As we have emerged from the dark days of winter lockdown, we are seeing a surge in activity, new projects either being dusted off, re-imagined or created from scratch from the arts, culture and heritage sector.

It is refreshing to be getting out and about, meeting with clients and cracking on with exciting and impactful work.

We’ve not done one of these round-ups for a little while, but here’s a small flavour of what has been going on at Earthen Lamp HQ. We’ll be sharing more in the coming months.

If you would like to have a chat about evaluation, impact studies or strategy with us drop us an email at ideas@earthenlamp.com – we would love to hear from you!

From City of Empire To City of Diversity

We were pleased to be selected as Sampad’s Evaluation Consultant for its National Lottery Heritage Funded From City Of Empire To City Of Diversity: A Visual Journey. This project includes two curated major photographic exhibitions and an extensive citywide community engagement programme to coincide with the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.

As Evaluation Consultant Earthen Lamp will develop an evaluation framework and tools ensuring that the monitoring and evaluation methods allow the success and impact of different activities to be measured for all project partners including Birmingham Archives, Library of Birmingham and University of Birmingham.

Mindscapes

Across April and May we worked with SICK! Festival in Manchester who collaborated with Netherlands based DutchCulture to deliver Mindscapes. Mindscapes explored how the world around us – our homes, our streets, our cities – affects our mental health and the way we feel about our lives, in both positive and negative ways. The programme included public artworks, online games, poetry on the streets and an interactive phone app, plus a two-day online conference.

As Evaluation Consultants Earthen Lamp is putting the finishing touches to a qualitative summative evaluation for Mindscapes that is focussed on deriving learning from this significant project delivered with communities in Manchester during the pandemic.

Sparks

Creative Black Country is working with six organisations across the region on a new participatory performing arts project. Sparks aims to build bridges between D/deaf, disabled and non-disabled people using theatre and mime to tell stories of people around the Commonwealth. Over the two years of the project there will be a series of performance workshops leading to a performance and series of films to be part of the Birmingham 2022 Cultural Programme. The project is funded by Spirit of 2012.

Earthen Lamp will act as External Evaluators for the project, designing and delivering an evaluation framework and supporting the team in data gathering from participants with varying abilities.