Evaluation report Made in Tenby

1. Tell us how your project went. What were the key outcomes? What worked well? What didn’t work well? Does the project have a legacy? If you’re an individual, how has the funded activity helped develop your practice?

My intention was to celebrate and validate the importance of community by photographing as wide a range of local people and groups as possible and putting the work on display at the local Museum. Though this was undoubtedly a fine art project it was designed to be accessible and inclusive. I deliberately chose sitters from all social and age groups to ensure this.

This then evolved to include an element of the past and by photographing every child from all three junior schools, the future.

There were four elements, the contemporary portraits which I created, the Squibbs archive photographs with the accompanying soundscape of narrated poems and the music of the Tenby Male Voice choir, the trays full of old photographs acquired from the local newspaper and a series of short films featuring local children and photographer Mick Brown.

It all seemed to work, people were engaged looking at the archive work for the entire twenty-five-minute screening, we had people rummaging in the print trays for such a long time the Museum had to bring in chairs and then coming back to visit twice or three times to see what they had missed, and then there were all the portraits on the wall, the reaction to which has had such a positive effect on all the community it has been extraordinary, people like to see themselves and their friends validated by being part of an exhibition, particularly in our local museum. There is no doubt the exhibition brought the entire community together and appealed to all ages and backgrounds.

It would be fair to say the entire project was a success, by defining the key objectives at the outset and working with Sharron I developed a framework that guided the entire project. Having a defined goal enabled us to evolve and develop the project as we went along.

As it developed it was obvious that this had developed into a legacy project that required a considerable amount of time to meet our goals. In the long term, the additional time taken is irrelevant, but for future projects, I will try to estimate the time needed at a more realistic level.

A complete collection of the work will be deposited in both the Pembrokeshire Archive and the National Libary of Wales and there is an online website with all the work accessible for all.

As regards the development of my practice, I made a decision to photograph the entire project with a large format camera, going down this route presented a few challenges but it was important for the integrity of the project to do so, by taking this path I have created what I feel to be a body of work that has merit and will enable me to take this approach to my next project.

Finally the question of funding, without the support of the Arts Councill none of this would have been possible, I would like to think the investment you made in this project will benefit the community for a long time to come. Thank you.

2. Audience/Participant Engagement - How did it go? What did you learn? Is there anything you’d do differently in the future? Tell us how your audience/participants experienced the work or how it impacted them. If your project did not include reaching audiences and participants as part of the project (e.g. it focussed on developing your arts practice or business development), tell us how any work you have undertaken might help you do this as you take your work forward.

Made in Tenby did everything I had hoped to achieve and more because of the nature of the exhibition and the combination of all the elements it has created a body of work that the entire community has taken ownership of, there is pride in having an exhibition which is about them, which was exactly what I hoped would happen.

On the 11th of November, The visitor numbers were approximately 3,250 ( in comparison the previous year the numbers were 412) though this is just tickets sold, the actual is higher as school groups are free and as a ticket was for the entire exhibition some people visited on multiple occasions the attendance has been five times higher than the previous year's exhibition attendance figures and the demand was so great that the exhibition was extended.

The visitor age range was from young children trying to spot themselves in the school and team rugby pictures to very senior citizens looking at the Squibbs Archive images of, in some cases their own weddings in the 1950s.

I also made a point of arranging every class from the three junior schools to visit the show, and they were all given copies of a local history booklet donated by the Tenby Observer as I wanted to ensure that the children felt at one with the entire community.

At the start of the project I was given the entire archive of the local photographer which dated back to the 1950’s, I used these images online to create interest in the project and the stories posted about the wedding pictures events and portraits have been an extra element that created connections all over country. I have now deposited all this work in the Pembrokeshire Archive where it will be preserved for future generations.

