Telling our story: communicating organisational strategy for community engagement
To effectively communicate the organisational strategy of 107 projects to elicit community engagement through a design-led approach to generate value.
To evaluate the impact of 107 Programs, Places and Agency on the creative maker-space as well as the local community, then to communicate these stories alongside 107 values to showcase their organisational strategy for future outcomes.
1. 2. 3. 4.
How does 107 Projects achieve community outreach through art as a medium?
What implicit values are communicated through 107’s places and events?
What are the perceived identities of 107 through their direct and indirect audiences?
What motivates 107 Projects?
PERSPECTIVES PLACES, PROGRAMMES, COMMUNITY
PRESENTATION OF 107 THROUGH CHANNELS
We looked into these areas to see what makes up the 107 story and identity.
Through combining these spheres, we can gain a better understanding on what, who and how 107 is shaped, as well as who 107 is at its core, and eventually communicate their organisational strategy.
Our research will look into how and to what extent these areas compare and align with each other. Therefore, we can identify any gaps
By evaluating the target segment, value proposition, core values, offerings and channels of other organisations and 107's, we mapped our understanding onto a grid as shown here.
This helped understand where 107 fits in the current social, cultural and artistic industry, which informs and reminds us of the business's operations and audience. It also cautions us of how we can move forward with communicating what 107 is by being aware of what it is not.
Organisation's Focus Area(s)
least permeable space with specific target audience
highest imperative for commercialisation of activities, programmes and spaces
most permeable space with open engagement with public
Refers to Organisation-toResident and/or
Refers to touching base on Other Social Impact
Spaces such as:
Community Skills Sharing, comes in the form of Mental Health
Workshops
Classes
Programmes
Repurpose (of space, materials etc )
Education, resk lling and empowerment
Refers to whether the space is primarily for residents to practise their art. Vocabulary used can be
Safe space
(Creative) Community
Encourage
Experimentat on Exploration
Nurture expression Freedom
Refers to sa es of products (and services) created by the organisation or artists at that organisation
Examp es include:
Ceramics Sculptures
Wood furniture
Neon lights
lowest imperative for commercialisation of activities, programmes and spaces
Using the annual reports, we were able to go through a content analysis process to look at the implicit values which were relayed through the content and vocabulary.
The three values were:
A sense of gratitude, not just towards people engaging with 107, but also the opportunities that were presented because of the circumstances
A strong desire to be accountable to the board, residents, partners and the community, and delivering what 107 has committed itself to do
A strong identity to be true to values, mission and vision, and these were communicated through the projects that were taken up, and the structure and design of the reports
Moving forward, when we were evaluating 107 s channels, we looked at the content and tone using these three lenses. These also can help inform us on the way we communicate 107 s story in the future.
Besides that, it was also helpful in identifying if these implicit values are a two-way street between 107 and its partners, and therefore creates a sense of connection and trust, and whether there is potential to close the gap between the values intended and the values perceived.
In order to capture a holistic view of who makes up and contributes to the 107 stories we decided to research different perspectives that have direct and indirect involvement in 107's places, programs and channels.
The purpose of this is to compare and contrast how someone from the inside may view 107 compared to a general visitor.
Exploring what each entity current understands can inform if the desired impact for each is achieved, how the current organisational strategy is communicated and how it can be improved.
Through our site-interviews with people working directly with 107, we were able to gain a greater understanding of how the organisation is a respected space because of its tangible and intangible offerings.
For example,
Across residents and general public, The diversity of individuals - of both residents and community members - as well as the non-selectiveness and non-exclusivity of the non-commercial space, nurtured a sense of inclusivity.
This sense of inclusivity is also key and consistent to fulfilling 107's mission: To support the well being of communities by connecting them with places, programs and pathways to live creatively.
decision-making process (lower barriers to entry)
enabled by 107's flexibility and accomodation
We were fortunate to conduct a site-interview with Bishop, a founder of charity organisation, African Youth Initiative Centres Limited.
We sat down with him and had a conversation about his personal story and the story of his organisation. He was very kind and open with his speech, and had also given us insight as to how 107 contributed to his journey.
