pop eval

Evaluation Report May 2014

Prepared by Cath Ford & Melanie Diggle

Mid Pennine Arts

e: [email protected]

t: 01282 421986

HLF ID: YH-12-07312

Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 1

About Mid Pennine Arts ....................................................................................................................................... 1

About Portraits of the Past ................................................................................................................................... 1

Project Aims and Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Evaluation Framework .............................................................................................................................................. 3

The Project Story and Meeting our Objectives ........................................................................................................ 5

Schools Visits and Workshops .............................................................................................................................. 5

Family Activities Summer 2013 ............................................................................................................................ 7

Contemporary Heritage Discussion Event ............................................................................................................ 9

History Wardrobe Event .....................................................................................................................................10

Family History Day ..............................................................................................................................................10

The Launch and Celebration Day ........................................................................................................................12

Conversations and material gathering events ....................................................................................................14

Online Photographic Archive ..............................................................................................................................16

Successes and Challenges .......................................................................................................................................20

What worked well? .............................................................................................................................................20

What Challenges Did We Face/ What could we have done better? ..................................................................21

Project Legacy .....................................................................................................................................................21

Portraits of the Past Facts and Figures ...................................................................................................................22

Events .................................................................................................................................................................22

Audience and Participants ..................................................................................................................................22

Online Audience .................................................................................................................................................22

Volunteers ..........................................................................................................................................................22

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................23

Appendices .............................................................................................................................................................25

Appendix 1 – Activity Schedule ..........................................................................................................................25

Portraits of the Past Evaluation Document – May 2014 | page 1

Introduction

About Mid Pennine Arts

We bring art, people and places together to transform perceptions and change lives. MPA is a commissioning agency, working through collaboration to create high quality creative projects in response to the rich and diverse contexts of North West England. Based in the Pennines, we have built a long and powerful track record, working with artists to rise to the exciting challenges posed by dramatic and often beautiful rural and post-industrial landscapes, through projects developed hand in hand with their diverse and resilient communities. We believe in the transformative power of contemporary art. MPA works in some of the poorest communities in the UK, but we deliver ambitious, challenging work that has won national and international awards and achieves profound and lasting social and economic outcomes. Our local context is all important, informing new work that brings new life and new audiences to magical heritage sites and struggling high streets alike. From ancient manors to obsolete railways, from derelict mills to windswept moorland, MPA applies that transformative power to the living heritage of our region.

About Portraits of the Past

Portraits of the Past focussed on the heritage of Gawthorpe Hall, a magnificent 17th century house in Padiham, Lancashire. Through creative activities, heritage events and conversation, local people engaged with its magnificent collections and learned about the fascinating stories of the people who have lived, worked and used the Hall over the past four centuries. Gawthorpe Hall itself rests in a beautiful riverside setting amongst woodlands and landscaped gardens in Padiham, Lancashire. Home to the Shuttleworths for over 300 years, it now houses the nationally important Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth textile collection, including stunning examples of needlework and costume, alongside one of the biggest loans of paintings from the National Portrait Gallery in London to Northwest England. Gawthorpe is managed by Lancashire County Council on behalf of The National Trust. Using the stories of the Shuttleworths at Gawthorpe, the building itself, its collections and the grounds as inspiration, we encouraged the local community to share their own stories about the Hall and how they and their family have related to and used this important local resource. We worked with artists to use creativity as a tool to stimulate learning, sharing and a sense of ownership amongst the community and published a book and created an online resource of photographs and stories to act as an accessible and free archive for people now and in the future.


Project Aims and Objectives

1. Invite children and young people to learn about the heritage of the Hall through providing workshops that use the Hall’s collections as their inspiration, for example photography, clothing, toys and portraiture, to encourage them to explore the collections and respond to them in an inspiring, creative way.

2. Provide opportunities through a series of site visits and events for people to learn about heritage

through working with and talking to historians, architects, re-enactors and other academics, encouraging and enabling local community groups to learn about Gawthorpe’s collections and the history of the Shuttleworth family.

3. Encourage people to share their own stories, memories and photographs of the Hall and conserve this important aspect of the local community’s heritage through a new online archive and also through accessioning images and oral histories to existing collections where possible.

4. Record and disseminate the stories, memories, images and responses gathered through the project through creating a physical and digital heritage resource that ensures the heritage of the Hall, the Shuttleworth family, and the community’s relationships with each are shared more widely.


Evaluation Framework In order to measure our success against planned objective, we used an outcomes based evaluation framework to underpin our planning and evaluation throughout

the project. The table below summarises each objective, its related output and outcomes, and the ways in which we monitored and measured these.

Objective Activity/Outputs Outcomes Measured by

1. Children and young people will learn about the

heritage of the Hall through providing workshops that

use the Hall’s collections as their inspiration, for

example photography, clothing, toys and portraiture, to

encourage them to explore the collections and respond

to them in an inspiring, creative way.

