AN EVALUATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2014 LEGACY: PRE-GAMES REPORT

6. Connected

6.1 The Scottish Government Legacy Plan includes the 'connected' theme. This theme aims to use the Games to strengthen connections at home and internationally through culture and learning to enrich people's lives. The following three intermediate outcomes are sought under the theme:

• Improve the perception of Scotland as a creative nation, producing world class cultural experiences
• Increase engagement through new artistic, cultural and creative experiences
• Enhance young people's learning and everyone's understanding and celebration of our and other countries' cultures.

6.2 As discussed in Chapter 2, the key questions for evaluation under the connected theme are:

• What effect have the Games had on the cultural sector and cultural engagement?
• What effect have the Games had on civic pride?

The Evidence: What do we know?

6.3 The evidence presented in this section is published in the fully referenced evidence review that accompanies this report^[54].

6.4 There is a long history of cultural and educational programmes being developed alongside major multi-sports events, especially the Summer Olympics. The Commonwealth Games have a more recent history of associated cultural plans, though events like the Queen's Baton Relay and the opening and closing ceremonies have featured since the first Commonwealth Games in Hamilton, Canada in 1930.

6.5 Despite the long history of cultural events running alongside multi-sports events, the evidence review found little published research on the cultural and educational aspects of major events. For example, a recent editorial of Cultural Trends suggests, the cultural aspect of the Olympics specifically "remains consistently overlooked in games evaluation frameworks and there is little, or no, objective evidence of past culture-specific achievements"^[55].

6.6 There is a wider literature on major cultural events which proposes that cultural events and festivals have grown in importance since the 1970s as vehicles for improving the image of cities, adding vibrancy to city life and enhancing civic pride among citizens.^[56].

6.7 As set out in the flourishing chapter, there is some evidence that the overall perception of a host city or nation can be enhanced following a successful major event. Little evidence was found on the perceptions of the cultural aspect of a host area's reputation, specifically. As with other aspects of legacy, the evidence is clear that any enhancement of reputation is not automatic, but contingent on a number of factors, including a successful event and long term strategies of reputation management.

6.8 Long term reputational benefits are less likely, evidence suggests, if there is a mismatch between a city or nation's identity and values as projected through official channels, and the realities as experienced on the ground by residents and visitors. The evidence review suggests the potential for a successful event and associated boost to international reputation is partly dependent on the event being embraced by the people of the host city and nation.

6.9 Again, the evidence is limited on the extent to which major Games-related cultural programmes can produce world class cultural experiences. The evaluation of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad concludes that it raised the bar internationally for cultural programming, with unprecedented scale and diversity of work, the championing and production of new cultural works that would not have happened otherwise, and significant partnerships with creative practitioners in the Creative Industries sector.

6.10 Research on Scotland's London 2012 Cultural Programme found that it positively contributed to new collaborations at a strategic and project level (though not necessarily without challenges). This resulted in new cultural works which received international acclaim and subsequent international productions.

6.11 The evidence review finds the evaluation of the 2012 Olympiad to be one of the few sources of evidence on cultural engagement enabled through large scale Games-related cultural programming. It reports that the Olympiad resulted in 43.4 million public engagement experiences (including attendances, participation and volunteers), although other publications cite different total attendance figures. This highlights the challenge of agreeing the limits of what is included in such large scale, long-running programmes run and funded by multiple different organisations.

6.12 Some survey evidence cited in the review suggests participants in the 2012 Cultural Olympiad are more likely to attend cultural activities in the future as a result of taking part in the programme. It is not clear, however, to what extent attendance was widened to those who do not typically engage in cultural activities.

6.13 It is clear the range of cultural programming significantly extended the geographic reach of opportunities to engage in the 2012 Olympics and related festivals. The evidence review cites some attitudinal data from audience research carried out during Scotland's 2012 cultural programme which found widespread agreement that cultural projects can help the local community come together.

6.14 There is some limited evidence in the review that positive public attitudes towards a major event can be translated into genuine widespread enthusiasm and civic pride, which can, at least during the time of the event and its aftermath, lead to a 'feelgood' factor within the host city or nation.

6.15 Although it is common for major sporting events to have educational and learning programmes linked to the event, the review found almost no evidence on their effectiveness or long term impact. Get Set, the London 2012 educational programme, successfully reached almost all schools across Britain, with deeper engagement in two-thirds of schools, though the review cites some question marks over the longer-term sustainability of such learning programmes.