The unanticipated additional engagement came in the form of the Squibbs archive, I uploaded various portraits and wedding pictures dating from the 1950s onwards onto the local community social media site and the response from these has been incredibly rewarding. When I last checked there were 60,915 interactions with the work posted on the Tenby through Time website

For an overview, a link is here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/388311698004514/user/819233271

Had the Made in Tenby project just consisted of the work in the gallery it would have been a success but having the additional online section, the comments, interactions and the goodwill it has created throughout the entire community would have made the project worthwhile in itself it certainly widened the range of audience and has engaged on so many levels.

For an overview, a link is here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/388311698004514/user/819233271

3. Project Management - Did the proposed partnerships/collaborations work? Were there any unexpected issues or challenges? Or any areas you feel you excelled in?

The project was conceived as a collaboration working with Sharron Harris, Josh Richards, Nicky Lloyd, Mick Brown and Phil Okwedy, the students of Carmarthen College and accessing the archive of Squibb's studio.

The only element that went amiss was getting any students to participate, I suspect this was down to them being interested in working on their own projects and the need to be available in term time, though as the project evolved the reality was there was no need for an assistant.

The other lack of hands-on participation came from Phil, whose schedule expanded so much that he had no time to spend time on the project, though he did advise on the direction and approach of the soundscapes, and I did manage to photograph him for the exhibition.

The collaboration with Sharron was far better than I had hoped, the initial thought was for her to interview the school children and possibly do some Vox pops, what actually happened was we did the school interviews, then combined Mick Browns photography with an interview with him talking about an outsiders view on how Tenby has changed, and we worked closely to create the film of the archive images with the music of the Male Voice choir and the poetry narration.

Sharron also made a number of mini-documentaries which we posted on social media to help publicise the event.

I asked Nicky Lloyd a local poet to select works appropriate to the images then Josh Richards, who as luck would have it is a Shakespearian actor, and even better is working at the moment in Emerdale, which enabled him to record them at ITV’s studio.

Tenby Male Voice Choir provided us with their entire back catalogue, and their musical director helped guide our selection, as well as turning up for a group photograph.

The slight curveball was the acquisition of the entire archive of Graham Hughes which is so vast that I spent a considerable amount of time scanning and selecting pictures that related to the project, this added element of the community in the 50’s undoubtedly enhanced the exhibition and allowed me to generate interest by posting some of the images unsocial media.

The final element of the collaboration was the Tenby Observer donated their entire print archive, which was presented in photographic trays, allowing visitors to browse through the prints, they also donated hundreds of Tenby through Times, a series of booklets looking at Tenby through the ages, these were given to every child that visited on their school trip.

Managing the project was incredibly straightforward, I was fortunate to work with experienced professionals who have spent life time working to deadlines, all I did was ask people to provide content and it was delivered.

Admittedly I ended up having to paint the gallery walls and hang the entire show myself due to a tad of confusion with the Museum staff, but that was the only issue that was unforeseen.

4. Budgetary changes – Did the original budget change significantly? If costs increased, please tell us how you managed the shortfall. If you needed to change the way you used the funding, did you agree changes to your budget in advance with your project officer? Please state any budgetary changes that were made.

The budget certainly evolved, primarily on the time spent by both myself and Sharron, the amount of materials used and the anticipated print sales which did not happen because the majority of people bought the book instead.

The cost of materials was far in excess of the original budget, this was in part due to price increases, particularly the film and print costs and the amount I ended up using primarily because the project expanded as it progressed.

The funds budgeted for the students were put against the increased material costs and the rest of the additional cost was funded by me.

5. Any additional information - If there’s anything else you’d like to tell us about your project that hasn’t been included above, please use this space. Please note that you can upload any further evaluation, examples of work and images on the supporting information page.

The goodwill and desire to make the project work by all the collaborators was incredibly positive, we are all born and bred in Tenby and wanted to produce a body of work that celebrated our community, what I had not anticipated happening was the community took ownership of the project, the numbers who visited the museum for the first time in years is testimony to this.

Made in Tenby seemed to give the entire community a lift, the pride in being, or knowing somebody on the wall in the museum, was palpable, it would be fair to say the entire town became collaborators in the project which was exactly what I hoped would happen.