Despite being a single perspective, we were able to see how this nurturing can be applied even to other residents and artists.
From an organisational standpoint, the sense of community, and space for creative freedom and risktaking are aligned with 107 s story too.
With the space and organisation now an anchor they were able to branch out their operations programmes and communities p anning for greater interactions and exhibitions.
With legitimacy came more traction and opportunities to grow, and he was able to adapt to changes and be more dynamic with his social causes for his community.
Having a physical space garnered a sense of security for both Bishop's organisation and his potential partners This helped formalise his organisation and aided process-related concerns because of the change in perception.
Offered a office space for the organisation which alleviated space-related problems when asked of where he was based
We are grateful for the opportunity and the time that Jess was able to give us, to help us gain a greater insight into the inner workings, struggles, achievements and plans for 107.
After the initial interview and the workshop she has participated in, we went through a thorough analysis to come up with a timeline that translated 107's story from her perspective.
Legal concerns
Self-funded and volunteer-based
Plotting and planning
Difficulty starting up the organisation
Gaining resources and trust
Partnerships for sustainability
Network of independent spaces
Maintaining 107's offerings to residents and community
Beyond repurposed spaces
Bumpy business and financial pressure
Maintaining integral values of 107
Advancement of culture as a social and cultural organisation
Legitimacy and lack of belief
Democracy and avoiding dictatorship
Growth of 107
Creative freedom and entrepreneurship
Humble grassroot integrity
Cultural space within cities Big-scale
While we understand that word-of-mouth is a crucial channel for 107 Projects, we were also interested to find out what people were saying about the organisation, its space and its events online.
The keywords tend to circle around the idea of an open and welcoming community space. There were also mentions about the space being surprising, perhaps based on their preconceived notions of the space itself.
To understand what values are communicated through 107 s spaces and events for visitors, and how they achieve community outreach, we conducted a contextual observation study in 107 Redfern.
We visited 107 Redfern on 2 occasions making it known that we are student researchers. We got to sit and take in the environment and how everyone was interacting with their surroundings and were lucky enough to be shown around the resident spaces by Nik.
Talked to a resident Bishop about their experience setting up their organisation and check out their charity stall. Welcoming atmosphere.
Resident's work spaces, workspaces and facilities in the back area
Free for anyone in the comunity to come and sit and sue the space
Found it interesting that the space was being used by the event and that promoted engagement with the gallery afterwards. Additionally, a networking and drinks space- multifunctional space enabled by 107 programs
As a part of the Sydney Fringe Festival that 107 was a part of, we decided to visit the "300 Paintings in lockdown" comedy show held at the Redfern location. This was to get a feel for the environment, how everyone interacted with the event, how the function of the space was used and how people came about to know the event.
Inviting environment, just enough people for the capacity, open for all. The space, community and partners enabled this atmosphere. Informs us of what makes up the 107 places, programs and agency
People seemed to find out about the event through word of mouth. Lots of laughs, and casual discussions and people seemed to know each other. A sense of community within the space threaded together with the event
Going back to the brief, to communicate the organisational strategy of 107 for community engagement, we need to synthesise what these findings actually mean and how they relate to one another
We have observed through the channels that 107 offers a lot to different communities. It's open, all-inclusive and communitybased. But this means that the clarity of what exactly those offerings are and how the value of these offerings can get lost.
We feel that there is potential for a solution that effectively captures the breadth and potential of what 107 offers. Clearly demonstrating how this house' of offerings is built.
This will be for:
1) Each of 107 s intended audiences
2) And capturing these offerings in a holistic way
We observed that word-of-mouth is the main channel for 107 s events and places. Because of that, we hope to bring to ground what is in the air, so that we can clear the fog and have a better idea of what people wish to see and do at 107, as well as their perspectives on 107.
We feel that we can make use of what is being said to keep the community loop going. There is potential in making this word-of-mouth concrete through something that is fun and interactive, whether it is within 107 physical spaces, or even on the website. Ideally, the conceptual solution can potentially be translated across different mediums (e.g. physical space website, Instagram etc).