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Collaboration and co-production of new cultural artefacts in raising public awareness of Scotland’s sporting heritage through the Commonwealth Games Scotland Archive

1. Summary of the impact

Collaboration with Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) has significantly developed the cultural preservation and interpretation of its collection and broadened the reach of sporting heritage in Scotland. The research and knowledge exchange activity has changed how the CGS archive is managed, preserving it from loss, and through the co-production of the exhibition Hosts and Champions created new cultural artefacts and collaborations with VisitScotland, the Scottish Government Legacy 2014, Sporting Memories Foundation and a range of sport, museum and cultural professionals. The research has supported the creation of new stimuli for cultural tourism and sport reminiscence reaching diverse audiences of more than 200,000 people across Scotland.

2. Underpinning research

For over two decades at the University of Stirling, Professor Richard Haynes has researched the social and cultural dynamics of sport and popular culture. His research is focused on the historical and cultural importance of sport mega-events, in particular the management and administration of major events and their mediatisation, which provides the context for specific research on sporting heritage (see research outputs R1, R2, R3, R4). In 2017, Haynes was awarded the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for his monograph on the history of BBC sport broadcasting which includes analysis of early television coverage of the British Empire and Commonwealth Games (R5).

In 2013, Haynes was the PI on the AHRC project From The Sporting Past To Future Wellbeing: Intergenerational Sports Heritage in Glasgow's Southside (AH/K005367/1, GBP 18,451). The knowledge exchange project focused on community-based sport archives and educational outreach, which was specifically timed to raise awareness of sporting heritage in Scotland in the lead up to the city hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The project revealed: “At a time of stringent cuts to public services which affect the delivery of sports development, museums and education services, bringing together various partners around sporting heritage themes appears to be a starting point for more holistic approaches to learning from the past to shape our future health and wellbeing” (R5 p.17).

In 2014 Haynes researched and co-curated an exhibition with Magee entitled ‘Hosts and Champions: Scotland in the Commonwealth Games’ which was informed by the importance of the cultural heritage of Scottish sport explored in the AHRC project. The subsequent evaluation of the touring exhibition and preservation of the collections emphasized the benefits arising from sharing “a national sporting archive with local communities in familiar surroundings” (R6 p.43) and concluded, “The process of unlocking sports archives for public engagement has educational, cultural and social benefits” (R6 p.47).

Haynes and Magee continue to manage the future proofing of the Team Scotland collections, opening up opportunities for other researchers and PhD students, including the development of intangible heritage through oral histories with former athletes and administrators. This has included research input and knowledge exchange into an 18-month heritage initiative ‘Celebrating our Past, Building our Future’ launched by CGS in January 2019 which encompasses the 90th anniversary of Scotland’s involvement in the Games. The research led to a series of athlete profiles on the Team Scotland website by Haynes, a much-publicized social media campaign and showcase at the Team Scotland Awards.

3. References to the research

R1. Haynes, R. (2010). The BBC, Austerity and Broadcasting the 1948 Olympic Games International Journal of the History of Sport. 27 (3), 1025-42. DOI: 10.1080/09523361003656167

R2. Haynes, R. (2014). The Maturation of Olympic Television: The BBC, Eurovision and Rome 1960. Stadion: International Journal of Sport History, Vol.38/39. 163-182. http://www.academia-verlag.de/titel/69653.htm

R3. Haynes, R. (2016). BBC Sport in Black and White. London: Palgrave Macmillan. [in REF2].

R4. Haynes, R and Boyle, R. (2017). The FIFA World Cup: media, football and the evolution of a global event. In: Wenner, L. and Billings, A. C. (Eds) Sport, Media and Mega-Events. New York: Routledge. [in REF2].

R5. Haynes, R. (2019). From Sporting Past to Future Wellbeing: Sport Heritage and Intergenerational Learning in Glasgow, Sport in History. DOI: 10.1080/17460263.2019.1646670

R6. Haynes, R. and Magee, K. (2015) Hosts and Champions: Taking the Commonwealth Games Scotland archive on tour. Archives. Vol. L:130-1. 37-46.

