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Arts Alive evaluation

Evaluations of the Arts Alive programme

Pupils and professinal artists playing musical instruments in a church and waving, smiling, making funny faces to the camera

Arts Alive is a creative arts in education programme for schools delivered by Scottish Book Trust, in collaboration with Scotland's National Performing Companies. It invites schools from across Scotland to apply either for fully funded artist residencies, or single artist or practitioner school sessions.

During our most recent Arts Alive school residencies project (2021–22):

  • 13 residencies were delivered across 14 schools in Scotland
  • 711 pupils and 71 learning professionals took part
  • 92% of pupils found an art form they'd like to continue
  • 100% of artists said the residency was a valuable experience for them

Key conclusions

The programme launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as our evaluation shows, Arts Alive has delivered really positive results and outcomes over the period 2020-22. There is strong evidence that:

Our impact

Here are some highlights from our August 2022 evaluation reports. You can download the full reports below.

School residencies 2021–22

  • 711 pupils and 71 learning professionals took part in the residencies

  • 13 residencies were delivered across 14 schools, from Orkney to North Ayrshire

  • 40,044 hours of pupil engagement were delivered by the residencies, with each pupil receiving an average of 51 hours of artist engagement

  • 100% of learning professionals feeding back agreed that their pupils enjoyed the residency.

  • 100% of learning professionals feeding back said that their pupils engaged confidently in their residency

  • 100% of learning professionals agreed that it is important for their pupils to have the opportunity to be creative

  • 100% of pupils feeding back said they enjoyed the art form they had engaged in, to some degree, with 50% saying they enjoyed it 'a lot'. When choosing words to describe how they feel about the art form, 42% selected 'exciting', 25% 'fun' and 'adventure'.

  • 92% pupils responding to the feedback survey selected one or more art forms they'd like to engage with in the future, with playing an instrument, drawing / art and song writing all being selected by 75% of respondents

  • 100% of artists feeding back said the residency was a valuable experience for them.

  • 100% of artists feeding back said they were likely to work in schools in the future.

  • Both learning professionals and artists noted the excellent support provided by Arts Alive, with learning professionals rating it an average of 5/5 and artists an average of 4.9/5.

School sessions 2020–22

  • 76 session fees among 24 artists in 9 local authorities were paid out. Events benefitted 1,221 pupils and 66 learning professionals, and providing a total of 1831.5 hours of artistic engagement.

  • 92% of learning professionals who fed back:

o agreed that their pupils enjoyed the sessions

o agreed that their pupils engaged confidently in the session

o agreed both that the session was a valuable experience for their pupils and for themselves

  • 100% of learning professionals said that they enjoyed the session.

    • 100% of learning professionals said they would be likely to have artist sessions in the future as a result of their engagement with Arts Alive, suggesting that Arts Alive single sessions can act as a good 'introduction' to hosting artists in school, as one third of schools reported that they had not had artist sessions of any kind in school before.
    • 100% of artists who fed back said they enjoyed the session, and 94% agreed that the school provided the support they needed to run a high-quality session
    • 100% of artists feeding back said they were 'very likely' to work in schools again in the future
    • 100% of artists said that the session was a valuable experience for them
    • All learning professionals that fed back rated the support from Arts Alive at 5/5 and comments from artists also confirm a high level of support.

What participants said

It showed me how to become what I want to become.

- Pupil, session diary

It makes be feel smiley and joyful.

- Pupil, post-residency survey

We are in an area of deprivation so for the children to get an experience like this, it's invaluable.

- Learning professional, post-residency survey

I'm used to working in a studio with people who come to me. I'd never been in public schools in Scotland to do that kind of work.

- Artist, interview

Find out more about previous projects and the impact of the programme on our Arts Alive in action page.

Downloads

Evaluation reports