Evaluation Report of the ArtCity Cultural Mapping Project

The ArtCity Cultural Mapping research project investigated components of the cultural environment in Stoke-on-Trent. The purpose was to provide information about arts venues, resources for local artists, and arts networks in the Stoke-on-Trent area. Designed to provide baseline information for the larger ArtCity project. The ArtCity project will explore the use of neglected buildings in the city to create venues for local artists and aims to encourage the retention of arts graduates in the local area.

The aims of the project were to:
• Train local artists in creative research techniques enabling co-production of the research agenda
• Enable local artists to undertake research into the provision of arts activity in the local area and into the needs of local artists
• Develop and implement an on-line survey to widen the reach of the research
• Analyse the data provided by the artists/researchers and on-line survey
• Provide the ArtCity Consortium with a report outlining the key findings of the research project.

The ArtCity Consortium has received a grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to undertake a project focused on disused city buildings and the retention in the city of student graduates in the arts.

The retention of graduates from local universities is a topic of great concern to the universities and the local authorities. According to Staffordshire University’s 2012Graduate Destinations Survey (Staffordshire University, 2012), 58% of respondents who are employed full-time work in the region, and 54% of respondents who are employed part-time work in the region. For these students, the top employers are educational institutions, local authorities, the NHS and the supermarkets. The ArtCity project is concerned with the retention of students with degrees in the arts, and these students are unlikely to be employed by the institutions mentioned above. Arts students who wish to practice their art form tend to be self-employed and only 2% of respondents are self-employed. Of these, only half work in the region. The ArtCity project recognises that, in order to retain arts graduates, the local area requires additional arts workspaces and studios, and further opportunities for collaboration between a wide varieties of practitioners.