Impact case study database

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Enhanced financial sustainability of micro and small businesses and cultural organisations within London’s creative economy

CWL enhanced the economic performance of the micro and small businesses with which it collaborated. Measurable impacts included the creation of spinout companies and new jobs and increases in gross value added (GVA). These economic impacts [5.4, 5.5] and were audited by the AHRC and the GLA as part of the formal end-of-project evaluation processes for CWL and London Fusion.

CWL’s co-created research with the Ragged School Museum (RSM) supported the development of a permanent gallery display. The Museum Director [5.7] confirmed that the collaboration ‘enabled the Museum to make a shift in focus to investigating our own history, which was vital in making an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund’ [EQR.3.1]. The Director further confirmed that ‘the project outputs have greatly improved what we offer our visitors,’ and this will be ‘a key element of the RSM’s future funding strategy, which will transform facilities and expand the RSM’s programme. With all of the building in productive use the Museum will become financially self-sufficient.’ RSM Trustees’ Report to the Charity Commission indicates that the Museum’s income doubled between 2014/15 (when the CWL-funded research took place) and 2018/19.

Produced Innovations within creative businesses through co-created research

CWL’s research collaborations with creative businesses contributed to the development of new products, new service formats, new business models, and technological innovations [5.4]. In 2016, collaborating businesses reported the following as directly related to their work with CWL:

As a result of the collaborative research enabled both by a CWL creative voucher and by collaboration within the BOOST programme, Beatwoven® was able to develop a new and robust business model. The company diversified its outputs to include artworks as well as fashion textiles, and received commissions from clients including the Southbank Centre, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Harrods. The Founder [5.10] also reported in 2017 that the company had ‘partnered with Firetech, Warner Music UK’s innovation lab, and the Bowie Estate, to create a piece of woven art translated from Bowie’s song “Let’s Dance.”’ BOOST was cited as an important financial model by an EU Expert Committee [5.8, p.25].

Enhanced evidence-based policy related to the role of Creative Hubs, nationally and internationally

CWL’s research on Creative Hubs identified their role in enabling sustainable creative work and supporting creative businesses in London. A CWL Research Lab on ‘Coming to Terms with Creative Hubs,’ co-convened with Knowledge London and the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Group in 2016, led to the development of an enhanced case for public and private investment in Creative Hubs. Consultancy projects undertaken by Shiach and Virani increased the impacts of this research. For example, Virani was funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to produce policy recommendations related to ‘Community Engagement, Micro Communities, Small Businesses and Effective Local Policy,’ which would inform the regeneration of Chrisp Street Market in East London. In 2018, building on CWL’s research, Queen Mary launched Network: The Queen Mary Centre for the Creative and Cultural Economy (directed by Shiach & Virani) https://networkcentre.uk, which has undertaken policy-focussed consultancy, including Development of a Self-Assessment Evaluation Framework for Creative Hubs in Thailand (with the British Council) and Mapping the Creative Economy in West Bengal (with the British Council, Government of West Bengal, and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur). Shiach and Virani also undertook research on Creative Clusters, Social Inclusion, and Sustainability: The Case of Hackney Wick and Fish Island (HWFI), which formed part of the successful bid to the Mayor of London for designation of HWFI as a ‘Creative Enterprise Zone’ (CEZ). The role of a CEZ is ‘to protect the creative sector in the capital, increase affordable spaces for artists and entrepreneurs, and boost job and training opportunities for local people’ ( https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-announces-first-creative-enterprise-zones).

‘Creative Hubs and Urban Development Goals, UK/Brazil’ (colloquially known as Creativeworks London/São Paulo) produced a Policy Report for the State Government of São Paulo [5.6], outlining the potential contributions of Creative Hubs in the city of São Paulo to economic development and the negative consequences of the stark dichotomy between ‘cultural’ and ‘innovation’ Hubs existing within the city. The research team was then invited to present its findings to senior government representatives. In light of this, the government subsequently invested in three new Creative Hub spaces in 2018.

