English Heritage - Creative Programming Evaluation Research

English Heritage's Creative Programme is a rolling programme aiming to produce outstanding artistic commissions, interventions and projects that draw inspiration from the iconic sites and collections English Heritage looks after and that imaginatively engage with England's histories. The programme works with contemporary artists and creative practitioners in media including visual art, music, theatre, literature and dance to bring England's stories to life whilst retaining historical authenticity. The Creative Programme includes commissioning, installations, interventions, residencies, partnership projects and exhibitions, and it typically comprises 3-4 projects annually.

Each year English Heritage (EH) undertakes a number of new creative programming projects at a range of sites. These projects can be anything from a small exhibition of new work by an artist to a large-scale commission in the landscape, with investment in this year's projects ranging from £5,000 to £75,000 per project. Many projects are in visual arts, but the Creative Programme also includes poetry, performance, music and other art forms.

Historically we have evaluated Creative Programming on a project-by-project basis, developing bespoke evaluations for each site. As the programme grows, we are looking to develop an evaluation approach or toolkit which can be applied across the full spectrum of Creative Programming projects and can be used for years to come.

This research will therefore aim to develop a robust evaluation approach or toolkit which can be used to evaluate projects on every scale against their intended outcomes and organisational KPIs.