Guided visits to

Gawthorpe Hall for

schools

Workshops with artists in

schools

Family activities at the

Hall

Children and young people will have

visited the hall

learned about the heritage of the Hall and

the Shuttleworth family

responded to the experience through art

activities which will increase their personal

connection to the hall

participated in creative activities with their

families which will increase their personal

connection to and memories of the hall

Number of visits and

workshops

Qualitative feedback

from participants

gathered throughout

the project

2. We will provide opportunities through a series of site

visits and events for people to learn about heritage

through working with and talking to historians,

architects, re-enactors and other academics,

encouraging and enabling local community groups to

learn about Gawthorpe’s collections and the history of

the Shuttleworth family.

Community visits to the

Hall and other related

venues and activities

Community engagement

and learning sessions

with heritage experts

Participants will have

taken part in enjoyable activities and events

which use the Hall and its history as a focal

point for learning and engagement

taken part in activities which use the hall as

a focus for pride and sense of place and

which bring people together

increased their knowledge of the history of

the hall, the family and their own heritage

through participating in learning activities

Number of research

sessions and workshops

Qualitative feedback

from participants

gathered throughout

the project


3. We will encourage people to share their own stories,

memories and photographs of the Hall and conserve

this important aspect of the local community’s heritage

through a new online archive and also through

accessioning images and oral histories to existing

collections where possible.

Sharing and collection

events

Stories and photos

collected

Online archive created

Images and oral histories

accessioned to existing

collections

A new online archive will be created

Photographs of the hall will be added to the online

archive by individuals and groups. Those

photographs will reveal previously unseen aspects

and stories of the hall and its connection with local

people.

The online archive will be viewed.

Images and oral histories will be added to existing

collections.

A selection of stories and images will be included in

the printed publication.

Archive created

Numbers of images

added to archive

Number of views of

archive

Number of histories

added to existing

collections.

4. Record and disseminate the stories, memories,

images and responses gathered through the project

through creating a physical and digital heritage

resource that ensures the heritage of the Hall, the

Shuttleworth family, and the community’s relationships

with each are shared more widely.

Publication of a physical

heritage resource which

is also available online

The publication is

disseminated widely.

Publication published and

distributed physically.

Online publication

available.

Number of publications

distributed.


The Project Story and Meeting our Objectives

Children and young people will learn about the heritage of the Hall through providing workshops that use the Hall’s collections as their inspiration, for example photography, clothing, toys and portraiture, to encourage them to explore the collections and respond to them in an inspiring, creative way.

Schools Visits and Workshops Schools visits to the Hall – 4 Follow up sessions with artist – 4 Children participating – 120 Adults participating – 15 Heritage experts – 3 Artists - 1

Visits to the hall took place with four local primary schools. Of those questioned, approximately one third had never been to the hall or its grounds before the visit, one third had been in the grounds but not the hall and one third had been in the hall. These schools are located very close to the hall and this lack of contact with this gem of a building increased our determination to find ways to connect local children and young people with their heritage. Of the adults participating approximately half had not visited the Hall before.

Arriving at the gatehouse some children asked ‘Wow, are we here?’

During the visit children were given an interactive tour of the hall with adults playing roles of house staff. They were asked to imagine that they were children working in the house, polishing silver, setting the table and being treated like servants. This interactive experience had a significant impact on the children’s learning. When they had the follow up session with the artist and then at the evaluation interview months later, they remembered in detail the information they had been given about the life of a working child and were able and keen to compare it to their own experiences.

‘They had seen the outside but only a few had been in. Many of the children were wowed by the experience and listed it as a favourite part of our topic. They all remembered different objects from the hall and could recount it in some detail.’ Year Six Teacher

‘We had to set the table and people had a certain place to sit. We go to the table and sit wherever we want to now, but then they had to sit in their own place. There were a lot of rules. They had a lot more rules then than we have now.’ Pupil


Children named family members when recounting stories of the house ‘Lady Blanche……….’ During their visit they also experienced the Contemporary Heritage site-specific installation by artist Catherine Bertola, Flicker. This contemporary art project by MPA had been the inspiration for Portraits of the Past. The artwork enabled the children to watch recreated scenes of the family in situ in the Hall. They talked about children playing and commented:

‘They were just like us’.

The artist who worked with each class in a follow up session also participated in one of the tours, which became an important part of the relationship development during the sessions. She was able to connect through shared experience. She had never visited the hall before so could share the excitement and the learning of this new experience.

Participating in the tour helped her to identify areas of interest and inspiration, feeding from the children’s curiosity and watching their responses to the hall, its collections and its stories.

