Dublin City Council Culture Company Evaluation of the 2019 to 2024 Strategy
City Council Culture Company
Evaluation of the 2019 to 2024 Company Strategy
Dublin
Comhlacht Cultúir Chomhairle
Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath
In Summary
From 2019 to 2024, Dublin City Council Culture Company operated 1 museum, 1 cultural community centre and since 2021 produced an annual festival of history. Across Dublin City, on a continuous citiwide basis, we delivered 14 programmes in the areas of cultural heritage, creative engagement, oral history, cultural data and mapping, history, cultural participation and audience development.
675,444 people actively engaged with us through our buildings and programmes as participants, visitors and audience members. This participation involved them making something creative, joining a conversation, taking part in a cultural experience or attending a curated series of workshops and talks that responded directly to their interests and curiosity.
We worked together in 1,792 partnerships with community and cultural organisations and issued 1,998 contracts to artists, historians and cultural makers to deliver these collaborations.
Our programmes delivered 6,131 creative workshops, creative residencies, cultural events and fairs
We recorded 18,626 digital and paper feedback surveys from participants, artists, visitors and cultural partners and captured 327 project and programme evaluation reports with our team, cultural facilitators and partners.
We had 1,466,691 visitors to our 3 websites. We recorded 456 features or items of national press, media and broadcast coverage of our programmes and buildings.
We identified five goals that we would work to achieve in the five years. We would work with, through and for the people of Dublin to achieve these goals.
Engage Experiment Learn Share
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This is what we achieved…
Engage
We want everyone in Dublin to find, access, and benefit from a wide range of cultural experiences. We want to build ways for people to see and make culture in their place, with people they know.
We listened to 3,262 people in 233 community groups at 326 workshops learning what’s important to them.
We invited 18,556 people to attend 1,149 cultural events in partnership with 31 national cultural institutions and citywide cultural partners.
We made 2,645 creative workshops including 9 creative residencies programmes supported by 661 artists and culture makers where 43,502 people tried out their own ideas.
We made cultural projects with people from the 63 neighbourhoods of Dublin City.
162,606 people attended guided tours of 14 Henrietta Street, including our tours for primary and secondary school students. 9,017 people attended outdoor guided tours at 14 Henrietta Street or Richmond Barracks.
We engaged with 398 people to gather and record 66 oral histories to the collection of 14 Henrietta Street.
Through our buildings and programmes, we connected with 675,444 people engaged and interacted as participants, visitors and audience members.
Through people’s feedback and survey responses to our programmes, we were responsive to their cultural interests:
• 97.06% of our audience and visitors confirmed ‘It was interesting’. This includes audiences at 14 Henrietta Street, Richmond Barracks and one-off events such as talks and exhibitions.
• 98.84% of Culture Club respondents confirmed ‘It was interesting’.
• 97.97% of participants in our creative workshop confirmed that they did ‘interesting things’
Working in collaboration with our partners, we have opened up new ways for people to engage with culture, as evidenced through the following feedback we received:
• 93.55% of cultural workers agreed with ‘cultural projects have a positive impact on the organisations involved’, but this grew significantly to 100% agreement in their follow-up feedback when projects ended.
• 88.24% of our partners wholeheartedly support the statement ‘working with Dublin City Council Culture Company helps us open up new ways for people to engage with us’.
Through our programmes, we consistently received feedback that people were visiting new cultural spaces.
• 74.45% of participants in creative projects confirmed they were visiting new places for the first time.
• For one-off cultural events taking place as part of durational creative programmes in communities and neighbourhoods, this figure rose significantly, demonstrating that 58.53% of audience attendees had never or rarely been to this cultural place before.
• 25.86% of visitors to Richmond Barracks confirm they were visiting for the first time.
• Culture Club continues to bring new audiences to cultural spaces, with 22.94% of respondents confirming it was their first time in the space.
Participating in our programmes encourages people to do it again and to make more cultural choices. We gained their trust and they want others to experience it too. Survey respondents told us in their feedback that:
• 98.85% would be interested in doing something like this again.
• 99.21% said it would encourage them to visit new places in the City.
• 96.96% of all participants, visitors and audience members would recommend to their friends and family to take a tour, participate in a workshop or join us in visiting the City’s cultural spaces.
• 14 Henrietta Street received 5 Stars from 83.15% of all visitors and Richmond Barracks received 5 Stars from 77.71% of all visitors.
Experiment
We want to try new things to build deeper cultural and social experiences.
We created 2,645 creative workshops including 9 creative residencies programmes supported by 661 artists and culture makers where 43,502 people tried out their own ideas.
We invited 18,556 people to attend 1,149 cultural events in partnership with 31 national cultural institutions and citywide cultural partners.
We facilitated 398 speakers to host 1,930 cultural events including the Dublin Festival of History and our history and heritage talks programmes.
We worked together in 1,792 partnerships with community and cultural organisations and issued 1,998 contracts to artists, historians and cultural makers to deliver these collaborations.
We worked in collaboration on 2 European projects and conferences with 8 European capital cities and 1 international cultural network.
On our Cultural Audit & Map, we audited, mapped and shared 3,872 cultural makers, buildings and organisations in Dublin City with Dublin City Council departments, staff and the Council’s existing mapping and geographical information system (GIS), the people of Dublin and those who visit the city through the Culture Near You website and the digital kiosks.
We created 443 opportunities for local vendors and creatives to participate and trade in our 13 Fairs at Richmond Barracks, attended by 38,160 people
Our programmes are made so that people can try out new ideas and reflect the full breadth of culture. This is demonstrated in people’s feedback and survey responses to our programmes through:
• 88.24% of participants confirmed they got to try out their own creative ideas.