Glasgow 2014 Legacy Investment and Programmes

6.16 A range of legacy programmes and investments have been created to extend the opportunities for people and communities to connect and engage with the Games through culture and learning. These are set out in Figure 6.1, below. The programmes include those which deliver, fund or encourage cultural activity, those which use the Games to enhance learning opportunities for children and young people and those which offer leadership opportunities for young people.

Figure 6.1. Connected Legacy Programmes

Programme	Lead Organisations
Cultural activities and engagement
Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme	Glasgow 2014 , Creative Scotland and Glasgow Life
Queen's Baton Relay and Ceremonies	Glasgow 2014
Get Scotland Dancing	Creative Scotland
Celebrate	BIG Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland.
UWS Digital Commonwealth Project	University of the West of Scotland
Learning and leadership opportunities
Game On Scotland	Scottish Government, Education Scotland, Glasgow 2014 and Glasgow City Council.
33fifty Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme	Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS)
Youth Legacy Ambassadors	Young Scot
Young Scot Legacy 2014 Rewards	Young Scot
Young Ambassadors	sportscotland and Youth Sport Trust through the Active Schools network
Lead 2014	sportscotland, Youth Sport Trust and Glasgow 2014
Support a Second Team	Sportscotland, Glasgow 2014, Education Scotland, CGAs, Local Authorities
Game Changer Awards	Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland, Scottish Funding Council

World class cultural experiences and cultural engagement

6.17 There are considerable connections and contributions between the legacy programmes and the sought connected outcomes, especially those on producing world class cultural experiences and increasing cultural engagement. For example, while the intention is for the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme to result in new world-class cultural productions, equally it is intended to offer significant opportunities to engage in the Games and its related festivals and as such has been specifically designed to reach every part of Scotland.

6.18 The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme is a key part of the Games experience for spectators and visitors. Running until the end of August 2014, it will showcase Scottish culture alongside creative work from across the Commonwealth, reaching its peak at Games-time. There are two strands: a Scotland-wide programme called Culture 2014, and a Games-time celebration in Glasgow running alongside the sporting action, Festival 2014. The Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme is a partnership between the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, Glasgow Life, and Creative Scotland through the National Lottery.

6.19 To support the Cultural Programme, the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme Open Fund was launched in December 2012, with the deadline of 22 Feb 2013. There was extremely high demand, with the event attracting 497 individuals and organisations from Scotland's cultural and creative sector to bid for the £4.5m Cultural Programme for awards that could range from £20,000 up to £300,000. At the time of writing, 39 projects have been successful in their funding application.

6.20 Furthermore, on the 26 April 2013, the New Music 2014 Biennial was announced in both London and Glasgow. Building on the success of the Cultural Olympiad programme New Music 2012, the New Music 2014 Biennial is intended to result in a world-class programme of commissions of new music across all genres and performances throughout the UK. It will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and released digitally.

6.21 Celebrate was announced on 30 April 2013. Celebrate is a joint venture involving the BIG Lottery Fund, Creative Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund and sportscotland, of a £4 million lottery fund which provides opportunities for people across Scotland to celebrate the Commonwealth Games and/or the people, places and culture of the Commonwealth. Celebrate offers grants of up to £10,000 to community groups, local authorities and schools across Scotland. The last grants will be awarded in December 2014.

6.22 In May 2013, an announcement was made about GENERATION, which will showcase and celebrate the international success of contemporary visual art that has developed in Scotland over the past twenty-five years, and make it available and accessible to the widest possible audiences across the country. A series of exhibitions and new commissions will be staged in more than 60 venues across the country during the summer of 2014.

6.23 The Cultural Programme is being externally evaluated and some early high level data will be available in the first post Games legacy report of autumn 2015. The evaluation will provide evidence on the scale and reach of the programme, participation and attendance at programme events, the extent to which new audiences are developed, international connections enabled and wider media impact. In addition, the evaluation will address questions around the process of the cultural programme including the strength and quality of partnerships involved in delivery and the wider impact of the programme on the arts and Creative Industries in Scotland.

6.24 Alongside the Cultural Programme are the Ceremonies and Queen's Baton Relay (QBR). These are key parts of the lead up to and the start and end of each Commonwealth Games. They are delivered by each Organising Committee and give an opportunity to showcase Scotland and the Games across the Commonwealth. The QBR is now on its way around the Commonwealth and the route the QBR will take when it reaches the UK has now been confirmed. The details of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Games. will be announced closer to the time.