Promoted the roles of women in leadership positions within London’s creative economy.

The CWL Women in the Digital Culture and Economy Network promoted both participation by female digital entrepreneurs in CWL and a good gender balance in applications to its funded schemes. CWL worked in partnership with the V&A’s Digital Programmes team, the Knowledge Transfer Network, Innovate UK, and the Digital Catapult. As a result, 63% of the research collaborations funded by Creative Vouchers involved female-led creative businesses, and 60% of these projects had female research partners. More than 50% of the entrepreneurs funded by the Creative-Entrepreneur-in-Residence schemes were female. This prepared a significant number of female-led creative businesses to apply successfully for further investment and funding and to increase their profiles for innovation. Female creative entrepreneurs funded by CWL include the European Woman Innovator of the Year, 2017; a Finalist in the Inventor of the Year Award Competition run by the InclusiveTechAlliance, 2019; and the Co-Founder of New Media Networks who wrote in 2016 that ‘Following the CWL-funded project I was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Communication and Information on the UK National Commission for UNESCO. This led me to working on policies for UNESCO [and] also to presenting at the UNESCO General Conference… Thank you CWL for providing the opportunity to help to make any of this happen’ [5.9]. The Co-CEO of Unruly Media says that ‘These ground-breaking collaborations have been tremendously useful for innovation-led businesses within the creative economy, and it was great to see CWL working with so many female-led SMEs and female creative entrepreneurs.’

Brotton’s research on mapping has allowed cultural heritage organisations, creative practitioners, and their audiences to address fundamental questions of what the practices and products of mapping embody and enable. Aligning new methods of heritage preservation with historical analyses and the imaging and access tools offered by digital technologies, Brotton’s research has advanced public and professional understanding of maps and mapping in three key areas.

Developing the conservation and exchange of culture through practice and interpretation of mapping

Brotton’s research on the consequences of digitality for mapping [3.1, 3.4] have underpinned the development of new digital technologies for the recreation, preservation, and reinterpretation of historic maps in collaborations with Factum Arte and Bodleian Libraries in the co-curation of the exhibition ‘Talking Maps’ [3.5] at the Weston Library (Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, June 2019–March 2020). Under Brotton’s guidance, new scanning and printing techniques were applied to the Gough map, Hereford Cathedral’s mappa mundi and Idrisi’s Entertainment, creating new 3D maps, which were exhibited in the UK (Bodleian Libraries 2019–20) and internationally (Les Abattoirs Museum, Toulouse 2014; National Library, Madrid 2017). The Bodleian wrote that Brotton’s research provided ‘an opportunity for the Library to experiment further in the use of digital, or digital mediated interactive elements’ and ‘influenced the way the Library will approach future exhibition design’ [5.6].

Brotton’s research on digitality and heritage preservation [3.1, 3.2] has allowed new methods of cultural conservation to be developed in collaboration with local indigenous communities and artists in Brazil. In May 2017, he collaborated with Takumã, an artist from the Kuikuro people in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, and Adam Lowe of Factum to produce 3D digital maps of Ipatse village, Takumã’s home [5.8]. By enabling the community to visualise the landscape in new ways through the use of new mapping techniques, the project directly informed and supported their decision to re-site the village in a new, and environmentally sustainable location, preserving Kuikuro heritage into the future.

