Impact case study database

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The jazz research team’s knowledge exchange work with Cheltenham Jazz Festival was enabled by BCU’s international reputation for impactful collaborative partnerships with the music industry, including major jazz festivals, venues, and industry bodies. This impact work responded to key challenges facing the sector in the areas of audience engagement, artistic development, and organisational policy. The practical and artistic elements of the research that the team produced, along with the recommendations they made, had a direct influence on decision-making and are core to the solutions that CJF management has devised in response to the above challenges.

CJF’s understanding of its audience was enhanced.

The CHIME mobile application (CHIME app) developed by the BCU team is now central to the CJF’s digital strategy (S01; S04; S09). The data gathered from users in 2016 and 2019 (which included focus groups as well as general users) revealed the CHIME app’s effectiveness as a medium for better understanding the CJF audience (S02). During the 2019 pilot, the CHIME app was made available from the first day of the festival and it was downloaded 512 times (S01). These users engaged with the festival site more actively and navigated the festival programme more effectively. As one user stated during a focus group, “this app has been very good because it’s, not only the schedule, but the map to show me where everything else and the venue list to describe the venues, so it has really been very, very useful indeed for somebody that doesn’t know Cheltenham and hasn’t been to the jazz festival before, it’s superb” (S02). The app also contributed to consolidating the festival’s identity and revealing important new information about its audience. As the Head of Programming at CJF observed, “ we try to foster a sense of community around our festivals, but understanding and quantifying that had proved extremely difficult, particularly during the busy periods before, during and after festivals. Because of the app we were able to measure and observe this for the first time” (S04).

The research influenced CJF’s creative programming

The research team also shaped programming decisions and artistic policies (S04). Musical Encounters was launched by CJF in 2015 to engage a more diverse and younger audience and to push the boundaries of the festival experience. The research team became an integral part of this programming initiative and in 2018 implemented a hackathon methodology to facilitate the commissioning process (S03; S04). This led to the development of “Jazz Puddles”, which was a light and sound installation that was premiered at the festival in 2019 (S04). One of the workshop participants stated that: “ This was an entirely new way of thinking creatively about the commissioning process and it was great to work in collaboration with others to pool ideas rather than submitting bids in competition. We all learned a great deal also seeing the internal mechanisms of how Cheltenham consider awarding new work.” (S08). The success of this event in establishing a model of creative co-commissioning has resulted in a Jerwood Trust-funded 3-year programme with BCU as a key partner in the delivery of the project. CJF’s producer in charge of the Jerwood project, setting out its components, identified the importance of BCU’s involvement: “The programme seeks to equip artists with the skills and contacts they need to develop bold new work. It includes R&D funding, in-depth mentoring and a Creative Lab hosted by the BCU research team, which will enable us to experiment with presenting jazz in unusual spaces and the digital realm.” (S09)

Organisational practice was reshaped by the research at CJF.

The BCU team drew on their research to design the set of initiatives identified above, including Hack the Festival, the KeyChange workshops and the mobile app pilots, that provided the conceptual and practical resources for CJF management to implement change in organisational practice. As the evidence provided shows, these resources enabled the management to think and reflect on their principles and values and provided the tools for them to alter their practices (S04; S09). This extended to greater integration of the festival’s digital systems via the CMS and a deeper understanding of how to engage their audience. The Head of Programming at CJF explains: “ Issues of audience engagement and diversity in programming are perennial problems…Working with BCUs researchers provided us with the space to experiment with solutions that would work for us at a local level whilst also considering the national picture” (S04). The further impact of this change in organisational practice will take effect when the CJF returns to normal operation, currently scheduled for their 2021 season.

Raine’s report on gender equality at jazz festivals has also contributed to the development of CJF’s policies and procedures for training stage management and other artist-facing staff working with female musicians (S04). It is clear from the experiences of women musicians that these changes in training and artist communication have already been effective and have altered the perception of the festival amongst these musicians. A female jazz vocalist, who performed at CJF 2019, reflected on what these changes meant to her: “it was really great to see that the insights developed by the research had been taken on board by the festival – even down to the gender balance pledge being mentioned in their email signature. It was things like this that made the project feel real. Not only that, but the project was very useful to me professionally. I came away from the workshops with some really useful information about how to market and promote myself at future festivals” (S07).

The research informed strategic planning beyond CJF

The Jazz Promotion Network (JPN) – the main industry organisation for jazz in the UK – explicitly cites BCU’s research and knowledge exchange activities as one of the key determinants of their recent strategic planning. Our work has been particularly influential on their current audience development initiatives (S05; S06; S010). The approaches set out in the BCU research formed a key component of a £90,000 application by JPN to Arts Council England. The successful award made in 2020, will enable BCU to work with JPN to extend our work at CJF to promoters across the whole of the UK.

As a JPN board member and Artistic Director of the Manchester Jazz Festival said, “ We have seen from their work with Cheltenham how effective this approach can be, but their involvement with JPN always provides something useful for our wider membership to consider and to enfold into their own planning. For these reasons I was delighted when, in 2020, we were able to formalise our relationship with BCU further when JPN was awarded over £90,000 by Arts Council England to deliver a multi-strand programme of work focussing on developing the jazz workforce across the UK and Ireland. Part of this programme includes a partnership with BCU on a 2-year longitudinal research project looking at current and potential jazz audiences about which I am extremely excited" (S05).

We are also extending our reach outside the UK as the team’s work has been vital to informing debates and policy within the European jazz festival sector. The Communications Manager from the Europe Jazz Network, which represents 156 organisations in 35 countries, has noted, “ it is clear from the evidence of their work at Cheltenham that BCU’s work has provided huge benefits to our member organizations, and it is pleasing to see our members begin to partner with them” (S06).

This work has produced beneficial impact for CJF, its audiences, performers, and the wider Jazz festival sector. Impact was achieved through the research-led, co-development of practical and artistic solutions that addressed challenges related to audience engagement, artistic development, and the development of organisational policy.