Impact case study database

Putter’s research into Anglo-Dutch literary heritage [3.1 – 3.3] led to a Heritage Lottery Fund award in 2018 (GBP163,100). The project, entitled North Sea Crossings (NSC), enabled Putter and his team to widen participation in Anglo-Dutch literature and the Reynard tradition [5.1]. Collaborating with the Bodleian Libraries, Aardman Animations, Flash of Splendour, and two Special Educational Needs [SEN] schools, the team delivered educational workshops leading to the design and development of an inclusive exhibition, two accessible books (one exhibition book and one children’s book) and a puppet animation based on Caxton’s Reynard. The main beneficiaries have been:

• SEN students

• University of Bristol film and TV students

• Flash of Splendour

• Aardman Animations

• The Bodleian Libraries and The National Archives

Improving Educational Experiences and Life Opportunities for SEN Students

With mainstream schools routinely benefiting from academic input, NSC deliberately reached out to SEN students, who are often overlooked in Arts and Humanities outreach: ‘I have been a SEN teacher for over twenty years and have never been involved in a project like this. I’m so pleased that all involved were ambitious in their thinking and took a chance on working with young people with autism. We are frequently overlooked by organisations’ [5.4]. Beginning in 2018, the NSC team led weekly workshops with SEN students at Ormerod Resource Base at the Marlborough School (Oxfordshire) and Kingsweston School (Bristol), where students discovered the original Reynard stories. The workshops have been transformative in both schools. They have helped the schools to deliver on key curricular priorities in History, English, Geography and Languages [5.3; 5.4]; they have made students ‘think about language and meaning’ and ‘increased their vocabulary’ [5.3]. Together with undergraduate students at UoB’s Film and TV Department, students learned to adapt the Reynard stories for animation, guided by world-leading professionals from Aardman Animations [5.2]. The workshops, delivered at Aardman’s studios, at the University of Bristol, and in the classroom, expanded their horizons, equipped them with skills in animation, characterisation, storytelling and communication, and boosted self-confidence [5.4]. The Ormerod Resource Base Coordinator described NSC as: ‘enriching and broadening the educational and cultural experiences of young people with disabilities’ [5.3]. The impact on their development has been life-changing: SEN students previously mute in the presence of strangers flourished in group discussion [5.4]. In March 2020, workshops were suspended due to Covid-19.

Personal and Professional Development Skills for Film and TV Students

In 2018, a newly established Industry Placement Unit for Film and TV students at UoB enabled undergraduate students to participate in the NSC project working with Aardman Animations. This unique opportunity to work with an award-winning animation study and SEN students equipped UoB students with valuable professional and personal skills to take forward into their future careers. The project was delivered as a ‘live’ production, giving the students a real sense of what it would be like to craft a film at Aardman Animations. Two cohorts of UoB students have already benefited hugely. They learned much about medieval literature and language, gained valuable knowledge in animation, but, more than that, they learned to appreciate and collaborate with young adults with severe autism.

In 2019, puppeteer and puppet maker Katie Williams joined the NSC project (funded by TS Eliot Foundation, GBP8,000). Katie had recently worked as a puppeteer with Coldplay and Film Director Wes Anderson. She designed and produced the puppets for the animation [5.2]. Puppetry was chosen as it is a more accessible medium than stop-frame, enabling students to be more hands-on and to learn how manipulating even simple, basic objects can create real meaning. The puppet workshops and animation shoot were scheduled for April 2020 but postponed due to Covid-19.

Feedback from students involved in NSC demonstrates the impact on their personal and professional development, for instance [5.5]:

• ‘I’ve learned to communicate in ways that I would never have a chance to otherwise, and it has been really valuable’.

• ‘[The project] made me a better and more thoughtful animator’.

• ‘Working with the students has taught me so much about storytelling and collaborating. It has also encouraged me to seek new teaching methods and workflows that we found facilitated creativity and collaborative work’.

• ‘I have gained valuable knowledge in animation which will better my skills for my own projects. I have also developed my teaching skills as well’.

• ‘This is really a meaningful project for me as I actually learnt so much through it’.

Enhanced Funding, Fresh Opportunities and New Partnerships for a SEN Organisation

Creative arts organisation Flash of Splendour (FOS) specialises in work with SEN students. The NSC project has had a massive impact on their organisation, providing knowledge, resources and opportunities that have allowed them to expand their operations on a larger and more ambitious scale than before and to establish a reputation in new areas such as young adult fiction [5.6]. The financial benefit of the Heritage Lottery Fund (GBP95,141) has enabled FOS to upscale their educational and outreach work and to establish new partnerships with organisations and schools. The Director of FOS said that the support and resources provided by Putter and his team have had a ‘hugely positive impact on young participants, associate teachers and FOS alike and helped us at FOS to be confident in our delivery of content and context… this cascade of teaching/learning has enabled us to deliver many more high-quality sessions and to move into new subjects and disciplines. The close collaboration with UoB researchers, Film and TV undergraduates, and Aardman Studios – has also allowed us to also significantly expand our work in the South-West’ [5.6].