The technology and practice developed by Brotton and his collaborators has also contributed towards the cultural exchange between the Kuikuro and a British art-going public. As part of a Tate Modern Exchange event (‘Producing Memory: Maps, Materials, Belonging,’ May 2018), Brotton installed an interactive augmented reality display of Ipatse village and gave a talk on the work with Factum Arte and the Kuikuro [5.10]. The project has enhanced international awareness of indigenous rights and culture, and drawn indigenous environmental and aesthetic practices into dialogue with audiences and professionals at a leading European ‘high’ cultural institution (Tate Modern). The potential of this practice to promote cultural preservation and exchange was further demonstrated in a collaboration in 2018 with another Brazilian indigenous group, the Wauja community, who sought assistance in reconstructing and preserving the sacred cave site of Kamukuwaka, which had been vandalised. Brotton, Lowe, and their artist-collaborators mapped the cave, creating a record of the site in perpetuity. This was then displayed at the Factum Arte studio in Madrid (November 2019), as part of a project co-curated by Brotton that included workshops with indigenous artists and activists from Brazil to address the political and environmental consequences of the Bolsonaro regime [5.8].

Brotton’s research has also furthered public and institutional understanding of cultural exchange as a historic process within the UK. His research on the cultural exchanges between Elizabethan England and the Muslim world directly contributed to the exhibition ‘London’s Theatre of the East’ at the Arab British Centre and Dr Johnson’s House (DJH; November 2019–January 2020). As a result of his book, This Orient Isle [3.3], Brotton was appointed as lead academic adviser for the exhibition, and the knowledges generated in his research shaped its curatorial practice and facilitated public engagement through associated events and publications. The Arab British Centre writes [5.2]: ‘Brotton’s involvement in London’s Theatre of the East has been instrumental to the project’s success [...] His enthusiasm and knowledge has been invaluable.’ The curator of Dr Johnson’s House writes: ‘the academic and historical context for the project is firmly rooted in Prof. Brotton’s book This Orient Isle [...] it also inspired us to look at the concept of representation through the documented instances of ‘contact’ in very practical terms: political, commercial, and socio-economic’ [5.5].

Facilitating creative and artistic practice and production

Brotton’s research on the interconnections and exchanges between Elizabethan England and Islam [3.3] has underpinned new theatrical and artistic production, enabling directors and artists to develop new artistic perspectives, produce new creative outputs, and reach new audiences.

In 2017, Brotton provided consultation and programme notes for a ground-breaking production of Othello: the first major professional production in the UK that explored Othello's heritage and identity as a Muslim. It was directed by English Touring Theatre’s artistic director Richard Twyman in collaboration with ‘Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’ (Bristol). Twyman notes the fundamental influence of Brotton’s work: ‘Brotton's This Orient Isle had a profound impact on me and my thinking around the production. Without Jerry's scholarship and subsequent support, I would not have had the knowledge or freedom to approach the play in this way [...] Jerry's revolutionary book [...] provided this thread and gave all of us involved in the production the confidence to create an Othello that has gone on to change the performance history of the play in the UK’ [5.1].

In connection with London’s Theatre of the East, Brotton presented his work to Arab-British artists chosen to lead exhibitions. In particular, Brotton’s research findings in this area have influenced a commissioned artwork by Nour Hage, award-winning Lebanese fashion designer. Her piece, Sultana Isabel (the name comes from Ottoman sources discussed by Brotton in [3.3]) was developed as an installation for London’s Theatre of the East and drew inspiration from Brotton’s work on the relation between Elizabethan England and the Muslim world. The piece models Elizabeth I’s neck ruffs and references her personal connection with the Moroccan Kingdom, which helped her access the coveted Silk Road, bringing its luxuries into England for the first time. Hage developed new textile skills in dying and starching to create the ruff, which was coloured with natural dyes often associated with the Silk Road, such as turmeric and indigo [5.4]. A reviewer for the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies’ Criticks webpages noted that the artwork ‘encapsulates Elizabethan commercial interests while also hinting at the dramatic engagement with the Arab world by Shakespeare and Marlowe and later by Johnson himself’ [5.9], foregrounding precisely the influence of Brotton’s work on maps and early modern drama.

