Tender opportunity for our CPP programme

10 October 2013

A core ambition of the Arts Council is for more people to experience and be inspired by the arts, irrespective of where they live or their social, educational or financial circumstances.

The Arts Council has invested a total of £34 million in a small number of locations deemed to be of significant need. CPP focuses investment in parts of the country where people's involvement in the arts is significantly below the national average, with the aim of increasing the likelihood of participation.

Only places (single or groups of Local Authority areas) in the bottom quartile of adult arts participation were able to apply for funding. The first round of places were announced in June 2012 and the second round in May 2013. There are 18 places in total. All the places will receive grants for three years worth of activity with monetary value ranging from £838,500 to £3,000,000.

The investment will encourage long-term collaborations between local communities and arts organisations, museums, libraries and other partners such as local authorities and the private sector. It aims to empower them to experiment with new and radically different approaches and to develop inspiring, sustainable arts programmes that will engage audiences in those communities.

Overview

In order to effectively understand the success of the CPP programme and capture lessons to inform the work of the cultural sector, the Arts Council has commissioned A New Direction to undertake an evaluation of the programme on behalf of all the CPP areas. The emphasis is on generating new knowledge in terms of engaging communities in the arts and culture and sharing this with stakeholders and practitioners.

The programme evaluation will involve several different projects that will be commissioned during the course of the programme. This ITT, for a National Evaluation, is the first of those projects. It is intended to provide an overview evaluation of the CPP Programme. The remaining projects will include conferences and events, and small-scale projects exploring specific thematic topics emerging from the CPP Programme (possibly as a result of this project).

Evaluation Questions

The core evaluation questions are:

1. Are more people from places of least engagement experiencing and inspired by the arts?

2. To what extent was the aspiration for excellence of art and excellence of the process of engaging communities achieved?

3. Which approaches were successful and what were lessons learned?

Tender documents and submission

If you are interested in bidding for this work please download the tender documents below which include further details and submission guidance.

Download CPP01 - Main Evaluation ITT FINAL

Download CPP01 - Main Evaluation ITT Annex 2 - ACE monitori

Download CPP01 - Main Evaluation ITT Annex 3 - Critical Fri

Tenders should be submitted by 5pm on 31 October 2013.

If you have any questions about the Invitation to Tender, please get in touch with Steven Murray.

Questions asked and answers given will be posted in the document below and updated as necessary.

Download CPP01 - Main Evaluation ITT Q&A v1