4. Details of the impact

The underlying research and knowledge exchange activity by Haynes and Magee (the Stirling Team) has had the following impacts:

Impact 1. Enhanced and developed cultural preservation and interpretation of the Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) archive through collaboration with the organisation.

Impact 2. New cultural artefacts co-produced with an artist and organisers of Festival 2014 for a mobile travelling exhibition (that toured (inter)nationally).

Impact 3. Enhancement to public knowledge and increased awareness of the cultural heritage of Scottish sport, achieved in collaboration with sport, museum and cultural professionals, and Scottish Government agencies including Legacy 2014 and Visit Scotland.

Impact 4. New cultural tourism attractions and tourism experiences developed through partnership with a diverse range of museums and cultural institutions (including the Scottish Football Museum) and the government agency for tourism, VisitScotland.

Impact 5. Enhanced social care of people living with dementia and loneliness, using intergenerational sporting reminiscence tools developed with the Sporting Memories Foundation.

The research on sport mega-events (R1 to R4) and the sporting heritage project in 2013 (R5) underpinned the collaboration with CGS, the body that manages Team Scotland, to both preserve the organisation’s archive (Impact 1) and to develop a new exhibition that generated cultural (Impacts 1 & 3), economic (Impacts 2 & 4) and social benefits (Impact 5). CGS Chief Executive, Jon Doig, OBE, has explained how the Stirling team’s intervention has benefitted the organisation:

“The partnership with the University of Stirling and in particular Professor Haynes and Mr Magee has been vital to ensuring the conservation and future proofing of the Team Scotland archives. When the partnership was formed records were incomplete, not catalogued and important historical information of national and academic interest in danger of being lost.” (E1) (Impact 1)

In 2014, Haynes was approached by Jean Cameron, director of the Cultural Programme for the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The relationship prompted the use of academic knowledge on the cultural history of sport and the value of sporting heritage (to unlock and interpret the stories contained in the archive to co-produce the exhibition Hosts and Champions: Scotland in the Commonwealth Games (R1-3 and R5). The exhibition unlocked the material and visual culture of Scotland’s historical relationship with the British Empire Games from its origin in 1930, displaying a selection of photographs, designs, clothing, papers and rare artefacts (Impacts 1 & 2). The cultural preservation of the archive and partnerships with CGS and other cultural agencies (Impacts 1 & 3), as well as funding from the “Celebrate It” Lottery Fund, enabled the Stirling Team to co-produce a bespoke exhibition for the Glasgow 2014 Festival (23 July to 3 August Embedded image 2014). Display cases were designed in collaboration with artist Danny Holcroft with additional designs of banners, flyers and the exhibition logo co-created with museum curator Lucy Armitage from the Riverside Museum (Impacts 2 & 3). As a formal partner of Festival 2014 the Stirling team were given free license to use the Glasgow 2014 suite of visual brands including the colour scheme, typography, and logos of Glasgow 2014 Ltd (E2). Research using CGS minute books and associated documents by Haynes directly informed the narrative panels produced to explain the cultural histories of Scotland’s participation in the Games (Impact 2) (R6). The exhibition, situated in the Old Fruitmarket at the heart of Festival 2014 in the Merchant City area of Glasgow, was part of Scotland House home of Team Scotland managed by VisitScotland, Scotland’s tourism enterprise agency.

The illustrated data (Figure 1) serve to emphasise impact claims of the reach of the exhibition and the diversity of the visitors who attended (Impact 4) (E4). Evaluation of the Glasgow 2014 legacies for the Commonwealth Games Federation suggested that hosting the Games, including Festival 2014, brought “economic, social, sporting and cultural benefits to Scotland and Glasgow” (E5 p.8) and crucially “increased the size and reach of participation in the Games” (E5 p.6) (Impacts 3 & 4) (E5). Moreover, 17% of visitors experienced cultural events previously unfamiliar to them (E4 p.24), which in terms of visitor feedback to the exhibition was reflected in comments such as, “Excellent production – hugely informative, everyone should know this history!” and “Excellent idea to bring culture and history of the Games to the Games”, supporting claims of significance of the research in enhancing the cultural awareness and knowledge of Scottish sporting heritage (Impact 3) (E6). A video review of the Stirling team’s contribution to the ‘Celebrate It’ Lottery scheme included an interview with Haynes which broadened the reach of the public’s knowledge and understanding of sporting heritage in Scotland via YouTube (E7).