Increasing cultural participation and enhancing public understanding of mapping

Public engagement is embedded in Brotton’s approach to all his work, as evidenced in the audiences [5.7] for his publications and his participation in talks and events aimed at general publics. In co-curating the exhibition ‘Talking Maps’ at the Weston Library (Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, June 2019-March 2020), Brotton has made a significant contribution to increasing cultural participation in and enhancing public understanding of mapping. Almost 98,000 people visited the exhibition, and Brotton led guided lunchtime tours with over 1,000 attending [5.7]. Bodleian Libraries noted that the exhibition drew much larger audiences than previous, similar events at the Weston Library and concurrent events with similar themes. Of 2,400 public respondents, 42% said they knew little or nothing about maps prior to viewing the exhibition and 66% agreed that after seeing the show ‘they have a new understanding of maps.’ Asked ‘how has your idea of a map changed,’ visitors’ answers indicated their understanding of maps had been enhanced, reporting a new ‘perspective on maps as story-telling devices,’ a new understanding of ‘maps as objects with different purposes and reflections of different cosmological perspectives’, and that the exhibition had ‘revolutionized my way of thinking’ [5.7].

In connection with London’s Theatre of the East, Brotton organised a performance by Queen Mary students of the first public ticketed staged reading in 270 years of Irene, Samuel Johnson’s Ottoman-themed play (November 2019). The related exhibition itself drew over 3,500 attendees. The results of a survey of 66 visitors indicate increased cultural participation with 89% not having visited Doctor Johnson’s House before and 73% previously unaware of the Arab British Centre. Feedback received from visitors demonstrates enhanced public understanding and a greater sense of inclusion: ‘This exhibition really spoke to me as someone of Arab Heritage living in London [...] I saw myself reflected in the contents and art. Unfortunately, this kind of experience is incredibly rare’ [5.3].

Valman’s research has benefited three groups: a) museums and their audiences; b) east London residents and visitors; and c) secondary school students and teachers. Through walks, self-led (via a digital application for mobile phones) and in guided groups, public performances, workshops, the creation of teaching materials, and production of content for a museum exhibition, Valman has pioneered participatory forms of learning that changed perceptions of migrants.

Collaborated with museums to enhance cultural migrant heritage preservation

Zangwill’s Spitalfields (2016)

In collaboration with the Jewish Museum, Valman wrote and produced a free smartphone app, Zangwill’s Spitalfields, which provides a multimedia walking tour of east London’s Jewish immigrant history using sites in Zangwill’s novel [3.5]. Drawing on her existing research [3.1, 3.2], Valman conducted additional research for the app in collaboration with curators at the Jewish Museum, London. She wrote the content, designed the interface, sourced and edited archival recordings of oral histories, and directed the production of the app by the Society of Digital Artists (SoDA). The app provided the company with economic benefits and enhanced their research and development of smartphone technology.

Valman’s app creates an immersive experience and promotes deeper engagement with Britain’s migrant history [3.3, 3.5]. It uses a collage of digital media to narrate the past and bring it into dialogue with present-day discussion about gentrification, protest, and marginalized lives [3.3, 3.5]. Drawing on Victorian narrated text, oral history recordings, and digitized artefacts from the Museum and other archives, Valman’s commentary highlights the diversity and complexity of immigrant experience. It makes these resources accessible to those who may not enter the museum itself and encourages embodied explorations of sites in east London that retain traces of the Victorian past, as well as those of more recent migrant lives. The Director spoke to the benefit to the Museum, as ‘[t]his partnership enabled the Jewish Museum to explore for the first time the potential of digital technology to make use of spaces of Jewish history beyond the walls of the museum’ [5.1].

The Museums Journal called it ‘a beautifully descriptive audio guide’ whose ‘observations are particularly pertinent, highlighting that arguments around immigration have changed little since the 1880s’ [5.2]. Users found listening to the text, commentary, and sound in the locations an emotionally engaging way to learn about the history of Jewish immigration. The material changed their understanding of the challenges faced by contemporary newcomers to London: ‘It made me think about the parallels between what happened a hundred years ago, the tales of immigration, and how we’re going through the same thing now’ [5.4].

