Making your nomination a winner

1Barclay Price, Director Arts & Business Scotland

The main points

• Reading between the (guide)lines

• What the judges are looking for

• Making the best case – the four ‘C’s

• Review

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Reading between the (guide)lines

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Take care to read the guidelines

Read the guidelines carefully.

The questions are framed as a guide to elicit the necessary information for comparison. However should your project be such that it is difficult to describe it by answering the set questions, then work within the framework as best you can but ensure you describe your project fully.

If in doubt about anything then ask.

Where there is a maximum word count keep to that – otherwise the judges may decided not to consider your nomination.

It’s a partnership

Involve both the arts organisation and the business in preparing the nomination – each will have useful input.

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What are the judges looking for ?

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Judges are looking for:

• A clear account of the project and the partnership

• A sense of how the partnership was noteworthy - plus evidence

• A sense that you want to win

• A compelling argument why your project should win against the competition

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Making the best case – the four ‘C’s

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The four ‘C’s

• Be Clear

• Be Compelling

• Be Convincing

• Be Concise

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Be clear10

Avoid arts or business speak

Aspect Productions is a complex and wide-ranging arts organisation, with Education at the heart of its work, drawing upon the breadth of the organisation as a whole. By encouraging professional composers, performers and artists to work within schools and the community at large, Aspect's Education department encourages art appreciation and facilitates the learning of many skills. It aims to extend well beyond entertainment to activities that inspire, educate and enrich the lives of a diverse community. Participation in our activities leaves a long and lasting impression in the minds of all the young people who take part. Year on year, it builds on the successes of previous years, it demystifies the arts, and provides access to excellent arts events.

(But what did they actually do?)

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Clarity is best

In an increasingly competitive market, and in the current economic climate, our company wants to retain its valued clients as well as attracting new ones. One of the ways we do this is by creating uniquely innovative events for our most valued clients. As soon as Racine’s Phèdre was scheduled, directed by Nicholas Hytner with Helen Mirren in the title role, we knew this was the perfect opportunity. Not only was Helen’s high artistic profile and recent Oscar an attractive element but we knew the National Theatre would be able to deliver the high quality unique events that we needed.

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Be compelling

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State the benefits

What She Would Have Wanted? is a community drama project that examines the issues affecting older people and the law. With the Royal Centre at the fulcrum the partnership was formed through two routes. Firstly Flint Solicitors began sponsoring the Royal Centre in 2005. This was the first time that they had sponsored an arts organisation and so were very keen to develop a closer relationship with the venue. Secondly, Ian Charles, of Usual Theatre Company and David Long of the Royal Centre, having experienced their own personal difficulties in regard to probate law, had been having discussions about using theatre-in-education to look at this issue. These initial thoughts became reality with the addition of Flint. Here was an opportunity to use the experience and expertise of Flint Solicitors to develop a touring TIE programme that examined the law and growing older and could be delivered free to a variety of community groups across the region in 2007 and 2008.

What made What She Would Have Wanted? so exciting and unique was the fact that we were able create a community show on a subject that hadn’t been utilised before and to target older person’s groups and other organisations, such as the Alzheimer’s Society, who had never previously worked with or had visits by a drama group. When faced with facts that only one third of the eligible population had made a will, this project became a very far-reaching and incredibly relevant piece of community drama.

The project was also important for the very close relationship that formed between the three organisations. Prior to the first performances of What She Would Have Wanted?, several months of research was undertaken with actors and solicitors joining forces in both the boardroom and the rehearsal room to shape this unique project. 

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Catch the judges’ attention

Quotes“I am writing to tell you what a great help you have been to my son Christopher. He has dyspraxia and taking part in regular workshops has been very beneficial to him socially, mentally and physically. In just one year he has advanced dramatically and is 100% involved…….you have succeeded where doctors and psychiatrists failed …"

Intriguing elementsA key element and highlight of the project saw 20 individual farmers taking part in a photography project to document their daily lives. This project produced some highly accomplished and interesting results and went on to form part of the exhibition at the Museum and a book, published by the Farmers Auction Mart and the museum, illustrating over 80 images

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Be convincing

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Explain what the benefit was

Over 5,000 members of the public were involved including our office staff, labourers and their families.

Over 1,500 local young people from primary and secondary schools performed alongside a professional cast with the majority having their first exposure to performance.

Port dockers/labourers took pride in being involved, hanging Christmas decorations and setting up/deinstalling the production - a completely different role to their normal daily tasks.

This project has provided a large-scale chance to raise local aspirations and give the town a home gown event for the community to be proud of.

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Provide hard facts

The company’s brand identity was clearly developed as a result of the sponsorship including:

•  The sponsorship rights valuation showed 221% return on investment

• 27% increase in company mortgage sales revealed, compared to same month in previous year

• 2797 visitors responded to a sponsors recall questionnaire, resulting in.

