An evaluation of The Seagrass Walk, an immersive living arts piece installed at the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth, UK. A report funded by the Green Minds project

Abstract

Though the NERC Creative Commissions funding call, a partnership comprising of University of Plymouth (UoP), Rosie Sherwood (self-employed artist), Ocean Conservation Trust (OCT), and Plymouth City Council: 1) created the Blue Carbon Artist in Residence position, based at the UoP to immerse the artist (Rosie Sherwood) into the activities and knowledge base of the project partners and 2) aimed to connect city residents though an immersive living arts piece (The Seagrass Walk), based at the National Marine Aquarium (NMA), with accessible and highly visible satellite installations around the City. This report is an independent evaluation of how The Seagrass Walk performed against the project Theory of Change, completed through the Green Minds project. Two groups were evaluated 1) The general public as visitors to the National Marine Aquarium in terms of how their experience of the seagrass walk performed against the project’s pre-defined General Learning Outcomes (GLO’s) based on the proposed TOC (n=180) and 2) the project steering group in terms of a reflection on their experience of working on the project. The results show that all GLOs were positive. Upon asking NMA visitors how the seagrass walk would inspire an environmentally positive behaviour, the most common response from participants was that they would seek to ‘eat more sustainably caught fish’. The final art piece was considered by the project steering group to be ‘informative and interesting’ (UoP Researcher), showing ‘a clear appreciation of the space’ and ‘the video art created is beautiful’ (Head of Ocean Advocacy and Engagement at the NMA). 85,000 people have visited the NMA since the opening event, including 2480 schoolchildren. Overall, the group recognise the value of the project partnership between educators, artists, scientists, project managers and curators as an opportunity to share knowledge and create new opportunities for communicating science. Key constructive learning points emerge from the interviews with the steering group including the need to engage early with health and safety representatives to enable the artist to explore potential designs within the limitations of making art for a public space; greater consideration of artist salary; there needs to be a longer time allocation for the design, creation and installation in the project phasing; and finally, that whilst the project partners proposed the evaluation were to be undertaken by a masters student based at UoP, there was no uptake from the 2021/23 cohort and alternative project funds we sought to do the evaluation effectively.