She devised two activities that each child would participate in:

Tea Poy

The tea poy in the hall dates from a time when tea was a valuable commodity and the children learned that only one person in the hall had a key and access to the tea. Kerris devised an activity with the children where they considered value, what is valuable to them and what they would like to lock away and keep safe. Taking inspiration from this and the KS (Kay Shuttleworth) monograms around the hall, children designed and made a monogrammed box for them to keep their precious items.

Wallpaper

Taking inspiration from the wallpaper in the Hall and the textured sample that visitors are able to touch, Kerris

asked children to embellish wallpaper samples from a local scrap art store, creating their own bespoke

wallpaper. Schools continued work on the wallpaper after the visit.

‘The process helped the children to connect. They remembered a lot from the visit and then made

something with a connection to the Hall and to themselves. Everyone really enjoyed the workshop

and seemed very engaged throughout, probably because it was very personal to them.’

Kerris Casey St Pierre, artist


In both of the activities the artist ensured that there were opportunities for self-expression and personal

choice. Whilst there was a framework, she was determined that ‘there was no right or wrong’ and this

combination of individual expression linked to the Hall visit enabled children to make sense of the collection

and the stories of the family and staff at Gawthorpe Hall.

‘The children absolutely loved the artist’s visit. She inspired them to think for themselves and not to

be afraid to try things out. The children were happy to work on the tea poys all morning and were

really keen to start the wall paper project too.’ Teacher

A follow up evaluation conversation with one of the schools resulted in additional materials for the publication

as children recounted their experience of visiting the hall and compared it to their own homes and

contemporary lives.

Family Activities Summer 2013

Participants – 120 (approx.) Heritage experts – 2 Artists – 2 Volunteers - 5


During the summer holidays 2013 artists Caroline Eccles and Cath Ford ran drop-in activities in the grounds using photography as their theme. These activities were designed to engage young visitors and their families and create an opportunity for them to talk about the Hall with the North West Sound Archives and Padiham & District Photography Club who provided images of the Hall in times past to stimulate discussion. A photo scavenger hunt sheet was also available to encourage people to explore and photograph the grounds.

A range of cameras from the Victorian age to the 1970s was loaned from Museum of Science and Industry and

was available to aid discussions with the photography club, sound archive and MPA staff.

The sessions were fun and relaxed and encouraged a playful connection to the Hall, its collections and to the

photography element of the project.

Cath created small cardboard box models of cameras, not functioning as cameras but as boxes to store found objects and photographs. Children took pride in creating their cameras and playing with the idea of photography.

Caroline took the formal family portraits as inspiration, and brought masks and costumes for people to decorate and dress up in for their own less than formal family portrait with the Hall as a backdrop.

Volunteers from Gawthorpe Hall supported the artists in the activity, bringing their own expertise to the situation and developing their own skills and creative confidence through working with an artist. The activities have resulted in new memories of and stories about the Hall for participants and their families. Photographs were taken during the activities which were added to the online archive.


We will provide opportunities through a series of site visits and events for people to learn about heritage through working with and talking to historians, architects, re-enactors and other academics, encouraging and enabling local community groups to learn about Gawthorpe’s collections and the history of the Shuttleworth family. Using the Hall as our focus, we organised a series of diverse events which explored aspects of the Hall, its collections and the Shuttleworth family. The richness of the Gawthorpe heritage provided us with a number of starting points which were engaging to both those who had an existing interest in Gawthorpe Hall or in local history and those who previously had no interest or connection. Our starting points included contemporary art, fashion, family history and the Civil War. Existing partnerships, and those developed during the project, enabled us to provide a programme that none of us would have been able to provide independently. The funding for this project allowed us to initiate work with partners and develop innovative approaches to community engagement and learning. We had access to spaces, resources and expertise in a range of heritage, learning and cultural disciplines which provided a rich resource from which we could build new collaborations. The range of activities enabled existing friends of the Hall to experience the collections and building from a fresh perspective as well as providing accessible and engaging inroads for new people.

Contemporary Heritage Discussion Event Participants – 20 Heritage Experts – 4 Artist - 1

Artist Catherine Bertola, the creator of the artwork Flicker, a site-specific installation in-situ at Gawthorpe

during the 2013 season, led a discussion panel at the Hall.

The panel consisted of:

Richard Dean, National Trust Curator of Gawthorpe Hall;

Tom Freshwater, National Trust Contemporary Art Programme Manager (National);

Elizabeth Edwards, Research Professor in Photographic History and Director of Photographic History

Research Centre, De Montfort University

Adrian Richardson, Chairman of the 1635 Household, a costumed history interpretation group

They explored the use of contemporary art in presenting the heritage of the Hall to visitors as well as discussing

the historical research process of creating such work. The interaction with the participants at this event was

extremely high with the discussion lasting twice as long as originally planned. The participants included artists,

heritage venue staff, a member of the county’s arts development team along with members of the general

public.