Embedded image

Embedded image The reach of the research impact focused on Glasgow 2014 was broadened further by a partnership with Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland. Haynes’s research on intergenerational sport reminiscence linked directly to the SMFS’s development of a similar project involving primary school children and care homes in Musselburgh (R5). SMF are a community interest company specializing in sport reminiscence therapies and company director, Chris Wilkins, noted:

“Prof Richard Haynes played a pivotal part in one of our key intergenerational projects with Pinkie primary school, East Lothian [Figures 2 & 3]. For this project he brought items from the TSA down to the school to introduce the theme of past Commonwealth Games to pupils who then went on to take part in reminiscence activities with older people in local Sporting Memories Groups.” (E8) (Impact 5)

Wilkins noted the archive: “ proved invaluable in helping us to produce a comprehensive set of reminiscence material for a number Embedded image of projects the SMF Scotland were funded to deliver as a legacy for the 2014 Glasgow Games” (E8) (see Figure 4) (Impact 5). Beneficiaries included 120 sporting memory groups across the UK (Impact 5) (E8).

In 2015, the Scottish Government Legacy Team and VisitScotland invited the Stirling Team to produce a touring exhibition in partnership with local authorities (Impacts 3 & 4). The resulting exhibition was much expanded following Glasgow 2014, including the extensive private collection of former Scottish diver Sir Peter Heatly (Impact 1). Between 2015 and 2018 the exhibition toured 16 different venues, travelling 2,228 miles in Scotland in co-production with local museums and cultural sectors (Impacts 3 & 4).

The geographical reach of the exhibition into small towns and communities in Scotland was important for diversifying the public knowledge about Team Scotland’s sporting heritage (Impact 1). Scottish Government funding helped the development of further specially designed exhibition cases, as well as the employment of two exhibition graduate interns for three months assisting with exhibition design and digital outputs (E3). In all cases, the Stirling team collaborated with partner museums and cultural organisations across Scotland who introduced localised materials and visual stimuli based on former Scottish representatives (Impacts 3 & 4). Each exhibition hosted a launch event with invited guests from Team Scotland, VIPs from the local community and a talk by Haynes on the collection (Impact 1) (R6). A key impact for museum partners was the diversification of visitors, often captured in local media reports and in the exhibition visitor books with more than 200 entries. A video produced by Annandale TV in Dumfries (E2) placed emphasis on the educational value of the exhibition and its inspiration to young people (Impacts 3 & 4). CGS Chief Executive Doig has emphasized how working with the Stirling Team has delivered the key value of ‘Community Inspiration’ in their 2016-2023 Strategic Plan:

Turning the collection into the touring exhibitions under the ‘Hosts and Champions’ programme has been vital in connecting Commonwealth Games Scotland and the University with current and former Team Scotland members and local communities across Scotland outwith the Games years and fulfilling a key aim of the Glasgow 2014 Games in particular.” (E1) (Impact 1)

From 25 July to 17 September 2018 the exhibition was installed as a temporary exhibition in the Scottish Football Museum in Hampden Stadium, four years after the stadium hosted Glasgow 2014. The exhibit received 5,009 paying visitors during this run (Impact 4). From 2015 the Stirling Team also began to produce smaller pop-up exhibitions for Team Scotland and VisitScotland including: the Team Scotland Awards (2015-19); the First Minister’s homecoming for Team Scotland and Queen’s Baton receptions at Stirling Castle (2014 and 2018); and the Commonwealth Youth Leadership programme (2017) (Impacts 1 & 4). A testimonial from VisitScotland’s Senior Event Manager, Jenny McMahon, emphasises the impact the Stirling Team have had on the organisations’ strategic objective to promote Team Scotland to a wider audience:

“A KPI across all events was to celebrate Scottish Sporting Successes to a variety of audiences which we were able to achieve via the work of the University of Stirling team. The events welcomed a variety of home and international audiences including senior politicians, corporate guests, industry partners, sponsors, athletes and the public.” (E9)

McMahon concludes by saying:

“The contribution given by the team at University of Stirling has provided historical and credible material to help engage a wide audience in understanding the value in Team Scotland activity.” (E9) (Impacts 3 & 4)

