Year 3 Evaluation Report

Publication date: September 2023​

Report author: Ruth Melville Research Ltd

Funded by Arts Council England, Bradford Producing Hub (BPH) “aims to make sure Bradford is a creative city where lots of amazing live performance is happening all the time.” This report evaluates Year 3 of the project.

The report contains the following sections:

• The Summary provides an overview of this report and its findings.
• 1: Introduction outlines what BPH is, its programme in 2021/22, the Bradford context and the approach taken to the evaluation.
• 2: Reach And Experience makes up the core of this report – providing an analysis of who the participants were in BPH’s programme and their experiences of taking part.
• 3: A More Skilled And Confident Workforce considers the impact of BPH’s training on Bradford’s artists and creatives.
• 4: Increasing Opportunities explores how BPH has developed artists’ and creatives’ prospects for work in the city.
• 5: Shifting The Bradford Cultural Ecosystem explores the changes in the arts and cultural sector as a consequence of BPH.
• 6: Conclusions And Recommendations draw together what we have found in this evaluation and present suggestions for BPH’s final year of operation.

Sections 2 to 5 respond directly to the intended outcomes of BPH from the Story of Change. Data for this report was collected from a number of sources and this is discussed in the Introduction. A full list of sources is provided in the Appendix. This report is delivered by Ruth Melville Research Ltd, an innovative and forward-thinking research and evaluation agency, with in-depth experience working with arts and cultural organisations.

We invite you to download the full report where a summary is available. If you would like to get in touch about anything contained within this report or have any comments or feedback, you can get in touch by emailing us at hello@bdproducinghub.co.uk.