History Wardrobe Event Participants – 48 Heritage Experts – 2 Volunteers – 1

The Friends of Gawthorpe Hall spent time with History Wardrobe exploring history through fashion. Lucy Adlington is a history specialist and author of history costume books, who through her company, History Wardrobe, provides costumes in context presentations. Each presentation is based on academic and textile research, and as such was very appropriate for Gawthorpe, with its renowned textile collection. This event was specifically for the Friends of Gawthorpe Hall and was aimed at allowing them to explore the history of Gawthorpe through the medium of fashion and make connections with the Hall’s textile collection. The event was a full house and was very well received. Gawthorpe Hall has since commissioned History Wardrobe for an event on WW1.

Family History Day Participants – 14 Heritage Experts – 3 Volunteers – 4 Artist - 1 An example of the opportunities for innovative learning approaches that have come from this project are exemplified in the Family History Day held in April 2014. Mid Pennine Arts, Gawthorpe Hall and Lancashire Community Heritage worked together to devise a workshop with the aim of:

Bringing new people to Gawthorpe Hall;

Facilitating learning about the Gawthorpe Collection and the Shuttleworth family;

Encouraging exploration of family history using the publicly available records of family and staff at Gawthorpe Hall as a starting point;

Experimenting with new ways of storing and displaying family history.


The day began with a short tour of the hall by the Hall Manager, focusing on evidence of family history including family trees, photographs and memorabilia which told the stories of individuals and events throughout the history of the Shuttleworth family. Lancashire Community History then gave an outline presentation of the many different (and often free) ways of researching your own family history, using examples of the Shuttleworth family and Gawthorpe Hall. This gave participants a real sense of the family being just that – a family, experiencing fortune and misfortune over centuries. They shared stories of the Shuttleworths in the first and second world wars and the impact this had on them, stories with which participants could relate. This presentation and follow up one to one sessions were presented with humour, experience and knowledge and encouraged some participants to explore online for the first time, discovering information about their families which would unlock the next step in their research. Participants told us that the event had given them the confidence and skills to continue in their research. In the afternoon groups split between working on the computers and working with an artist to experiment with different ways of storing and displaying family history. Participants brought photographs and documents, many of which have been kept safe, out of sight, until some date in the future when the family history is complete. This activity encouraged them to take and copy parts of their family archive and to create works of art which could be displayed and enjoyed and which would promote conversation about family history, particularly

amongst family members ‘not yet involved in or interested in family history’. (Feedback from participant.)

Participants chose different people to focus on, whether that was three generations of men, a particular person or a year, and used archive material and ephemera to create portraits and collages.


The Launch and Celebration Day Participants throughout the day - 225 Participants at the formal launch - 58 Number of heritage experts - 4 Number of artists - 2 Volunteers - 4

The publication launch and celebration day which took place at the end of April 2014 was held in the stable block and in the grounds of Gawthorpe Hall. We wanted the event to reflect the local heritage, humour and warmth of the stories and photographs in the publication and to be open to everyone. Actors and re-enactors, storytellers and artists brought to life different aspects of the book and different periods in the Hall’s history, engaging visitors in performances and hands-on activity.

‘I loved doing the printing press’ Lucas Aged 6 & 7/8

Participants included people who had contributed to the book or to the photo archive, participants from previous workshops (including children and families from schools workshops), project partners, local people who had no previous connection to the project but had seen marketing and others who had just happened upon the event! Heritage experts, re-enactors and artist/workshops included:

Steve Fairclough, who led a history walk around the grounds, telling stories from the book in relevant settings and encouraging participants to share their own stories and memories.

The Palace of Curiosities, whose performance, inspired by traditional Victorian sideshows, took pride of place outside the Hall, provided an insight into the leisure pastimes of Victorian Lancashire, both shocking and educating the audience.

Betsy the Scullery Maid (Joanne Halliwell MA) interacted with visitors, revealing the secrets of life below stairs in the big house.

Print for Love of Wood (Jacqui Sharples) is a local letterpress artist reviving traditional methods of printing in contemporary design. She provided the letterpress for the publication and brought along presses set up with sayings from the book and ‘Waste Not Want Not’ which is carved in the stone lintel above the fireplace in the kitchen. Participants were able to print their own souvenir of the day and learn about traditional printing techniques.

Adrian and Duncan Richardson, Civil War re-enactors, engaged with visitors explaining the Hall’s civil war connections. As well as causing great excitement by firing muskets from the roof of the Hall!

Cath Ford, who used creative evaluation techniques to engage with visitors, get them to share their stories and encourage them to record their experiences of Gawthorpe within the blank pages left for such activity in the publication.


