2. In summary
IMAGINE 2015 consisted of 59 events and workshops across Sutton, all with the aim of
encouraging arts in our community. This report will outline the programme, partners, feedback from
the organisers and the audience and will conclude with recommendations for IMAGINE 2016.
Festival programme
The purpose of this year’s festival was to makes arts accessible to everyone, bringing a wide variety
of quality arts events and projects into libraries, which are a beacon for the community. From
16th-31st October 2015, the London Borough of Sutton delivered 24 events across 8 of the 9
libraries and Beddington Park, in addition to a further 35 workshops from June to October, which
included dance, live literature, puppetry, crafts, music and painting for all ages and abilities.
It was the first time that the festival had brought in match funding from Arts Council England, in
addition to sponsorship from Successful Sutton and Arts Network Sutton. This enabled the festival to
remain entirely free to the public and offer quality arts experiences, with a mixture of small and large
events.
3. We wanted this festival to connect the arts, libraries and heritage in a way that would bring a
new perspective to the service for the staff and public, whilst maximising the resources available. As
a member of the public summarised for the Big Reveal, it was a “wonderful event - the banners, the
singing, the painting and the collaboration of art, heritage and culture”.
We wanted the festival to fulfill our council-led community wellbeing aims of increasing
confidence, encouraging social engagement, getting people active, reducing
isolation and promoting intergenerational activities. The festival managed to do all of this
and much more.
A good example of this was the creative workshops at Rylands and Abbeyfield care homes in
Wallington, run by Robin Vaughan-Williams, a local poet. He creatively captured the stories of many
of the residents, which were then worked on by young people and adults to be performed on the
main stage of the Central library and Skyped back to the homes.
It was a truly intergenerational event that gave the elderly a sense of connection to the
community and emotionally moved many of the public. Comments included: “felt it was a great
performance from the children and lovely to hear the old people reading their own words”, “Really
good! Inspiring! Great to see the community together for something different and creative”.
4. Dance was a key theme for the festival and a key way to
get people active through the arts. With our dance events
we reached people aged 4 to 75 with a contemporary piece
linked to the history of Croydon airport and a ‘50s themed
event with ‘50s dance, decorations and music, again
connecting arts, libraries and heritage.
Craft and visual arts were very popular, from the Big Draw
event run by Wallington Girls School, which over 100 people
attended, to Mapping Sutton by Amanda Randell and painting
workshops with ARt workshops. Many quoted the craft events
as being “relaxing” and “therapeutic”.
One of the workshop hosts said, “A mum of a young boy
turned up at the Sutton Life Centre after having taken part in
my morning workshop at the Central library... She explained
that he is normally very restless and hard to motivate but that
during my session he was unprecedentedly calm and
focused. When I left the library she was arranging for her son
to attend the next art activity there”.
5. We aimed to engage 1,500 members of the public, as a combined total of audience and
participants. The festival managed to go far beyond this with the final figure at just over 2,270
audience members and 550 participants giving a total of 2,820.
Ninety percent of the events were fully booked or over subscribed. However, as the events were free,
occasionally up to a third did not show, so we added a waiting list and suggested those people take
the risk and attend on the day to fill the gaps. This meant most of the events were at maximum
capacity.
This total number was less than last year. However, in 2014, over 2000 people came for one large
high street event which we did not have this year, as we were concerned about the weather. This
programme was also more focused on a long lasting and quality experience that was unique and
impactful for all who took part. This is a huge improvement on the visitor figures of just over 1000 from
pre-2014 Imagine festivals and far greater than our baseline figure.
With the help of volunteers, we have also gathered extensive evaluation from over 500 people, which
helps to give us a very clear picture on who is engaging with the festival and their experiences.
6. Audience feedback
Do you regularly use libraries in
Sutton?
Have you previously attended a council
supported arts event?
The results show that most were regular library users and experiencing LBS supported arts events
for the first time.
NO 69%NO 35%
YES 65% YES 31%
regularly use libraries in Sutton?
Which libraries do people use most?
Sutton Central
34%
Wallington
24%
Westcroft
18%
Worcester Park
11%
Sutton Life Centre, Cheam and Circle 4%
7. Where is the audience
coming from?
What age?
0
20
40
60
80
100
SM6 21%
SM5 19%
SM1 14%
SM2 8 %
Croydon 8%
In 2014, we discovered that those aged 75+ and 17-25 years old were not as engaged in the
festival, but we were reaching families. To address this, we offered more intergenerational events
such as ‘Tea and Cake with John Hegley’ and ‘Flight of Dance’.
Under 16 37 %
45-65 19%
36-44 17%
26-35 9%
75 + 8
66-74 6%
17-25 4%
Compared to 2014, we
have a slight
increase in engaging those
over 75 and aged
between 26-44.
