INITIAL WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT BRIEF We are seeking responses from Web Developers interested in developing the Phase One Digital Arts Centre website. The Arts Centre will host all digital activity and communication related to the Appetite programme. Key Elements The Phase One site we imagine will contain the following: • Rich media content about events within the Taster Menu with What’s On, Calendars etc. • Attend (including ticketing details if appropriate); Getting There (venues and transport details) Get Involved (see Dashboard below) • Social media feeds – Facebook Page, Twitter Feed, Flickr and Youtube streams with branded landing pages • Culturemap of Stoke (see What’s On the Menu Stoke? appendix) • About Us – details of Appetite and partner activity • User sign-up and Dashboard • Underlying system architecture and databases • Simple SMS update and reply service (on-costs for this will come out of a separate marketing budget) The Appetite Digital Strategy We consider digital tools essential to the success of the whole initiative, and put forward the Digital Arts Centre as one of the key parts of our funding bid. The Digital Arts Centre’s overall aims and objectives are contained in an appendix, and are extracted from the Appetite Business Plan. The website we are seeking to develop will form the very first phase of the Digital Arts Centre’s development. Many of the functions and capacities that will ultimately contain (such as the Stoke Artsbank) will not be present in this first phase. Our development approach is to build what we need when we need it, and to constantly fold our learning and user feedback into the next phase of development. A full briefing on the Appetite programme and the role of the Digital Arts Centre within it will be held with the successful applicant at the start of the work programme. Site Purpose The Digital Arts Centre’s primary purpose in Phase One is to ensure that the Taster Menu programme (running May-October 2013) of artistic activity is effectively communicated to potential audiences within Stoke and beyond, and that they have the information at hand to act on interest in the programme and attend events.
Finally, the site should present the work of the programme and the consortium to a variety of stakeholders including Arts Council England, local authorities, the professional arts sector etc. in an attractive and professional manner. Expected Outcomes The site will enable the display of curated content created by the marketing team working on Appetite, but will also aggregate and sift content from the many other sources that Appetite will be covered in and discussed on: social media sites, blogs, Youtube, Flickr etc. Collating and making visible the debate and discussion around the work is a key objective for the Year One version of the site. Usability – the site will be primarily updated by the Appetite programme manager; but the creation of new content should be able to be done easily by a variety of individuals working on the Appetite programme. There is no dedicated web content editor within the programme The Dashboard If the user wishes to, then they can use the site entirely as a point of information: what is on and where. We want to encourage users to engage with us on a deeper level – as more engagement with our programme online will stimulate more participation in arts activity offline. For users who have registered the site will reconfigure itself to put more emphasis on how they can take action as well as gain information, and their landing page will include their individual dashboard. This will enable them to record and recognise the arts activity they already engage in (e.g. membership of an amateur arts group); be encouraged to connect their own social media profiles to make sharing Appetite-generated content even easier; and connect them with groups and networks that share their interests. Every time the user visits their dashboard they will be able to take a simple, free and instant action that will help engage more people in arts activities in Stoke – from organising their friends to visit the Picnic as a group or posting pictures from their experience to contacting a Community Producer about getting involved in a potential project. Regular push emails and status updates will combine news with calls to action to make the next small step. The site should be built to Open Source standards. The modular and agile approach to development means that it is essential that future developers who enhance the site can work with the data and system architecture easily. We plan to run small developer competitions for future functions and usability of the core site will be key.
Graphic Design The graphic design of the overall Appetite brand will be developed by a separate appointment , and form the basis of the visual look and feel of the site, interpreted by the site developer working closely with the graphic designers. Interested parties who are able to deliver both Web Development and Graphic Design are welcome to apply for both opportunities, though they will be assessed separately. Timescale • The appointment of the successful developers will take place no later than Friday 12 April 2013. • A detailed development plan will be drawn up with the successful developer. • We would like to see a first draft of the site May 3 2013 • A soft live launch of the site should take place no later than 17 May 2013 with publicity going out soon afterwards including the site address • We imagine that debugging, following up user feedback and site tweaking will continue until 31 August 2013 Final site hand-over will be no later than 31 August 2013 and the work paid for in the tender will be deemed to have finished. Ongoing technical support will be discussed with the developer before this date. Budget For this work there is a budget of no more than £8000.00 (excluding VAT). Application Process Please respond by 5pm on Tues 2 April with a proposal that contains the following: • • • • •
Your Response to the brief and how you would approach the work Previous experience and examples of similar work for other clients Project Delivery plan including milestones and necessary sign-offs Budget Breakdown (we will be looking for evidence of value for money) Two referees for similar projects carried out within the last five years.
