This case study comes from the Wellcome Trust.
Scientific conference + Public Engagement = Wonder
Q: What happens when you mix over 1000 neuroscientists with 5000 members of the public?
A: You get people playing Pong with their brainwaves, children decorating cardboard neurons, people giggling as they try (and fail) to touch their own noses, primal art, knitted neurons and live “brain surgery”.
These were just some of the intriguing and amazingly popular activities on offer at Wonder Street Fair that
resulted in lots of excited children and adults talking about brains. Wonder Season was an experiment for the Wellcome Trust to see if we could combine a scientific conference with a series of public events all taking place at the Barbican, one of Europe’s largest arts venues. The season attracted over 15,000 people to the various events including music, theatre, film talks and drop-in activities.
Wonder: Art and Science on the mind was a programme of public engagement taking place around the British Neuroscience Association’s conference- the ‘Festival of Neuroscience’- held at the Barbican Centre in Spring 2013. The aims were:
- To create a buzz of public engagement activity before and during the scientific conference, and engage a variety of audiences including school children during the pre-activity; families during the Weekender; city workers and cultural browsers.
- To create a number of key media opportunities to gain wider exposure with secondary audiences both for neuroscience stories and for stories linked to the events;
- Using the opportunity of having many neuroscientists in one place, to generate a broad range of high quality public engagement opportunities for the different audiences identified above;
- To make use of existing Wellcome Trust public engagement grants to give them more exposure to the public;
- To demonstrate how major scientific conferences can embrace public engagement.
The programme included:
Weekender: Brain Waves 2-3 March 2013, Barbican Centre
Art and neuroscience put their heads together as families and friends came to the Barbican to enjoy two days of dance, theatre, music and art at Barbican Weekender: Brain Waves (Sat 2 & Sun 3 Mar).
From brain dissections and brain building to singing hypnotists and brain inspired flash mobs, relive this fun-filled weekend in our photo-gallery: http://www.barbican.org.uk/wonder/participation/barbican-weekender
Consciousness 2 March 2013, Barbican Hall
An audio-visual performance lecture on consciousness, from animals to artificial intelligence, hosted by BBC Horizon presenter and Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy. Featuring music by James Holden and visuals by one of us
The Salon Project 4-14 April 2013, The Pit Theatre
Relive French society‘s golden age as the The Salon Project recreates the exclusive meetings at the heart of what was an era of change, excess and inquiry. Audience members are dressed in the finest costume and hear from performers and top speakers from the world of neuroscience, politics, technology and the arts.
Wonder on Film Barbican Cinema March - April 2013
A mixture of mainstream and art house films that explore the mind on screen, featuring classics like Bergman's Persona and Charlie Kaufman's cult hit Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, plus many more
Barbican Box academic year 2012/13, schools in east London
The Barbican Box is a portable box filled with the ‘ingredients’ for making and creating theatre, containing a range of stimuli, ideas and provocations designed to encourage an imaginative, theatrical and adventurous approach to theatre making. For 2013 the box had a neuroscience theme and was put together by Complicit theatre company.
Ruby Wax 8 April 2013, Barbican Hall, 19.30
Comedian, actress and neuroscience convert, Ruby Wax takes you on a journey from the heights of fame to the depths of mental illness and back again. How much does understanding her own brain change her perception of mental health and what is really going on in there?
Festival of Neuroscience and Wonder: Street Fair 7-9 April 2013, Barbican Centre
The Barbican Foyer springs to life with free, drop-in activities, performance, interaction and demonstrations. From cave painting to motion sensors, eye-trackers to body illusions, come and knit a neuron, test your reactions, and pit your wits against brain scientists. With over 20 different activities to stimulate, inspire and amuse your little grey cells.
Three Packed Lunch talks 8-10 April, Barbican Centre
Informal lunchtime discussions with neuroscientist Hugo Spiers (navigation), Katharina Wulff (body clocks) and Henrietta Bowden-Jones (gambling)
I’m a Neuroscientist get me out of here – Live 9 April 2013, Barbican Cinema
Are male and female brains different? Is the brain more like a sponge than a computer? Do we really only use ten percent of our brain? Pitch your questions to our brave brain scientists as they compete on stage for your vote to win I’m neuroscientist get me out of here: Live!
Walking tours led by Museum of London
Join Robert Kingham as he leads a tour around Finsbury and find out what a walk can tell you about your subconscious relationship with the urban environment
Brain Awareness Week (11-17 March 2013)
Activities led by Trust funded researchers in eight Wellcome Trust major research initiatives and centres, in collaboration with artists, film makers, festival organisers and museums. Topics for their public engagement projects include sleep, neural networks, brain function and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and the history of our emotions.
Evaluation
The events were evaluated in terms of Reach, Impact, Quality and Value:
Reach
- An estimated 15,000 people attended events as part of the season at Barbican. Audience figures and analysis indicate that there was good crossover between arts and science audiences and that the season brought audiences new to both the Barbican and neuroscience. We seem to have attracted a greater proportion of people without a pre-existing interest in Health and Medicine than for example Wellcome Collection typically did at the time.
- Activities appearing in the Barbican have been funded by the Trust to travel to Latitude and Shuffle Festivals, thus reaching greater audiences e.g. approx 20,000 people at Latitude.
- Over 200 neuroscientists were directly involved in delivering public events at the Barbican, as speakers, stall holders and event guides
- 10 previously funded Engaging Science grants projects featured in the programme, and many individual grant holders participated in various capacities.
- 8 Wellcome Funded research centres programmed their own public engagement activities for Brain Awareness Week
- Press coverage of the public programme included The New Scientist, My Science, BMA News, The Psychologist and Laboratory News. Highlights included a double-page feature in The Observer and an orchestrated piece by Marcus du Sautoy in The New Statesman (then used for the marketing brochure). Broadcast coverage was particularly strong, especially for Consciousness, which was helped by Marcus du Sautoy agreeing to do numerous radio interviews. Highlights included an interview with Marcus du Sautoy and James Holden by Crane TV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqezyEkQruM) and a feature on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch show featuring Professor Russell Foster pegged to the Wonder Street Fair
Impact
- 93% of the public attendees of the events at the Barbican surveyed rated their experience as good or very good and 81% said they had learnt something new about the brain.
- Researchers valued the chance to communicate about their work with the public, to experience new ways of engaging with the public and to see what is going on in the wider neuroscience field – a UCL paper on the attitudes of researchers to engagement will be published next year
- The British Neuroscience Association is very satisfied with the way the public programme complemented the scientific conference and keen to build on this for future even.
- The Barbican is using the project as a model for whole-building seasons, and for working collaboratively across the creative programming and corporate hire teams. They are also looking at integrating science more into future programming.
- Having now tried their pop-up shop activities in several settings as a result of Wonder, 321-Ignition is now looking to develop the idea further.
Quality
- The partnership with Barbican was very effective, they integrated neuroscience-themed events into their arts programming across art forms. They were very happy with the quality of these events, saying that the science content added real depth to their Creative Learning Programme.
- The Street Fair was a particular success with participants valuing the direct contact between public and researchers.
- The film programme was the least well attended, perhaps as many of the films were not new or well known, although the Cinema and Psychosis symposium was at capacity and successfully attracted a mixture of film buffs, academics and people with experience of mental health issues.
Value
- Wellcome Trust, Barbican and BNA each contributed significant funds and staff time towards the joint project, combining resources made for a far greater diversity and quality of activities than any one organisation could have achieved alone. The follow-up activities at Latitude and Shuffle festivals were also good value for money, an additional 20,000 people engaged with the seasons’ activities with a small additional contribution from the Trust.
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