The Stirling team have hosted two symposia in collaboration with Sporting Heritage: ‘Pass It On: Celebrating Scotland’s Sporting Heritage’ (University of Stirling, 2017) and ‘Kick Off! Engaging With Scotland’s Sporting Heritage’ in collaboration with the Archives and Records Association (Hampden Stadium, 2018) both targeted at museum professionals and sport heritage organisations with a view to sharing knowledge on how to broaden the reach of Scottish sport collections. In 2019, collaboration with the wider museum sector led to the formation of the Scottish Sporting Heritage Consortium in which Haynes and Magee are founding members (Impact 3).

In 2018, a significant partnership between VisitScotland, CGS and the Stirling Team led to the production of a bespoke exhibition Aussie Hosts and Scottish Champions produced for Scotland House in Gold Coast, Australia, from 2nd to 15th April 2018. The exhibition involved Haynes writing new historical narratives on Scotland’s participation in four previous Games held in Australia for the production of a large exhibition banner (3m x 2m) which formed the centerpiece of an exhibit (Impact 4) (E2). The exhibition also included a sport heritage event chaired by CGS’s Doig, with contributions from the Stirling team and Dame Louise Martin, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation to more than 100 Team Scotland athletes and coaches (Impact 1). The bespoke exhibition internationalized the reach of the research impact and the involvement of the CGF President increased its significance to the athletic community (Impacts 1 & 4). According to Doig:

“*The archive has played a major part in changing how CGS have engaged past and present athletes and competitors about their joint heritage of Scotland in the Commonwealth Games.*” (E1) (Impacts 1 & 3)

Most crucially, the collaboration has changed CGS’s approach to its heritage. As Doig notes, it,

“*has shaped what we have held on to after the last Games meaning important information of value to future generations is now collected and curated in real time rather than being at risk of being lost.*” (E1) (Impacts 1 & 3)

Embedded image From 2019 the influence and benefits to CGS due to the close collaboration with the Stirling team was exemplified by a new heritage initiative Celebrating our Past, Building our Future, which Doig highlighted links “ past athletes with those in line for future Games teams and youth Games team.” The initiative has involved the Stirling team producing new research and knowledge based on the CGS archives for publication on the CGS website and promoted through their social media (Impacts 1 & 3). The initiative has had significant contribution from a AHRC collaborative PGR student.

The Hosts and Champions exhibition has generated new knowledge and reach of sporting heritage in Scotland, evidenced by the subsequent growth of the CGS collections. The original CGS deposit of 240 standard archive boxes in 2011 grew by an additional 490 standard archive boxes by 2019. Two thirds of the current collection were donated by individuals and families prompted by seeing the exhibition (Impact 1). The private deposits include a particularly rare curiosity: a ‘Scottish humpty dumpty’ mascot from the Edinburgh Games in 1970 (Figure 5). The rare mascot gained national media coverage in six Scottish newspapers with circulations totalling half-a-million when first exhibited as part of Hosts & Champions (Impact 1) (E2).

5. Sources to corroborate the impact

E1. Testimonial: Chief Executive, Commonwealth Games Scotland, 15 May 2019.

E2. Project website: https://libguides.stir.ac.uk/archives/projects/hostsandchamps

E3. Games Survey: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=30180&p=0

E4. Festival Survey: https://glasgow.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=30181&p=0

E5. Legacy Report: https://thecgf.com/sites/default/files/2018-02/00482151.pdf

E6. Exhibition Visitor Books and Attendance figures (PDFs provided).

E7. Big Lottery Fund 2014 Legacy Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRBXclsULVs

E8. Testimonial: Director, Sporting Memories Foundation, 8 May 2019.

E9. Testimonial: Senior Event Manager, VisitScotland, 2019.

Additional contextual information

Grant funding

Grant number Value of grant
AH/K005367/1 £18,451
AH/S001409/1 £70,581
Big Lottery Fund: 0010234653 £9,660
Scottish Government Legacy 2014 £7,000
Festival 2014 £2,600
Scottish Government Active Scotland Division £7,230
Commonwealth Games Scotland £4,800
Sporting Heritage £380