Background
In December 2017 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport awarded Coventry the title of UK City of Culture 2021 (UK CoC 2021). UK City of Culture is a designation given to a city (or local area) in the United Kingdom for a year and involves a range of cultural activities.
Coventry’s programme was built and delivered through an extensive partnership between public, private and civic, higher education, place-defined stakeholders and citizens. Due to a delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, UK CoC 2021 took place between May 2021 and May 2022.
Monitoring, evaluation and knowledge exchange
To support assessment and learning, an independent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team (including members from University of Warwick, Coventry University and Coventry City Council) developed a performance measurement and evaluation strategy ahead of the UK CoC 2021 year. Outcome criteria were examined during and at the end of the programme of activities, with evaluation reports written to consider how successful UK CoC 2021 had been in meeting its objectives.
From April 2022 I worked for Coventry University and managed a UKRI/Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) place-based knowledge exchange project – City Change Through Culture: Securing the Place Legacy of Coventry City of Culture 2021 (£137,500).
Integral to this role was joining the M&E team. This provided a steep learning curve, as I had to familiarise myself with the history, politics and personalities involved across the wider UK CoC 2021 programme to be able to contribute.
Editing: focus studies and social value analysis
Several UK CoC 2021 outcomes were addressed through focus studies undertaken by commissioned research teams at Coventry University and the University of Warwick. I offered editorial support during the report writing phase – working on multiple iterations – and liaised between the M&E team and the lead authors to agree and finalise reports. These studies explored:
- volunteering, wellbeing and civic pride
- civic, cultural and business partnerships
- integrating the environmental theme into UK CoC 2021
- faith and culture.
Tim was an absolutely invaluable member of the team that supported a research project I worked on – when we evaluated the Faith and Culture aspects of Coventry City of Culture 2021.
Tim helped us to edit the final report, gently guiding us and ensuring we could maximise impact, readability and focus for the themes we were presenting. He made sure that we kept within the framework of our brief and was the liaison between the funder and the research team, managing relations between the two.
We couldn’t have done this without his help, enthusiasm as well as research, editorial and project management skills.
Dilwar Hussain, formerly assistant professor
at the Centre for Peace, Trust and Social Relations, Coventry University
The M&E team also commissioned a consultancy to undertake social value assessment of specific activities within the UK CoC 2021 programme. Case studies applied social value methodology, evaluated social return on investment and identified benefits to individuals and the local community.
For each of these reports I provided developmental feedback and copyediting support to optimise the text and improve readability. I suggested adding greater context to help non-specialist readers understand the activity that had taken place and added consistency, as the reports were each written by multiple authors.
Content writing: evaluating UK CoC 2021 website
Given the number of outputs and reports produced, I built, populated and managed the Evaluating Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 website to disseminate findings. It has 76 pages that tell the story of UK CoC 2021 and provide resources and findings for stakeholders
Having taught myself to use WordPress, I mapped a structure, assessed reports and identified important messages to provide summaries of M&E strategy, research and events, including information, reports and evaluation findings. (The site was subsequently redesigned. To ensure accurate content and functionality I reviewed and updated every page.)
The website brings together in one place outputs and results of activities to support insight and lessons learnt. These can be shared with future national cultural events, as well as with local Coventry place-based knowledge exchange and partnership development.
The website has been well-received by stakeholders.
Project management
In addition to the associated M&E tasks, I managed other UK CoC 2021 related project knowledge exchange activities. I scoped an initial delivery plan that was developed further with colleagues and partners. It outlined varied innovative knowledge exchange activities and approaches to share results, including the UK CoC 2021 evaluation website.
I co-organised events including webinars on data analysis and for each focus study, the Coventry Cultural Challenge hackathon and the Walking Through Coventry Data digital exhibition. I coordinated the development of the animated video (above) that provided reflections on the monitoring and evaluation process (with each member of the M&E team narrating a section).
I managed partners, risk and budget, and oversaw contractual reporting to the AHRC that detailed accomplishments, results and potential impact. The project achieved its objectives on time and within budget.
Coventry Cultural Challenge hackathon
Following its year as UK City of Culture, Coventry had become rich in cultural data. The Coventry City Council’s Insights Team wanted to examine these data to see how they could be used to define concepts and ideas that could benefit the city. On behalf of Coventry University, I realised the vision by designing, managing and leading the successful delivery of the Coventry Cultural Challenge hackathon.
Over a weekend interdisciplinary teams were given unprecedented access to local big data, including from UK CoC 2021, and were asked to develop creative and innovative ideas/proposals. These had to be forward-looking, evidenced by the data, linked to culture, and have the potential to ‘make life better in Coventry’.
The event required detailed planning and management. I prepared a delivery plan and updated it as decisions were made about the theme and objectives, the dates and schedule (for the online pre-event and weekend) and the data that would be made available.
A venue was found and wi-fi passwords, stationery and catering requirements were confirmed. Teams of participants were recruited, a jury of experts was appointed and criteria were defined for the selection of winners, with prizes bought and certificates prepared.
I developed a pre-event webpage that was subsequently updated to reflect the weekend and featured each team’s presentation. Participants were regularly updated through a Slack channel, their permission was given for filming and ultimately their feedback was gathered.
The event ran smoothly and was viewed as a success.
I had the absolute pleasure and privilege to work with Tim as part of our shared endeavour to monitor and evaluate Coventry’s year as the UK City of Culture. No matter what the work was, Tim demonstrated a consistent can-do attitude, and kept us going with his attention to detail, clear communication, and arsenal of project management skills.
One of those project was his ability to turn my idea for a data hackathon into what became the Coventry Cultural Challenge, a complex two-day weekend event that involved numerous logistical challenges. Tim’s approach and reliability kept everyone to task, and enabled us to bring together disparate stakeholders from Coventry City Council, Coventry University, University of Warwick, alongside cultural and business leaders to come up with innovative projects and concepts to ‘make life better’ in Coventry!
Si Chun Lam, head of research, intelligence, and inclusive growth, West Midlands Combined Authority (formerly Coventry City Council Insights team)
Walking Through Coventry Data digital exhibition
Coventry’s year as City of Culture generated an unprecedented amount of data relating to cultural participation, perceptions and engagement.
The Walking Through Coventry Data event celebrated the city and its cultural heritage. It highlighted the types of data and images available to members of the public and interested city stakeholders.
Coventry data, photographs and videos of Coventry through the years were displayed on the gallery walls to provide a new way for visitors to understand the city.
The digital exhibition was created by a team from Coventry City Council and Coventry University. I organised the non-content elements that enabled the event to take place.