Feedback from partners, visitors and participants was excellent. The mix of hands-on activity, historic performance and storytelling was engaging and has created a whole new set of stories, photographs and memories of Gawthorpe Hall.

‘Just a quick email to say how much my family and I enjoyed the Portraits of the Past afternoon on

Saturday. It was a really enjoyable event and a lovely finale for all the work which has gone into the

project. We have thoroughly enjoyed being involved and the stories in the booklet were really

brought to life on the story walk, Gawthorpe looked amazing in the sunshine too. I showed my copy

to one of our customers who was mentioned in it, and she was thrilled. We look forward to working

with you again in the future.’

Alison James, Branch Manager, Padiham Library


We will encourage people to share their own stories, memories and photographs of the Hall and conserve this important aspect of the local community’s heritage through a new online archive and also through accessioning images and oral histories to existing collections where possible.

Conversations and material gathering events Events - 4 Participants – 342 (approx.) Heritage Experts - 6 (North West Sound Archive, Padiham Photographic Club and Padiham Archives) Artists – 2 Volunteers – 3 Oral histories recorded - 24

We held a number of events where local people were encouraged to share their own photographic material and their memories to be included in the project archives. We linked them to existing events (including Heritage Open Weekend and the showing of the film The Miners’ Hymn at Padiham Town Hall) as well as to the family friendly activities during the summer holiday. We held events at Gawthorpe Hall and in Padiham Library and Town Hall. This allowed us to reach a larger number of people, including people of different ages, from different geographic communities and communities of interest. We worked closely with partners to extend the reach of the project, including:

North West Sound Archive who attended events recording local people’s stories and memories of Gawthorpe Hall. They also spent further time at the Hall recording current and previous staff and volunteers. As a result of the project 24 new recordings have been added to the North West Sound Archive and will be available to future generations.

Padiham Archives, a local volunteer run project who are archiving and sharing information about the town, provided practical and information support and acted as a connector to individuals and groups in Padiham. Their support, knowledge and reputation in the town was invaluable in helping us to reach new people and in accessing existing photographic and written records.


We created a Portraits of the Past exhibition of photographs and memories which was exhibited at The Miners’ Hymn film screening at Padiham Town Hall which was attended by 157 people, the majority of whom had either an individual or family background in mining locally. Cllr Bob Clarke (from the Padiham Archives and an ex miner) lead a discussion event after the screening which encouraged the audience to share their own memories of the mining industry. This included the open cast mining that had taken place in the grounds of Gawthorpe Hall until the 1960. Cath Ford also engaged with the audience before and after the screening to encourage them to share and record their stories for the project. This event enabled us to connect with new people whose stories and memories gave a fresh perspective on the Hall and its grounds.

The local press, Lancashire Evening Telegraph and BBC Radio Lancashire, also became positive partners during the project, sharing callouts for material and interviewing participants taking part in the family history day for a radio broadcast. Whilst these partnerships did not result in lots of contributions to the archive, it has raised the profile of the project locally and across the county.

As a result of the partnership we initiated with Lancashire Community Heritage and Gawthorpe Hall for the family history day, we have been asked by Lancashire County Council Community Heritage to speak at a regional conference of heritage professionals in October about partnership working and community engagement. We will be sharing the processes, learning and outcomes of the project with an audience of local and regional heritage professionals.


Online Photographic Archive

Numbering 200 images (at 5.6.14), the archive has been a useful tool for engaging people in the project and will continue to be a central place where people can visit, view and contribute images of Gawthorpe and its grounds. The microsite has been set up as a sub site of MPA’s main site and will therefore be available as long as MPA’s main website is available, without any additional on-going costs. The micro site uses Flickr as the storage medium and this means that images are searchable and part of a global photographic map. Photographs have been donated by former staff members at the house, by visitors, local people and even by someone who married there. The challenge of collecting photos of the inside of a building where photographs can’t be taken became obvious during the project as did the challenge of sourcing photographs of people at Gawthorpe Hall. The building itself is such a striking image that the majority of photographs contributed online in the early stages were of the building.


We discovered during the activities that many older people had photographs that they would have liked to submit but didn’t know how to do so digitally. Therefore we started to encourage people to bring hard copy photographs along to events so that we could scan and upload them on their behalf. We know that there are many more photographs to be collected and we aim to keep the site open to new donations for the foreseeable future and continue to promote the archive through our work. We sourced all of the photographs for the publication from the site.

http://midpenninearts.org.uk/portraits-of-the-past/

http://midpenninearts.org.uk/portraits-of-the-past/


Record and disseminate the stories, memories, images and responses gathered through the project through

creating a physical and digital heritage resource that ensures the heritage of the Hall, the Shuttleworth

family, and the community’s relationships with each are shared more widely.