• 47 branded mentions achieved across local and national media TV, radio, and internet (sponsorship value around £50,000)

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Be concise19

If you’ve a fixed number of words then the punchier the better

• Edit hard

• Use bullet points

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Original nomination

The process of commissioning a sculpture as part of a DEFRA Funded breakwater scheme for Wisbeach began by Inspire (Public Art and Design Initiative) in the spring 2008. It culminated in the installation and launch of a ‘Couple’ by Sylvia Holmes in August 2009. The £10m breakwater scheme was proposed to strengthen the coastal defences in Wisbeach but also involved the re-creation of the beach that in the early-mid 20th Century attracted thousands of visitors to what was then a popular seaside attraction. The regeneration scheme has been a 10 year project undertaken by the Wildean District Council (WDC) and developed by Ayrton Consultants to assess the options for halting coastal erosion and it was with Ayrton Consultants that Tony Stroper (WDC) had worked to secure funding from DEFRA for the scheme to go ahead. The partnership was formed when Inspire identified an opportunity as part of this regeneration scheme to include a completely unique sculptural intervention and the most important element of the project; the first offshore sculpture in the UK. Wisbeach regeneration scheme, sea defence and Couple Sculpture was one of the only two projects funded by DEFRA in 2008-2009 and is an essential Sea defence for Blackcraw Bay. For the local people to understand the science and art element of the project and embrace this Inspire recognized that it was important that a high-profile sculpture like this was not only accepted by the community but should become something of which the community could be proud. Another unique element to the scheme was the successfully negotiated budget of £28,000 to be spent solely on an engagement programme that would involve many different sectors of the community and invite them to respond to Couple through creative writing, music and science. The success of this programme has been demonstrated in a number of innovative ways: the new branding for Blackcraw incorporates Couple. Local businesses have adopted the sculpture in their promotional literature, the newsagent was selling Couple Christmas cards, the local bakery sells Couple cakes and a Couple beer is sold in the Sailing Club bar. 346 words

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Edited version

As part of a £10m breakwater scheme to strengthen the coastal defences - and re-create the beach that in the early 20th Century attracted thousands of visitors - Wisbeach commissioned the first ever UK offshore sculpture in partnership with Inspire Public Art Initiative.

A key element of the project was a £28,000 programme enabling a variety of sectors of the community to understand the sculptural process through participating in creative writing, music and science activities.

The sculpture, ‘Couple’ by Sylvia Holmes, was unveiled in August 2009 and has swiftly became a local landmark. Such has been its success the local bakery now sells ‘Couple’ cakes and ‘Couple’ beer is on tap in the Sailing Club!

115 words

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Original nomination

Subsequent to the original development from support for the Junior Academy, to support for the Music School, there have been two important further projects. The first involved the musicians who were performing at Universal Theatre in December taking part in an educational workshop with schools and in collaboration with the University. Fourday Ltd then approached the music school about helping to develop a community programme to support their business in Poland. This resulted in the formation of a collaborative partnership between the Music School and the Polish Academy of Music. The project was sponsored by Fourday to support an imaginative exchange programme involving week- long reciprocal visits, with masterclasses in both countries . Teachers and students shared skills and techniques, and both visits culminated in public performances in Warsaw and Edinburgh attended by Fourday stakeholders and the wider community in Scotland and Poland. This in turn raised the profile nationally and internationally of the Music School. The partnership is valued by both partners. The collaboration with the University and local schools referred to above points the way forward to future possibilities involving the wider community. There may be additional opportunities to enhance the partnership and possibly develop the relationship in other ways, particularly relating to helping the Music School develop its organisational capability, one of Fourday’s key focus areas. The impact for the Music School has been significant: the awards to individual musicians have been a vital factor in making it possible for the School to establish and maintain its International reputation. 2

251 words

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Bullet edit

Key successes:

• Music School participants performed at Universal Theatre for 5 nights;

• Music School participants ran 14 workshops in local schools;

• Collaborative project engineered between Music School and Polish Academy of Music;

• Imaginative exchange programme between Scotland and Poland with 6 master classes and 8 week-long residencies;

• 2 performances in Edinburgh and 2 in Poland aimed at Fourday stakeholders;

• Potential for organisational development for Music School and further links with Poland;

• Enhanced international reputation for Music School.

82 words

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Stand back and have a look25

Give time for review

Prepare your nomination in advance so you can:

• show it to and discuss with your partner arts org or business.

• review it – the best ideas often come later.

• let others who don’t know about the project/partnership read it and give feedback on whether it meets the four ‘C’s criteria.

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And hopefully you may win...

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