For several local residents, the app brought a new awareness of local history. Out of hundreds of users surveyed, 40% were aged 20-40, a hard-to-reach group for the Museum. 90% were not Jewish and none had visited the Jewish Museum [5.4].

In 2016-19, the app was showcased at seven literature festivals and conferences across the UK and Europe with a total of 290 participants. Its launch was featured in blog posts for the Migration Museum Project ( 3 August 2016), Spitalfields Life ( 28 June 2016), and The Culture Capital Exchange ( 4 April 2017), and was covered by the Jewish News ( 1 July 2016), and East London Advertiser ( 1 Sept 2016). Valman was interviewed by the Jewish Chronicle ( 7 July 2016) and Tel Aviv Review podcast ( 23 January 2017).

As of December 2020, the app has been downloaded 4367 times, and 1,700 new users engaged with the website version. The app has had both national and international reach: it was downloaded by users from the UK (36%), China (33%), US (24%), as well as Israel, Japan, Australia and Germany (source: iTunes Connect Analytics, Google Play Analytics). The website was accessed from across the world, including the UK (50%), US (26%), Italy (4%), and Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Norway, India, and Russia (Source: Google Analytics).

Migrant Literature Walks (October–November 2017, March-April 2018)

Expanding from the Jewish histories of Spitalfields to a wider range of experiences of migration in East London, in 2017-18 Valman produced eight free guided walks exploring London through the eyes of migrants from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The work was conducted in collaboration with the Migration Museum Project (MMP) [5.5]. Valman used her research on migrants’ experience of displacement, expectation, belonging, and change in London [3.2, 3.4] to engage members of the public in group discussion, and to address aspects of London’s migration history not covered in the Museum’s exhibitions.

The walks were all fully booked; 156 people participated from a wide range of ages and ethnic backgrounds. The walks helped MMP raise awareness of its current exhibition and wider mission amongst a range of Londoners, many of migrant ancestry [5.5, 5.6]. Participants discovered new literary texts and reflected on experiences of migration. They were empowered to imagine London’s forgotten history as a city long inhabited by migrants [5.6].

80% of participants had not heard of MMP, but were strongly motivated to visit after the walk [5.6]. MMP commented that the walks ‘have been a huge success, in their own right, but also in promoting our project to those we might not otherwise have reached’ [5.5]. Valman’s research continued to play a significant role for MMP, which drew on it for their subsequent exhibition Room to Breathe (Nov 2018-June 2019) and invited Valman to contribute an essay on ‘The Bedsit’ [5.10].

The walks further engaged new audiences in migrant stories through discussions broadcast on major media outlets, e.g. Valman’s interview on BBC Radio London for the Robert Elms Show ( 3 Oct 2017), and further work with heritage organisations. Valman delivered the 2017 annual public lecture at the Jewish Museum and a talk for the 2018 Refugee Tales Walk. In 2018, she was invited to join the Advisory Board for a major HLF-funded project, ‘House of Life’, and opened Willesden Jewish Cemetery as a public heritage site in 2020. She advised on interpretation panels, website content and event programming. In June 2019, Valman led a guided introduction to Zangwill’s Spitalfields for curators from European Jewish museums. Their enthusiastic response led to plans for Jewish literature apps in Frankfurt and Krakow based on Valman’s model.

Increased cultural participation and public interest in east London in the research through events and workshops

The Great Yiddish Parade (2017-18)

In 2017 and 2018, Valman drew further on her research on Israel Zangwill and Margaret Harkness’s documentation of east London street protest and oratory [3.3, 3.5, 3.6] to produce large-scale events and workshops for residents in east London, enabling cultural participation for groups who may not usually visit museums and enriching provision of local history teaching. Valman produced a script for a costumed re-enactment (19 Nov 2017) of an 1889 march by Jewish immigrant tailors in Whitechapel. The march drew on the music, Yiddish anthems and oratory of the Victorian East End. The event involved 20 musicians and singers and was attended by 50 participants (the maximum allowed by the local authority), including people with ancestral roots in east London and 150 passers-by. The band and choir, which was developed for the parade, continue to perform, offering further engagement with these historical materials.

