CREATIVE VOUCHER SCHEME

The Creative Voucher scheme enabled small and medium sized businesses to partner with an arts & humanities-based researcher from one of Creativeworks London’s partner institutions. This section shows all of the projects that we have supported. More information about the scheme can be found here.

Creative Voucher Scheme

Battersea Arts Centre and The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama
Battersea Arts Centre Image: Sheer Fiesty / Photographer: Stuart Window

SME Partner

Miranda Marcus, Battersea Arts Centre

Academic Partner

Jessica Bowles, The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama

Project Title

Scratchr.net: Digital Collaboration between Artists, Audiences, and Producers

Project Description

In September 2012 Battersea Arts Centre launched Scratchr.net, an online tool for artists, producers and audiences to co-create new works of theatre, early ideas, or ‘itches’ as they call them. The partnership with Jessica Bowles of The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama sought to improve the functionality and appeal of Scratchr.net.

Bowles main output of the collaboration was a report which documented a series of evaluative interviews conducted in Spring 2013 in order to identify the ideal Scratchr.net interface. The report continues with an exploratory study into the structure of online creative collaborations, and develops a series of recommendations for Battersea Arts Centre.

Alongside the report the collaboration produced several other outcomes. A suite of new online resources was developed, including a digital archive of Battersea Arts Centre’s 120 year history and documentation of the Playgrounding Projects redevelopment of the Arts Centre. Different types of media were tested as a means of presenting work on Scratchr.net and a Public Engagement Co-Ordinator was employed to work with NativHQ on beta testing and platform roll out.

In additional to all these activities Battersea Arts Centre submitted a bid to NESTA’s Digital Research & Development fund in order to continue Scratchr.net’s development.

 
Queen Mary - University of London
Arts & Humanities Research Council
European Union
London Fusion

Creativeworks London is one of four Knowledge Exchange Hubs for the Creative Economy funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to develop strategic partnerships with creative businesses and cultural organisations, to strengthen and diversify their collaborative research activities and increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange.