METHODS 31
WAAS, Bureau for the Validation of Art
at 'Social Works? Live', 2019.
AIMS AND DESIGN
As is standard in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, the programme
was structured around given roles — a lead academic
from the knowledge base partner (in this case Amanda Ravetz,
ManMet) a supervisor from the company partner (in this case
Mark Smith from Axisweb), a KTP associate to project manage
the knowledge exchange (in this case Rebecca Senior 2017 – 18;
and Lucy Wright 2019 – 20).
The team employed action research, guided by the stages
‘Look, Think, Act,’ (adapted from Stringer, 2007). Within this
we conducted 40 semi-structured interviews, supporting
surveys and devised a programme of artist-led commissions
in light of the results, which stakeholder group members were
invited to apply for.
PARTICIPANTS AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE
An advisory steering group of artists, participants and members
from organisations committed to social practice was convened
by invitation at the beginning of the project, with positive action
taken to support equality, diversity and inclusion. The group
met face to face and was invited to contribute to the ongoing
development of the research (see Appendix 4, Advisory Group).
A separate stakeholder group was also established through
a combination of open call and targeted invitation. The ‘snowball
method’ was used to broaden the group, with members
asked to nominate other individuals they thought would benefit
from being involved with the project. The group was crucial in
supporting the values of social artists as outlined in the pilot
research, which had stressed the importance of a bottom-up