The range of memories shared throughout the project inspired us to bring together the stories in a simple book

of images and written word.

We used to go to Gawthorpe Hall with Girl Guides during the war. We volunteered, no we got our arms twisted to volunteer. We had to pretend to be drowned and they had to practice saving us. I got this big woman who nearly crushed me. Then Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth took us home in her car, and all I could think was ‘I wish someone could see me’.

Kathleen Keene (story collected at The Miners’ Hymn film event)

Our ambition for the publication was that it would be:

freely available with enough copies to be distributed widely;

a valuable object for people because of its stories and connections without being a sacred object;

something that local people could be proud of and connect to;

a living history document – with space for people to continue adding their own stories;

a tool to continue to promote conversation, sharing and passion about Gawthorpe Hall in the area.

Encouraging people to share their stories proved harder than we anticipated. North West Sound Archives were available at events to record the stories of local people who had worked at or visited the Hall, but we found that some people were unwilling to be recorded as they felt that their histories weren’t valid or what we were looking for. When we were face to face with people we were able to encourage them to participate, helping them to recognise that their memories and their heritage was valid and interesting and this resulted in a good number of recordings. However, when we approached people via newspapers or social media, the response was less encouraging and we found that we had to put a lot of work in to drawing out stories and photographs. Memories were contributed in different ways – many were gathered at events either by the NWSA or through conversations with MPA staff, some through visits, we collected via facebook and had stories emailed to us. We drew together a selection of memories into an A5 publication, working with a local letterpress artist and design company to create a publication that was both pleasing to look at and accessible.

Leaving blank pages for people to add their own stories was intended as a way of setting the tone for the publication – that it is a book to be used, added to and shared. During the launch we were encouraged to find children and adults adding drawings and stories, some independently and some encouraged by Cath as part of her creative evaluation activities or Steve on the story walk.


‘Lovely building, more people need to come, and a lovely printed book. I will be telling everyone about it.’ Visitor comment

We printed 750 copies of the book, with almost 200 copies being distributed on the launch day. Gawthorpe Hall, the local library, Padiham Archives, local primary schools, Shuttleworth College and North West Sound Archive have enthusiastically taken copies to distribute.

Following a conversation with the district head of libraries, the publication will also go into stock in Lancashire Libraries as a book for loan and it will also be distributed at the Regional Community Heritage and Archives Conference in October, where MPA will be presenting. Copies are also archived with: British Library Legal Depository; Bodleian Library Oxford University; Cambridge University Library; National Library of Scotland; National Library of Wales and Trinity College, Dublin.

As at 5.6.14 over 600 copies have already been distributed.

The book is also available online as a free, downloadable pdf: http://midpenninearts.org.uk/popcl

‘Can I just say how impressed I am with MPA's work on 'Portraits of the past'! – having listened to

Nick's presentation, read the book and having looked around the amazing Gawthorpe; I just wanted

to say what a wonderful thing Portraits of the Past is for the people of Padiham and those who have

interesting and fond memories of the place. Hope the website gets lots of viewers!’

Deborah Rowe, Arts Development Officer, Arts Development Team, Lancashire County Council -

Cultural Services

http://midpenninearts.org.uk/popcl


Successes and Challenges

What worked well?

We exceeded all of our anticipated outcomes in terms of numbers of participants, sessions, photographs and oral histories collected.

Our partnership with other professionals enabled us to devise new approaches to engagement and allowed access to resources, skills and space for the project and its participants.

People have been willing to volunteer their time to the project, allowing us to extend the reach and the quality of the project.

The schools programme was particularly successful and the link between the visit and the artist led activity resulted in greater connections and a richer learning experience for children.

The range of activities and entry points for participants facilitated involvement from professionals, local people of all ages, volunteers, history enthusiasts and tourists.

Using the project, which is built on partnership between arts, heritage and community, as a focus for a professional development event and discussion extended the learning and created dialogue about future potential collaborations.

The family friendly events at the beginning and end of the project attracted families, children and young people who now have new memories and stories of Gawthorpe Hall.

The memories gathered and published reflect the warmth and connection that people in Padiham and Burnley feel towards Gawthorpe Hall and this has resulted in an accessible and interesting publication that people want to read and share.

The publication has been extremely well received. Local people are proud of it and it provides Gawthorpe Hall with another tool to encourage dialogue and engagement with the local community.

The book has been given an ISBN and logged with the British Library Legal Depository meaning it is now part of the national library and it will be available for loan from Lancashire branch libraries.

The project attracted the attention of the local press (print and radio) who have supported us with articles, calls for contributors and interviews.

The online photo archive includes previously unseen photographs of the Hall and will be available in future to aid further research, projects and engagement.

