New Project with Existing Client; Jazz North
Jazz North use the tagline, ‘enriching lives through improvisation’ and aim to make the North a leading UK talent hub for Jazz. Their website is here.
Jazz North explain
“Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable, and diverse jazz sector in the north of England by working in partnership”
and they work to support artists, promoters and build future audiences. They are a Sector Support Organisation, funded by The Arts Council and are also a founder member of Black Lives in Music. The Black Lives in Music website is here.
The Evaluator has worked with Jazz North in the past, to evaluate their flagship programme ‘northern line’ in 2018/19 and to evaluate their ‘jazz camp for girls’ project in 2019/20. In fact we were half way through that evaluation when the pandemic began, and it was one of the first ones we completed during lockdown.
We love building relationships and working with clients on different projects over time. It’s a key part of our business, doing such a good job that people come back to us over and over again. We are still working with 3 out of 4 of our very first clients, despite how much we have grown and changed. It’s something we are very proud of!
Now, in 2021, we are starting a longer term partnership with Jazz North, to help them tighten up their own data processes, and to support the annual arts council data return (which is quite a lot of information that the arts council ask for on an annual basis) but more importantly, to try and get to the heart of what it is Jazz North are achieving. We are talking about true evaluation, not just monitoring, where we look at impact and change, and use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to do this.
We’ll be figuring out who is taking part, and who isn’t, what staff and board and promoters feel could be improved, how support for artists is making a difference and much much more. We’ll be working with the team to embed this data collection work and supporting the development of a reflective culture.