Figure 1: Photograph of the Great Yiddish Parade. Copyright [2017] by Nadia Valman.

The recreation of a little-known aspect of east London history significantly enriched participants’ sense of connection to local heritage and awareness of the agency of immigrants from the past. A local resident in her 20s said ‘I knew nothing at all about Yiddish or the history of protest. I really enjoyed today.’ Another participant, in his 50s, felt reconnected to family origins in the area: ‘It was very moving to be where I knew that my great, great grandfather had been over a hundred years ago, on these streets.’ One of the performers noted the inclusivity of the event, and that it had enabled broad local cultural participation: ‘The parade was a wonderful mixture of people of different ages and backgrounds’ [5.8].

Valman was interviewed about the event on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking ( 21 Nov 2017). The parade was covered by the Being Human Festival blog ( 2 Nov 2017), Spitalfields Life blog ( 23 Nov 2017) and the Jewish Chronicle ( 24 Nov 2017).

Provided learning resources to schools and OCR exam board through workshops and the App

Valman hosted workshops on Protest in Victorian Whitechapel for Year 7 students in seven east London schools in November 2017 and September 2018, followed by a school parade on 25^th September 2018, 240 students participated. Students utilised case studies drawn from Valman’s research [3.3, 3.5, 3.6], learned Yiddish songs, designed placards, wrote interviews and speeches, and composed chants and new verses in home languages [5.9]. Around 96% of students were first or second-generation immigrants, however, prior to working with Valman, the curriculum did not include the area’s long immigrant history and pupils had little awareness of it [5.7, 5.9].

In evaluations, teachers and students said that the fun workshops enabled students to connect with historical events. They became better able to understand how current political protest is linked to the past, particularly the continuities of social inequality and political agency in the East End [5.7, 5.9]. The workshops also encouraged further civic engagement for the students through the creative use of slogans and placard design to help articulate protest more persuasively. In the longer term, Year 7 teachers affirmed that sharing workshop resources enabled them to develop new approaches to history teaching through the use of drama, creative writing, and analysis of primary sources [5.9].

Zangwill’s Spitalfields was selected for inclusion in the free online teaching resource on Urban Environments provided by the OCR exam board for the History ‘A’ GSCE syllabus. Chapter 6 focuses on Zangwill’s Spitalfields and uses the app to engage students with questions about the dynamics of assimilation, based on sources from the app and Valman’s commentary [5.3].

Recovering, preserving, and promoting the history of audiobooks

Rubery found and ensured the preservation for posterity of a number of extremely significant early recordings of audiobooks. In 2016, he discovered Europe’s oldest audiobooks, including Joseph Conrad’s Typhoon (1935) and The Gospel According to St John (1935), in private collections in Canada and the UK. He secured the recordings for the National Sound Archive at the British Library, where they could be preserved and digitised. He also discovered an uncatalogued, historic recording in the EMI Archive (Thackeray’s Henry Esmond (1936)). Jonathan Summers, curator of the National Sound Archive, notes that ‘his research exploited an area of the collection that had been hardly used at all […] his work enabled me to acquire a very large collection of talking books for the blind produced in the 1930s and 1940s’ [5.2].

