of focussing on mental health. With Imogen Blood and Lorna Easterbrook) he has also evaluated Arts Council England/Baring Foundations’s Arts Celebrating Age programme and Nominet Trust/Baring Foundations’ Digital Aging and Creative Arts programmes.