The festival still has a large
family focus with a majority
of the audeince aged
under 16 and their
parents.
8. Marketing
How did you hear about the event?
Brochure 18%
Word of mouth
40%
Other 20%
Library 11%
Figures for how people heard about events
are fairly similar to 2014. However, there is
little mention of newspapers, despite having
a full page ad and distributing the
brochures with the Sutton Guardian.
Attendance for all events was much higher
this year. We started promotion earlier (from
late August), using eventbrite to help track
progress on bookings and working more
with the community partners and friends
groups all helped raise attendance figures.
Marketing was a concern for the artists who took part in Imagine 2014. With more time and budget
spent on marketing this year, we managed to fill events and satisfy those leading the projects. As a
result, the average score for marketing from the artists was 4.3 out of 5.
Online 11%
Volunteering
We had volunteers aged 15 to 65+ who helped with the event management and marketing. By
working with schools, we were able to give new skills to young volunteers. As Beth said, “It taught
me many skills which may be helpful in the future in work, such as writing and using different online
tools”. Equally, it was important to inspire a sense of belonging for the volunteers. As Anne
commented, “It was good to feel part of a group doing something worthwhile for the community”.
All of the volunteers said the experience exceeded expectations.
9. I think we should do more of these. Lovely, the guys really enjoyed themselves expressing
their feelings through arts and learning some great artistic skills.
Exhilarating. It was very fun and very different from anything I have ever done before.
My Kids got creative and calm. They really enjoyed it and so did I. Very theraputic. Once in a
lifetime trip. Delightful, humorous, thoughtful, nostalgic and gentle.
Makes me want to write poetry. Fun, stimulating, moving - brilliant to have so many groups
in the community brought together in one event. Something different for the kids to see and
experience.
It was good to see young people showcasing their talent. It’s amazing, my son enjoyed
every minute. We as a family really enjoyed the painting which involved all ages, would like to see
more events like this. Feeling proud of Croydon Airport history
Inspired, rejuvenated, empowered and overall awe! Lovely to see a combination of music and
storytelling together. Visual and aural aspects refreshing in this age of technology.
Brilliantly organised and aimed perfectly at the audience.
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Comments
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10. Organisers Feedback: What were the benefits of
using a library?
Being in the heart of the community. Judy Okeke, Sutton Age Uk
The results speak for themselves - a celebration of the local area, past and present.
- Ms Kathleen Shawcross, Borough Archivist & Local Studies Manager
New families joined the library whose children had taken part in the event. - Circle Library
Everyone Active were delighted to be involved such an event, which pulled the community
together to celebrate local history and produced a fantastic dance.
- Paul Lambert, General Manager, Phoenix Centre, Everyone Active
It was wonderful to be able to offer such a wide variety of cultural activity within the borough’s
libraries. It helped to bring in new audiences and challenge perceptions of what libraries
can be about. It was also good to be able to build connections with local artists and performers,
so that we can increase the types of activities and events we can offer to our local communities in
the future. - Rachel Levy, Development Manager, Libraries & Heritage Service.
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Exceeded expectations 75%
11. • Look at more flexible closing times for evening workshops based in the library buildings
• Programme the festival for the 15th - 31st October 2016 to cover two weekends and half term again
• Outdoor events should be avoided for this time of year
• State ages 0-10 and 10-16 on feedback forms to better gauge the audiences engaging with the festival
• Improve the wifi connection
• Recruit volunteers earlier, at the end of August or start of September
• Charge a nominal fee of between £1- £5 for key events, or ask for a deposit between £1- £5 and refund the
price of the ticket using eventbrite
• Continue to use eventbrite for bookings
• Promote festival events in more printed magasines and newspapers
• Invest in a better PA for the libraries
I used Local Studies in planning workshops, which provided lots of useful material (+ helpful staff). We worked
with mobile library users, who were very enthusiastic about the service. I think being associated with the library
gave us some credibility. We were able to use some other resources from the library too. The library was also
the venue for some workshops and our final event—good to be in a recognisable location with links in the
community, and get support from several staff members and affiliated institutions.
- Robin Vaughan-Williams, Tea and Cake with John Hegley
Library users offered a different kind of audience that might not expect to see dance.
- Henrietta Hale, Dog Kennel Hill Project Dance Company
Exploring new performance environments. Tapping into new audiences. Enhancing and galvanising creative
talents of library staff and volunteers.
- Sheree Vickers, Savvy Theatre
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Reccomendations for 2016
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12. Icon Credit Yaroslav Samoilov, Marie Van den Broeck and Maria Maldonado
discover experience enjoy
Funded by
Partners Sponsors
www.sutton.gov.uk/imagine #imaginesutton