Your proposal should be no more than twelve pages of A4 in length (excluding screenshots and other images which should be in Appendices). Proposals should be submitted to appetite@picl.uk.com.Interviews will be held on the week of April 8th For questions relating to this tender please contact appetite@picl.uk.com
Further Information about Creative People and Places programme: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/our-investment/funding-programmes/creative-peopleand-places-fund/ Sites that provide useful context: http://nationaltheatrewales.org/ Particularly the ‘Community’ Section of the NTW site www.barackobama.com For interaction with campaign members Consortium member sites (for information rather than necessarily as examples of excellent web design!) http://www.newvictheatre.org.uk/ www.b-arts.org.uk http://www.brighter-futures.org.uk/ www.picl.uk.com www.staffs.ac.uk
CREATIVE PEOPLE AND PLACES – STOKE CONSORTIUM INFORMATION The Arts Council wants more people to experience and be inspired by the arts, irrespective of where they live or their social, educational or financial circumstances. The Creative People and Places fund 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. The Project Appetite is an action research programme created in response to Arts Council of England’s assessment that Stoke-on-Trent’s population falls within the least engaged 20% in the country. It will explore whether we can increase the number of people in Stoke-on-Trent engaging with and being inspired by the arts by putting accessible arts activity at the centre of our City’s built environment; inviting local people to explore how they themselves already have ownership of the arts; and helping them to make more arts activity happen. Mission Our mission is to get more people in Stoke-on-Trent to experience and be inspired by the arts. Vision The Appetite programme will see a core team of expert chefs working with local and national growers and suppliers to deliver an expanding menu of artistic sustenance, developing the appetite of people in Stoke-on-Trent, and instilling a real hunger for the arts. By serving up family friendly events in accessible public places, where price isn’t a barrier to participation - parks, libraries, shopping centres, cyberspace - we’ll reach a wide range of people who don’t normally access cultural opportunities. We’ll show there are as many different ways to engage with the arts as there are to eat a meal: be that in your own kitchen; at a van in the street; at a restaurant. We’ll demonstrate that the arts are accessible, popular, rewarding. An innovative programme of participatory action research is integral to the initial taster menu of arts opportunities, enabling local people to identify where their tastes lie - the arts equivalent of fast food? Eating al fresco? International cuisine? Gourmet delicacies? Over the following two years we’ll work with our community partners to develop the skills of local providers; feed relationships between local people and nationally and internationally acclaimed companies; encourage participation in amateur artistic activity; share skills between artists and others, such as librarians; encourage local businesses to see the benefit of supporting the arts.
Core values Great art Delivering some of the best quality and most exciting arts activities that the local, national and international arts industry can offer is fundamental to this programme. So is the knowledge that great art can play a powerful role in regenerating societies and economies. Quality Arts professionals including the CPP team and the lead organisation will work with communities to define what we mean by quality, and how that’s judged within local, national and international perspectives. Innovation, continuing professional development, skills sharing, mentoring and collaborating across the arts industry will all contribute to achieving and enhancing quality. For everyone We want to engage with large numbers of people, and we want the art we offer them to be both physically and aesthetically accessible. Appetite will offer experiences that have a broad appeal to a broad range of people, including the hard-to-reach and those not-so-hardto-reach, but still not engaging. Participation Stoke-on-Trent’s arts industry already has a strong focus on grass-roots participatory arts. Appetite will offer local communities including the amateur sector additional opportunities to participate in making great art happen in Stoke-on-Trent: as facilitators, programmers, hosts and ambassadors. Partnership We’ll approach the programme in a spirit of partnership, openness and transparency. Value for money At all times we’ll aim to deliver good value for money. This won’t always mean choosing the cheapest option, as quality is also one of our core values; but it does mean we’ll always give consideration to value. Partners Core consortium partners include participatory arts company B Arts; social housing organisation Brighter Futures; agency Partners in Creative Learning (PiCL); Staffordshire University’s Creative Communities Unit, and lead organisation the New Vic Theatre. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is a key member of the wider consortium
What we’re going to do The residents of Stoke-on-Trent deserve the same quantity and quality of artistic product as their peers in the rest of the country. We believe that art can play a major role in urban regeneration by helping define an identity; enhancing the local economy; and engaging people in a debate about what society is. Through Appetite we believe there is an opportunity to make a step change in the way art is embraced as an everyday part of all our lives. Five programme strands will help us to achieve our ambitions: • A curated programme of high-profile arts experiences designed to raise the profile of the project • A team of community facilitators working with community hubs • A strategic programme of city-wide events including a Digital Arts Centre • An embedded evaluation programme • A capacity building programme offering opportunities for continuing professional development, skill-sharing, training and profile-raising. In Year One (April 2013-March 2014), community facilitators will identify and work with community hubs, enabling them to access the curated programme of family friendly events in public spaces. In Years Two and Three (April 2014-March 2016) the community hubs and community producers will work with the Creative Producer to plan, budget, commission, programme and host a range of arts events.