Rubery also led efforts to preserve audio archives in the US. He brokered a deal for Stanford’s libraries to acquire the personal archive of audiobook pioneer Duvall Hecht, who in 1975 founded Books on Tape (B.O.T.), one of the world’s first commercial audio publishers. Hecht’s extensive collection, containing thousands of cassette tapes, has now been preserved by Stanford’s special collections. According to Hecht, ‘Matthew was the moving force behind getting Stanford to accept all Books on Tape’s business records and the thousand full-length recordings that I took with me when I sold B.O.T.’ The head librarian at Stanford’s Archive of Recorded Sound wrote that Rubery ‘helped to secure the preservation of an important part of US audiobook history, enriching the Archive of Recorded Sound’s collections. We are grateful to him for his support in ensuring that the history of audio-recorded literature in the US is recognized and preserved’ [5.1]. In 2020, Rubery brokered a similar arrangement with Johns Hopkins University’s libraries to secure the personal memorabilia and record collection of Barbara Holdridge, who founded Caedmon Records in 1952. Rubery’s discoveries and his contribution to the preservation of audiobook heritage have been featured internationally in a variety of major media outlets (BBC, CBC, NPR, The Guardian, The Times) [5.8, 5.9] and he continues to write about these issues on his popular blog ‘Audiobook History’ (11,061 visitors, 16,703 views as of 27/11/2020).

Benefitting charitable organisations and people with disabilities

Through a process of co-creation and collaboration with visually impaired people, disability advocacy groups, and public sector organisations, Rubery has explored the neglected history of people with disabilities and their contributions to arts and culture in the UK. His work has promoted the heritage collections of national organisations and allowed them to reach new audiences.

Rubery worked closely with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Blind Veterans UK (BVUK), as a key contributor to the ‘RNIB Talking Books Are Now Free’ video and #BooksChangeLives campaign. Rubery and RNIB’s Library and Heritage Services Manager were interviewed together on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open Book’ (27 November 2016) and jointly supervised an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award. Rubery also collaborated with RNIB to produce a documentary titled ‘Talking Books at 80’ for Insight Radio, Europe’s first station for blind and partially sighted people [5.8].

His conference on ‘Blindness, Technology, and Multimodal Reading’ (June 27-28, 2014) at the Royal College of Physicians included visually impaired writers, disability activists, and representatives from RNIB (including Claire Maxwell, Senior Product Manager; and Clive Gardiner, Head of Digital, Content & Reading Services). Attended by more than 40 registered delegates, the conference aimed to influence attitudes and affect policy around inclusion and disability, and participants included key influencers such as Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston, a member of the House of Lords.

Rubery worked closely with BVUK to promote the history of audiobooks and their associations with blinded veterans. ‘The Story of Blind Veterans UK in 100 Objects’ cites his research for entry #9 ‘Talking Books’: http://www.blindveterans.org.uk/about-us/100-objects/talking-books. In 2016, he exhibited a rare optophone mechanical reading device, held by BVUK, to members of the British Academy. Rob Baker says that ‘The benefits for Blind Veterans UK [of Rubery’s research] have been multifold… [It] has enabled us to better understand our own role within the wider history of the audiobook,’ and generate content ‘which commands widespread interest including to a general audience which might previously not have been aware of us and our history, …helping us to raise our public profile.’ Baker also says that the decision recently to ‘formally re-establish a research function within the charity’ was influenced by their work with Rubery, and that collaboration is an aid to ‘our credibility and success’ in developing future research partnerships [5.5].

Rubery’s research was significant in enabling collaborations with a number of organisations for the interactive exhibition ‘How We Read: A Sensory History of Books for Blind People,’ which Rubery curated in 2014. He established partnerships with RNIB, BVUK, the British Library, ClearVision, Enhanced Vision, Science Museum, Wellcome Library, and EMI Group Archive Trust to deliver the exhibition, which displayed two centuries of assistive technologies used by thousands of visually disabled readers in Britain. Held at the Peltz Gallery in central London, it introduced rare artefacts and historic recordings to the public for the first time, emphasising the role blind people played in shaping those technologies. A series of hands-on activities, interactive workshops, and live performances encouraged visitors to try out for themselves alternative ways of reading. These included descriptive tours led by museum curators, a tactile storytelling workshop in which participants learned how to read braille, a live reading by a professional actor who has recorded books for people who are blind, and a panel led by visually impaired readers who shared their experiences of reading books in different media. The exhibition ended with a live performance from ‘The Braille Legacy,’ a musical based on the life of Louis Braille that was later staged at the Charing Cross Theatre (10 April to 24 June, 2017).