As a result of the NSC project, Bodleian Publishing commissioned Anne Avery, Director of FOS, to write a children’s version of Caxton’s Reynard. Putter and Levelt supported her throughout the process, advising on content and context [5.6]. The book was published on 9 October 2020 and has received glowing reviews. It was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Free Thinking’ programme and the Wall Street Journal [5.8]. It sold 3,500 copies across the UK, Europe and North America in the first two months alone, and is already in its second printing [5.8]. The Bodleian subsequently commissioned FOS to write a further series of ten short Reynard tales [5.6].

Influencing New Directions at Aardman

Helping children in need is a key part of Aardman Animations’ mission, and Aardman are proud to have been involved in guiding SEN students and UoB students through the animation process. The NSC project enabled them to extend their work with schoolchildren into the SEN sector [5.2]. Furthermore, the successful collaboration with UoB students through the Industry Placement Unit of the Department of Film and Television has encouraged them to expand their own industry training provision. On the back of the NSC project, Aardman Animations have now launched their own industry placement course ( https://www.aardman.com/aardman-academy-launches-three-month-industry-trainingcourse/), which incorporates some of the elements developed for the NSC animation workshops [5.2].

Widening Participation and Inclusivity at the Bodleian Libraries

NSC has provided the Bodleian Libraries with the expertise and resource (GBP63,690) to stage an ambitious and inclusive exhibition on the theme of Anglo-Dutch heritage for the first time in its history. As the Bodleian’s Head of Public Engagement states, North Sea Crossings, curated by Levelt and Putter, was also ‘the first time where we have designed an exhibition with the need of a SEN audience considered from the point of inception rather than as an additional strand added later in the project plan’ [5.7] . The NSC project has allowed the Bodleian to work with partners beyond the University of Oxford, complementing the exhibition with a varied and rich programme of activities and events aimed at family and intergenerational audiences. The collaboration enabled Bodleian to explore new approaches, such as animation, and use their collections to tell inclusive stories for audiences who less frequently engage with an academic library. The publication of a best-selling children’s book alongside a conventional catalogue for the first time [5.8], the prominence given to Reynard the Fox in the exhibition and the virtual 2020 events – theatre performances, readings, children’s activities – ( https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/meet-reynard-the-fox), were cornerstones of an audience development plan developed by NSC to help the Bodleian to achieve its ambitions for inclusivity [5.7]. The Head of Public Engagement at Bodleian Libraries has hailed the exhibition as “a new and important step for the Library in its journey towards inclusive programming” and the NSC project has had a “major impact in helping us to make our events accessible to a broader demographic” [5.7]. The launch of the exhibition has been delayed to December 2021 due to Covid-19.

Following the success of the approach adopted in the NSC project, the Bodleian are applying what they have learnt to the design of a forthcoming exhibition (in 2022) that takes account of the needs and preferences of visitors with visual impairments [5.7].

Uncovering Hidden Treasures at The National Archives

The National Archives (TNA) have benefited from UoB’s Anglo-Dutch research and from the AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) project on this topic. The CDP brought to light important new material, enhancing the cultural value of Anglo-Dutch heritage in TNA’s collections, improving its interpretation and cataloguing, and showcasing it in the exhibition ‘ 1657: Rebel Christmas’ (November 2019 - January 2020) [5.9]. Putter’s discovery of a fragment of Boendale’s Melibeus in TNA [3.6] raised international awareness to a previously miscatalogued manuscript. As the Head of Early Modern Collection states, ‘the catalogue improvements allow us to engage those interested in our sizable Dutch collections both in Britain and abroad, attracting further attention to these records. It also enhances TNA's involvement in cultural events, in particular academic and diplomatic gatherings, where our collections regularly form the centerpiece of the cultural offering that reflect not just present relations but the deep histories that our records reveal’. Collaborative research on the Melibeus manuscript led TNA to trial multispectral imaging technology to recover illegible text, with amazing results: ‘revealing text that has faded beyond our physical ability to read is a significant advancement for our team and our audiences’ [5.9]. The lead scientist reported: ‘This analysis has allowed research scientists and conservators in our Collection Care Department (CCD) to build knowledge and capacity and to diversify the records submitted to multispectral analysis’ [5.10]. Subsequent research funding applications have followed the trial’s success [5.9].