I’ve very much enjoyed being involved in the development of this new toolkit for Creative Scotland. The ideas and approaches were developed from desk research and action research, with seven pilot partnerships of artists, partners and participants using the tools and sharing learning. It was fascinating to be engrossed in the challenges of translating principles derived from research into best practice, into useful and practical tools that arts organisations and their partners would actually want to use.
This toolkit aims to open up conversation within partnerships about what is important and what can be improved. It doesn’t try to define or limit an understanding of what ‘good work’ is. Rather it aims to help those using the tools to openly discuss what they’re doing – asking themselves, and all those they work with, to think about whether they can do what they do in better ways. The goal is to encourage a culture of reflection and continuous improvement. In this respect it’s relevant for many partnerships situations where people need to develop mutual understandings of what they have come together to do.