Appetite is a three year, Arts Council England funded project which aims to get more people in Stoke-on-Trent experiencing and inspired by the arts. Appetite has held a range of events from the popular Play Me, I’m Yours pianos dotted around the City, to immersive street theatre and outdoor festivals. The involvement of local people is key to the Appetite programme.
Appetite is funded by Arts Council England and is led by the New Vic Theatre in partnership with B Arts, Brighter Futures, Partners in Creative Learning and Staffordshire University. Appetite is one of 21 Creative People and Places projects across England.
Appetite kick-started the programme in Summer 2013 through its Taster Menu by presenting a feast of tasty family friendly events featuring world-class artists, shows and activities for the people of Stoke-on-Trent. Appetite’s main focus is working with community groups across the area to find out ‘what the people of Stoke-on-Trent really want from the arts?’
CCU evaluation of Appetite
The Creative Communities Unit is responsible for the evaluation of Appetite using Get Talking, our model of Participatory Action Research. This means we are helping local people to take a full and active role in the evaluation. One way we are doing this is through involving a network of Get Talking volunteers to help us evaluate Appetite. Using Get Talking also means we use creative methods and we listen and take action based on the feedback we get.
In year 1 of the Appetite Programme the CCU went to events and spoke to audiences, community hub members and artists to get feedback on their experiences. This was to answer three questions:
- Are more people in Stoke on Trent experiencing and inspired by the arts?
- To what extent has Appetite’s aspiration for excellence of art and excellence of the process of engaging communities been achieved?
- Which approaches to engagement, inspiration and excellence have been successful?
To help us with our consultations for Appetite we linked up with a Travelling Tea Room, and invited people to come and talk to us about the art they were seeing. We have also used creative tools to help talk to people, such as a wish tree, paper plates and doilies, rubber ducks and balloons. If you would like to find out more about creative consultation tools and techniques please contact us to have a chat.
The report evaluating the first year of the Appetite programme is available to read and download here.
As part of the evaluation, we have been producing several case studies exploring the impact of Appetite on local people who have been involved in various parts of the programme. Take a look at our case studies page to find out more.
You can view Appetite’s upcoming events and opportunities on their website.
Get involved in the evaluation
You can get involved in the evaluation of Appetite by:
- Becoming part of our Get Talking Network. All Get Talking volunteers will be trained in Get Talking approaches to evaluation.
- Telling us your experience of Appetite for a case study
- Emailing us your thoughts about Appetite at evaluateappetite@staffs.ac.uk
- Coming and talking to us at CCU (or we can come to you or your group)