The family history day was informative and fun and the partnership between MPA, Lancashire Museums Service (Gawthorpe Hall) and LCC Community Heritage resulted in a day which could not have been achieved without the partnership and new learning for community members.

As a result of this event we will be speaking at a regional conference and sharing the learning and approach with heritage professionals.

The project and funding allowed us to identify and bring in new heritage experts who could bring a fresh perspective to Gawthorpe Hall and its collections.

The Launch Day and Celebration Event worked extremely well with a good mix of performances, heritage experts and artists creating a rich and unique learning experience for visitors.

Placing the Launch Day events in the stable block and in the grounds meant that everything was free and increased accessibility.


What Challenges Did We Face/ What could we have done better?

We anticipated that, given the opportunity to contribute, people would share stories and memories freely and with confidence. This wasn’t always the case and we invested far more time in this part of the project than anticipated. We noticed that people lacked confidence in the validity of their own heritage and stories and this may have prevented people from contributing via online means. Most of the photographs contributed to the archive are taken on digital cameras and uploaded. We received fewer photographs from the mid-century period than anticipated. Although we took this on board and created opportunities for us to help people submit their images, we didn’t have the capacity to do this as much as was needed. We offered to return any photographs sent to us by post, but the precious nature of these keepsakes meant that people were reluctant to part with them, even temporarily. The one-to one approach and house visits may have been the only way to unearth some of these precious mementos. During the project Mid Pennine Arts underwent a period of significant staff change, with key team members moving on to new posts or retirement. This meant that the project was managed by a number of different core staff members and was completed by a freelance project manager. Whilst each project manager approached the project with skill and commitment, it meant that there were periods of handover and reduced activity which impacted on timescales and completion date. The staff changes and the need for intensive engagement in the process of persuading potential contributors that they had a valid story to tell impacted on the amount of time spent on the project by the core team. MPA felt that it was imperative to commit the time necessary to ensure that we reached our original objectives for the project and to do justice to the memories shared and created during the activities. This entailed investing additional staff time with an in-kind value of £1,943.

Project Legacy The online archive, collected oral histories and the publication, Portraits of the Past - A People's History of Gawthorpe Hall, will be widely available to the community as well as lodged in archives, libraries and museums. These will be available to aid further research, projects and engagement. As they record the community’s interaction with the Hall we feel they are a valuable heritage resource to a future understanding of the nature of this heritage venue and its place within the community. The project allowed MPA to build on the partnership between the arts and heritage communities, which will inform and shape future projects. The opportunity to present the project at a professional development event for heritage professionals in October 2014 will extend our own learning and hopefully open dialogues about future collaborations.


Portraits of the Past Facts and Figures

Events

Participatory Community and family sessions* 3

School sessions* 14

Learning and Sharing events* 7

24

* Half day session = 1

Audience and Participants Event Audience Active

Participants

Family friendly day 1 152 80

Family friendly day 2 98 60

Discussion Event 20 20

Library Coffee Morning 62 4^

Heritage Open Weekend 30 9^

Schools 135 120

History Wardrobe 48 48

The Miners’ Hymn 157 40

Family History Day 14 14

Celebration Event 225 85

Oral history recordings (outside of above events)

4

Total 941 484

^ Active participants refers to oral history recordings

Online Audience Online

Website visits 1,420

Blog viewings (for three separate blogs) 769

Facebook posts – number 73

Facebook posts – reach ^ 10,715

^ Post reach is the number of unique people who saw your post. (FB definition.)

Volunteers

Individuals Days

Professional Presentations, skills workshops, interviews 6 8

Skilled Volunteer photography group, re-enactors, publicity etc

7 6

Unskilled Publicity distribution, book assembly, event assistance

7 13

Total 20 27


Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank everyone who made the project possible:

Rebecca Mason and all the team at HLF

All the team at MPA

Rachel Pollitt de Duran and her team of staff and volunteers - Gawthorpe Hall

Susan Liddell - Lancashire Museums Service

Andrew Schofield, David Brooks and Carol Entwistle - North West Sound Archive

Fiona McIntyre and Carole Marsh - Lancashire County Council Community Heritage

Cllr Bob Clarke and Ann Clarke – Padiham Archives

Alison James and her team – Padiham Library

Ray Schofield – Padiham & District Photographic Society

Mary Brown - Lancashire Library Service

Lancashire Archives

National Trust team – Gawthorpe Hall

Padiham Green Primary School

Padiham Primary School

Lowerhouse Primary School

Whittlefield Primary School

Museum of Science and Industry

Richard Dean - National Trust Curator, Gawthorpe Hall

Tom Freshwater - National Trust Contemporary Art Programme Manager (National)

Elizabeth Edwards - Research Professor in Photographic History and Director of Photographic History

