Art Fund holds a central position in the visual arts and museums infrastructure in the UK, funding organisations, building audiences, and advocating for the sector. Since 2019, Wafer Hadley has worked closely with Art Fund, helping the independent charity improve access to art for all.
When the Covid 19 pandemic hit the UK, Art Fund was keen to understand the effects. Wafer Hadley was commissioned to survey the sector, reaching out to nearly 500 individuals in qualitative and quantitative research. With a rapid turnaround to match the speed of the unfolding crisis, we were able to give Art Fund robust data on the sector’s key concerns, areas of impact, and the priorities for support. Art Fund’s up to date intelligence from the sector helped inform government briefings, press reporting, and planning for future funding streams. The sector survey was repeated in 2022.
Wafer Hadley also worked with Art Fund and Creative Scotland on a national study on touring to museums and galleries, published in 2022.
Art Fund runs a complex suite of initiatives to achieve its desired outcomes, and it is important for the organisation to be able to measure its impact. Wafer Hadley has acted as the key partner in developing a new evaluation framework for the charity, stemming from a newly-refined logic model, and an organisation-wide engagement with evaluation practice. Working together, we are thinking afresh about what a responsive funder requires from its clients and partners, and how it can make learning central to the evaluation process.
