Culture, Place and Policy Institute

The Challenge

Our challenge is to do justice through evaluation to a multi-layered and extremely complex, year-long cultural year-programme. The Hull 2017 programme aimed to deliver transformations in fields encompassing the economy, health and wellbeing, place making, raising the capacity and ambition of the local cultural sector, audience development, building partnerships, and developing social capital.

The Approach

Our approach:  through the evaluation framework, a range of primary and secondary data has been collected to study the extent to which Hull 2017 activities delivered the 9 aims and 20 objectives set out for the project by key funders, stakeholders and partner organisations. CPPI have worked together with Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and external consultants to produce a formative evaluation report and a preliminary outcomes report (the latter was completed in March 2018). In early 2019 CPPI will complete the final evaluation report on the Hull 2017 project.

This work has been overseen by an Evaluation Steering Group, chaired by the University of Hull and involving key stakeholders from Hull and the East Riding, as well as the national cultural funding bodies that provided financial support to the Hull 2017 programme. 

The Impact

CPPI intends to use this evaluation research to influence debates on culture-led regeneration locally, nationally and internationally. More specifically, CPPI will aim to discuss the implications of evaluation findings for the Hull 2017 legacy strategy and for the implementation of Hull City Council’s 2016-2026 cultural strategy.