The exhibition, which was featured in The Independent (May 20, 2014) and BookBrunch (November 17, 2014), reached a broad audience including academics, creative industries professionals, voluntary sector representatives, people with disabilities, and the wider public, and it continues to reach audiences through a custom-designed website: http://www.howweread.co.uk [5.8]. In particular, the events succeeded in bringing disabled and non-disabled communities together. The events also helped to increase awareness of the challenges faced by disabled people and contributed to evolving attitudes toward disability, while highlighting the positive effects of reading on individual well-being. Selina Mills, Senior External Engagement Manager for Leonard Cheshire, was ‘impressed with how blind visitors to the exhibition were given total access to the exhibition in different formats… This gave blind people access to blind history on their own terms for the first time.’ She praised Rubery for ‘giving a voice’ to the UK’s two million blind people and engaging ‘on blind people’s terms,’ adding that he ‘has created a bridge that closes the gap between academic clinical research and ensuring everyone from the general public to blind people in particular have access to their own history. This is turn impacts the world I am trying to influence in accepting disability as part of daily life, rather than separate from it and giving people their own choice of words and language to be heard through’ [5.4].

Benefitting the Book Trade

Rubery has also shared his research with members of the book trade, increasing their understanding of the history of the recorded book and its role in social inclusion. The Audio Publishers Association (APA) Executive Director, Michele Cobb, recruited him to revise the website’s historical timeline. Cobb writes of Rubery’s monograph that ‘We have 70 publisher members and a number of them have turned to the title as a reference tool. Matthew Rubery’s knowledge of the industry is impressive. With his help, we improved the industry information that we share with our members and interested press. This historical timeline has been incorporated into international presentations about audiobooks. It helps them to understand their own place in today’s market, so the timeline is an important tool for the APA’ [5.3]. Following an interview with Rubery, Jessica Kaye -- a member of the APA -- included his research on the historical origins and uses of recorded books in an important industry manual, The Guide to Publishing Audiobooks: How to Produce and Sell an Audiobook (2019).

Rubery was the only academic to present at FutureBook, Europe’s largest digital publishing conference, where he gave a keynote address. He was interviewed by Audible’s editorial team (Emily Cox) for their Sound Off newsletter and blog (Nov 6, 2017). Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon, is one of the world’s largest sellers and producers of spoken audio entertainment on the Internet. He has also been interviewed for business-oriented podcasts such as ‘The Kindle Chronicles’ (December 23, 2016). His book was excerpted for the trade magazine The Bookseller (October 19, 2016) and his research has been reprinted in BookBrunch (July 1, 2014), a publishing newsletter. [5.7] He participated in a public lecture at the International Agatha Christie Festival (along with RNIB’s Chief Executive, HarperCollins’s Head of Audio, and voice actor John Telfer), which was attended by approximately 200 people and cited in the Torquay Herald Express (September 9, 2015). He has also spoken to library groups, including eReolen, the Danish libraries’ Digital Audiobooks Service (December 6, 2017), which has actively changed their collection practices with regard to audiobooks.

Nicholas Jones, Managing Director of Strathmore Publishing, writes that Rubery’s ‘timely’ research ‘provided a brilliant summary of the development of what is now a significant portion of the general publishing industry – the Publishers Association figures for 2019 suggest that it might now be as much as 5 per cent of the general books market.’ His exhibition ‘did much to raise understanding about the origins of ‘talking books,’ and at the same time greatly helped people realise that ‘talking books’ are not just ‘books for the blind’ but books for everyone.’ Rubery’s research ‘has been the seed of an ongoing awareness of the subject that is now reaching out into both academic and general readerships’ [5.6].