• 75.74% of young participants felt they got to try out their own creative ideas.
• 97.29% of participants felt they were listened to.
• 86.99% of young participants felt they were listened to.
Our programmes have included a broad range of cultural expression: History, heritage, sport, biodiversity, ceramics, visual art, spoken word, sculpture, music, song, dance, craft-making, nature and the environment, gastronomy, archaeology, photography, theatre and performance, poetry and literature, graphic novels and street art, print-making and textiles, architecture and the creative industries.
We created responsive programmes that reflect people’s interests and are culturally vibrant; this can be evidenced in the feedback:
• 97.03% of all participants, visitors and audiences had fun.
• 91.48% of all participants, visitors and audience felt involved and connected to what they’d experienced.
We formed 1,792 partnerships with cultural, community and other organisations.
Our work is influential in expanding cultural horizons and developing cultural access. Our partner feedback confirms:
• 94.11% agree ‘The activities we developed in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company help us increase cultural access’
• 88.24% agree ‘These activities help us broaden participants’ cultural horizons’.
• 95.19% of cultural workers and artists we worked with believe that our work ‘stimulates further community-led activities and events’.
• 100% of cultural workers and artists we worked with believe our projects deliver the Culture Company’s stated values of participation, partnership, relevance, capacity-building and quality.
Learn
Learn
We want to explore and discover, with others, to continually improve what we do. We want to understand, support and strengthen the city’s cultural and community sectors to expand their impact and legacy.
We hosted 3,262 people in 233 community groups at 326 listening workshops.
We built 3 Advisory Groups with 308 members made up of people from different backgrounds to regularly consult and to benefit from their expertise and input into the development of our work.
We provided 17 learning opportunities in different areas of accessibility for our team and the cultural sector in the area of accessibility. By offering and regularly repeating these training sessions, our aim is to increase knowledge and ensure good practice. We carried out 4 accessibility audits on our buildings and biannual audits for our 3 websites which achieved the highest accessibility rating.
We recorded 18,626 digital and paper feedback surveys from participants, artists, visitors and cultural partners and captured 327 project and programme evaluation reports with our team, cultural facilitators and partners.
We are members of 12 national and international networks in the area of culture participation and access, cultural heritage, cultural policy, cultural rights and sustainable development.
We participated in 2 European projects where we took part in 64 online transnational workshops on participation in culture and our team participated in 8 peer learning exchanges with cultural partners in Europe.
From surveys and feedback, we learned:
• 98.70% of all participants, audiences and visitors confirmed that they ‘found out things I didn’t know before’
• 82.35% of our partners confirmed ‘We have learned from the activities we developed in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company’.
Share
We want to activate more and different ways for people to be culturally engaged. We want to protect, share and add to the cultural story of the city.
675,444 people actively engaged with us through our buildings and programmes as participants, visitors and audience members.
On our Cultural Audit & Map, we audited, mapped and shared 3,872 cultural makers, buildings and organisations in Dublin City with Dublin City Council departments, staff and the Council’s existing mapping and geographical information system (GIS), the people of Dublin and those who visit the city through the Culture Near You website and the digital kiosks.
We shared our work at 32 conferences and learned from our peers at 63 conferences in total. We created 4 curriculum-based education and learning resources for families, young people and schools.
We had 1,466,691 visitors to our 3 websites. We recorded 456 features or items of press, media and broadcast coverage of our programmes and buildings.
From our feedback surveys:
• 67.26% of all participants, audiences and visitors are between 18 and 64 years old
• 76.61% are female, 22.11% are male, 1.01% prefer not to say and 0.27% are non-binary
• 71.19% describe themselves as white Irish, 15.46% describe themselves any other white background
• 93.03% of all participants, audiences and visitors confirmed ‘they now know more about their city’.
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We want to integrate culture and cultural choices into everyday life. We aspire to strengthen Dublin’s reputation as a thriving, connected, culturally vibrant capital city.
We invited 18,556 people to reignite or explore for the first time their relationship with the City’s cultural infrastructure through 1,149 cultural events in partnership with 31 national cultural institutions and citywide cultural partners
We worked together in 1,792 partnerships with community and cultural organisations and issued 1,998 contracts to artists, historians and cultural makers to deliver these collaborations.
We received 16 national and 12 international awards in recognition of our work in cultural participation, access to cultural rights and cultural heritage.
We published 11 publications highlighting the city’s history, creativity and cultural heritage through the commissioning of original historical research. We commissioned 7 pieces of new creative writing and additionally commissioned 17 history essays about the City. We mounted 3 exhibitions showcasing the work created by participants as part of their work on our creative engagement residency programmes.
We have opened up new ways for people to develop and expand their cultural habits. This is demonstrated through feedback whereby:
• 74.45% of participants in our creative engagement programmes confirmed they are visiting new cultural spaces for the first time.
• 94.04% of participants in our creative engagement programmes felt proud of what they did.
• 96.35% of participants confirmed ‘feeling part of the area where they live’ at the end of a creative engagement programme representing a growth of 6% from their sense of belonging when it started.
• 90.58% of all participants, audiences and visitors confirmed they ‘enjoyed meeting new people’.
We have built strong relationships with agencies, venues and organisations working in the city, as clearly demonstrated in their feedback through statements such as:
• 88.23% of our partners agree with ‘Dublin City Council Culture Company is an important partner in developing culture in the City’.
• 94.12% of our partners agree with ‘Our partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company helps us achieve our own objectives’.
• 94.12% of our partners agree with ‘Dublin City Council Culture Company is easy to work with’.
• 94.12% of our partners agree with ‘We value our partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company’.
For more information on our work, contact us:
Dublin City Council Culture Company 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1 D01 HH34 Company Registration No. 662490