Research Centre, De Montfort University

Adrian Richardson, Chairman of the 1635 Household

Lucy Adlington – History Wardrobe

Catherine Bertola

Kerris Casey-St.Pierre

Caroline Eccles

Steve Fairclough

Cath Ford

Joanne Halliwell

Jacqui Sharples - Print for Love of Wood

Stephen Caton and Howard Marsden - Source Creative

David Oxley and team - The Palace of Curiosities

Adrian Richardson

Duncan Richardson

Dominique Dunand Clarke

Jennifer Morton

Eoin Gallagher

Josh Owen

Sophie Skellern


With a special thank you to the publication contributors:

Bob Clark

Harry Dobbs

Caroline Eccles

Christine Elder

Shirley Ellis

Cath Ford

Mary Hartley

Steph Hawke

Geoffrey Herd

Carol Higson

Nigel Hillier

Terry Hodgson

Martin Holtby

Angela Hughes

Claire Hunter

Shonagh Ingram Short

Kathleen Keene

Paul Kirkup

Peter Kirkup

Lowerhouse Primary – Year 6

David McLoughlin

Sue Millichap

Paul Nutter

Padiham Archives

Lee Pilkington

Mike Rampton

Kieron Ridehalgh

David Smith

Jennifer Wilson

‘Just got the publications through the post, they are brilliant, great lay out and wonderful stories.’ Mike Rampton – publication contributor ‘It is a splendid piece of work and I very much appreciate the number of my dad's photos that have been included. I've been trying to decide whether he would be proud, annoyed or just plain amazed! I think on balance that he probably would mutter a bit, but would actually be quietly proud of the fact.’ Paul Kirkup – publication contributor


Appendices

Appendix 1 – Activity Schedule

Date Activity Venue / location Involved

Audience Active Participants

Experts/Artists

MPA/ Volunteers

21.8.13 Family Friendly Activity Day Gawthorpe Hall 152 80 4 3

28.8.13 Family Friendly Activity Day Gawthorpe Hall 98 60 4 4

7.9.13 Discussion event – art and heritage

Gawthorpe Hall stables

20 20 5 2

14.9.13 Coffee morning – gathering & sharing event

Padiham Library/Padiham Town Hall

62 4 (oral recordings)

4 4

14.9.13 Heritage Open Days – gathering & sharing event

Gawthorpe Hall 30 9 (oral recordings)

2 4

28.9.14 Padiham Archive Open Day – project display

Padiham Town Hall

n/a n/a n/a 1

Sep-Mar Recording oral histories Various Gawthorpe Hall

n/a 4 3 n/a

7.10.13 Padiham Green Primary School – discovery visit

Gawthorpe Hall 34 30 4 n/a

7.10.13 Blog post - Portraits of the Past

Online 296 n/a 1 1

10.10.13 Whittlefield Primary School – discovery visit

Gawthorpe Hall 33 30 4 1

14.10.13 Padiham Green Primary School – workshop x 2

School 34 30 1 n/a

16.10.13 Whittlefield Primary School – workshop x 2

School 33 30 1 1

11.11.13 Padiham Primary School – discovery visit


12.11.13 History Wardrobe – Friends of Gawthorpe Event

Unity Church, Padiham

48 48 2 1

13.11.13 Padiham Primary School – workshop x 2

School 34 30 1 n/a

14.11.13 Lowerhouse Primary School – discovery visit


15.11.13 Lowerhouse Primary School – workshop x 2

School 34 30 1 n/a

Jan-Apr Collection of materials for publication and design process

Various n/a n/a 2 3

21.2.14 The Miners’ Hymn screening - gathering & sharing event

Padiham Town Hall Ballroom

157 40 2 3


Date Activity Venue / location Involved

Audience Active Participants

Experts/Artists

MPA/ Volunteers

27.2.14 Blog post - Teapoys and Wallpaper: A Voyage of Discovery at Gawthorpe Hall

Online 241 n/a 1 1

6.3.14 Lowerhouse Primary School – evaluation workshop x 2

School n/a 30 1 n/a

4.4.14 Family History Day – learning event

Gawthorpe Hall, Padiham Library & Padiham Town Hall

14 14 5 2

10.4.14 Blog post - Family History Exploration: Computers and Creativity!

Online 232 n/a 1 1

26.4.14 Publication launch and celebration event

Gawthorpe Hall stables and grounds

225 85 9 5

May 13 – Apr 14

Portraits of the Past website and image archive site

Online 1,420 200 (images submitted)

2 4

May 13 – Apr 14

Facebook posts x 73 Online 10,715 n/a n/a 5

Apr 14 Distribution of publication Various 600 n/a n/a 2

pop eval

Documents

family history day

project story

project legacy

history wardrobe event

evaluation report

past facts

celebration day

evaluation framework