PlaCE Programme - Interim Report: Years 1 to 3 [May 2023]
16 May 2023
Background
The Platforms for Creative Excellence (PlaCE) programme is a unique three-way partnership between the Scottish Government, the City of Edinburgh Council, and the Edinburgh Festivals. Created in 2018 as a legacy of the festivals' 70th anniversary year in 2017, this five-year programme aims to support the festivals' strategic development across three primary areas of work and this report provides analysis of progress in delivery Years 1-3 (2019/20 to 2021/22) – a period which was hugely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the festivals’ resulting ability to deliver planned activity in both Year 2 (2020/21) and Year 3 (2021/22).
Interim Report: Findings
1. Sustained and strengthened programming innovation
- Proportion of participants taking part in PlaCE-funded activities (rather than general festival activities) increased from 28% in Year 1 to 53% in Year 3
- PlaCE funding supported and enabled production of high-quality cultural outputs, affirmed by 95% of programming partners
- PlaCE funding helped diversify the festivals' contributors/partners, according to 88% of core staff
- Number of activity strands funded by PlaCE remained relatively stable despite the challenging conditions
- PlaCE funding provided flexibility and support in shifting services online and continuing to commission ambitious work
- PlaCE funding played a significant role in festival resilience through the pandemic
2. Increased creative development opportunities across Scotland
- Co-created PlaCE activities and initiatives increased by 360%, indicating that models of collaboration have developed positively
- PlaCE partnerships with other arts and culture organisations and professionals remained relatively high (133 in Year 3)
- Number of international PlaCE partnerships dropped significantly, likely because of pandemic-induced restrictions
- Fewer PlaCE opportunities were provided to emerging practitioners reflecting a general move towards supporting established professionals who had lost their livelihood during the pandemic
- Levels of new collaborative partnerships returned in Year 3, with 283 individual cultural practitioners engaged for the first time through PlaCE funding, with 85% based in Scotland
- In the same year, 551 cultural professionals participated in PlaCE networking and skills development, with 85% reporting enhanced skills and knowledge they could not find elsewhere
3. Improved lives for citizens/communities through cultural engagement
- Despite the disruption of Covid, the number of community participants increased by a third during Years 1-3 of the PlaCE programme, and the number of school engagements rose by 72%
- Postcode data shows that this activity is well matched to need as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
- Community partners report high levels of satisfaction from their PlaCE engagement, with 97% reporting clear positive outcomes
- PlaCE has enabled festivals to engage with new and existing community/school partners at scale, across Edinburgh and Scotland
- Festivals report PlaCE transforming their work, democratising approaches, and taking a more equitable approach to co-creation
Recommendations
- Further explore, in the remaining funding period, how festivals are able to build resilience and capacity coming out of the pandemic
- Implement structured needs analyses, especially for emerging and early-stage professionals
- Share the learning and best practice from schools and community work both within the PlaCE cohort, and beyond Edinburgh
- Revisit international priorities and ways of working in the context of environmental concerns and global financial instability
- Funders (and Creative Scotland) to highlight and support effective forms of international collaboration.