APPENDIX: OVERVIEW OF DIGITAL ARTS CENTRE THE DIGITAL ARTS CENTRE Overview The digital support to all aspects of the Appetite programme over three years: creating information, discussion, resources and networking online to get more people engaged with the arts in the real world across the city. Our overall aim through the project is to support the ‘real-world’ arts programme: the Taster Menu, the Community Producers and Hubs and the community commissionedwork in Years 2 and 3 by providing an attractive and easy-to-use set of digital tools to all involved. Principles Our approach is to link the places where people are already creating and discussing cultural activity and where they are most comfortable; rather than driving them to a central space. So if they are happy on Facebook, they will be able to access the Digital Arts Centre through that. We will only build something new if there is not something already there. We will operate an SMS service so those without any internet access or smartphone will be able to engage through a basic phone. The Core Site We’ll start by building the core site whose main function will be to communicate the Taster Menu and the many opportunities to see and participate. Key elements will include: Rich media content about events within the Taster Menu with What’s On; How To Attend (including ticketing details if appropriate); Getting There (venues and transport details) Get Involved (see Dashboard below) Social media feeds – Facebook Page, Twitter Feed, Flickr and Youtube streams with branded landing pages Culturemap of Stoke (see What’s On the Menu Stoke?) About Us – details of Appetite and partner activity outside CPP The site will feature curated content created by the marketing team working on Appetite, but will also aggregate and sift content from the many other sources that Appetite will be covered in and discussed on: social media sites, blogs, Youtube, Flickr etc. Hosting and making visible the debate and discussion around the work is a key objective for the Year One version of the site.
Years 2 and 3 Development We do not know what the community will make of the Taster menu. We don’t know the communities that will emerge as key contexts for work in Years 2 and 3. Rather than attempt to predict what digital services can best support this work we are adopting an Agile Development approach. Additional modules for Years Two and Three will be commissioned to expand the Digital Arts Centre as the needs become apparent from the activity from the site; from the Get Talking programme; and from the work of the Community Producers and Hubs. Development based on open-source standards and an open API will mean that we will not be locked into a relationship with a single developer, and can run competitions and hackdays with many other digital partners working on our platform to develop and expand it.If the user wishes to, then they can use the site entirely as a point of information: what is on and where. We want to encourage users to engage with us on a deeper level – as more engagement with our programme online will stimulate more participation in arts activity offline. The Dashboard For users who have registered the site will reconfigure itself to put more emphasis on how they can take action as well as gain information, and their landing page will include their individual dashboard. This will enable them to record and recognise the arts activity they already engage in (eg membership of an amateur arts group); be encouraged to connect their own social media profiles to make sharing Appetite-generated content even easier; and connect them with groups and networks that share their interests. At its core will be the philosophy of ‘small steps’. Everytime the user visits their dashboard they will be able to take a fun, free and instant action that will help engage more people in arts activities in Stoke – from organising their friends to visit the Picnic as a group or posting pictures from their experience to contacting a Community Producer about getting involved in a potential project. Regular push emails and status updates will combine news with calls to action to make the next small step. We will offer small rewards – such as a special pizza cooked by B Arts for your family at Picnic or a backstage tour – for those who engage most fully and regularly. The Dashboard will provide a rich stream of data about what’s motivating people to get more involved, what they’ve liked and disliked and will feed into the Get Talking programme – who will be able to use the dashboard as a forum to get feedback. The Community Producers will be able to use the dashboard as networking and communication tool to further their work with individual communities
Stoke Artsbank One key additional function that we will commission for years 2 and 3 is Stoke Artsbank (see separate section). By the end of Year Three we will have established the Digital Arts Centre as a digital centre for arts activity in Stoke, used by a network of audiences, participants, artists and community organisers. The Stoke Artsbank will enable anyone who wants to create artistic activity to find quickly and easily what resources already exist to develop their project, with an emphasis on developing social capital through barter and crowdsourced funding activities. The Artsbank is a key tool for sustaining increased engagement in the arts beyond Year Three of Appetite.