Young people and learning

6.25 The official education programme around the Games is 'Game On Scotland'. It provides a platform to inspire and engage young people throughout Scotland and beyond. It is designed to enable educators to use the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as an inspiring, motivating, relevant and fun context for learning across the curriculum and for all ages.

6.26 Since its launch on 1 May 2013, Game On Scotland has seen a steady increase in interest and involvement by schools across Scotland and the Commonwealth. In addition, Glow, the Scottish schools intranet, is helping to engage schools in remote locations, particularly through 'Glow meets'. Education Scotland is undertaking an evaluation of Game on Scotland which will provide evidence for the first post Games legacy report in 2015.

6.27 In addition to Game on Scotland, there are a range of ambassador and leadership programmes aimed at young people. Some are broadly focused and aim to gain a lasting legacy for the young people and their communities such as the Youth Legacy Ambassadors led by Young Scot. Others are more specifically targeted e.g. Young Ambassadors which focuses on raising the profile or sport and physical activity in schools . While 33fifty is a programme for 100 young people from across the Commonwealth and Scotland. All of these programmes are collecting monitoring information and some will undertake self-evaluations.

What's the Current Position? Connected data and research to date

6.28 This section sets out the key data and research to date under the connected theme since the baseline year of 2008. This includes data from the legacy indicators (see Annex 2) and relevant findings from the Go Well East baseline study.

6.29 Broadly, the picture described by the connected indicators show Scotland continuing to be a place with a rich culture and where there is a relatively high cultural participation and attendance rate. It also shows that Scottish people have a high level of interest in the Games, which has increased over time.

6.30 The main indicator which is being used to track whether perceptions of Scotland as a creative nation improve is the Nations Brand Index (NBI^SM). The NBI^SM is how Scottish Government tracks and monitors Scotland's reputation as part of Scotland's National Performance Framework and contains six dimensions, one of which is cultural. The Culture dimension of the NBI^SM tests three ideas of a nation's cultural reputation: its cultural history and heritage; its contemporary culture, e.g. popular culture and new creative ideas; and its sporting prowess.

6.31 Since 2008 the relative position of Scotland in terms of the cultural dimension has improved by one place, with Scotland being ranked 17^th in 2012 out of fifty nations. There was no sizeable improvement in Scotland's score and the improvement of the ranking is largely due to the small relative changes in scores across the sample of evaluated countries. However, alongside its smaller nation comparators, Scotland performs well in the Culture dimension and is the only one from this set of countries to feature in the Culture Dimensions Top 20.

6.32 The overall evidence from the NBI^SM is that international perceptions of nations are, in general, remarkably stable. Of the six dimensions of reputation measured, culture is one of Scotland's reputational strengths, though within this, it is notably Scotland's traditional cultural heritage that is widely recognised, rather than its contemporary culture. The international spotlight on Glasgow during the Games - and the 2014 Cultural Programme - may potentially raise awareness of the more contemporary aspects of culture in Scotland.

6.33 We also know from the evidence on reputation that perceptions depend on there being substance to the claims being made - in this instance, that the cultural experiences produced as part of the Cultural Programme are genuinely of world-class quality.

6.34 There is a long running debate within cultural studies on how to assess quality within cultural works. The principal approach to this has long been peer review. Media coverage, awards and critical reception are commonly used as proxy measures. As part of the programme of research on the Cultural Programme partners intend to commission a quality evaluation of key elements of Festival 2014. Considering quality in a rounded way - incorporating the perspectives of peer assessment, audience review and the reflections of producers - should help move forward this long running debate and produce insights of wider applicability to cultural organisations.

6.35 The level of public engagement with the Games is important for a number of reasons. Widespread public engagement with the Games is a sought outcome in its own right - the development of broader cultural programmes with wide reach across the country is intended to extend both the geographical reach of opportunities to engage and to develop the audience for the Games amongst those who are not interested in sport.

6.36 As discussed in the Active chapter, overall public engagement in the Games in Scotland is high and has increased since data was first collected in 2011. In 2013 at the Scotland level 79% indicated their intention to follow the Games, either by watching on television, visiting Glasgow, or buying tickets for events (up from 67% in 2011). The figure for intention to follow the Games in Glasgow in 2013 was 74%.

6.37 The Go Well East data provides data on attitudes towards the Games amongst those most directly affected by the preparation and delivery of the event. Though not strictly comparable with the national data due to survey differences, the results suggest a higher level of engagement with the Games amongst East End residents. In 2012, over half of respondents (58%) expressed their intention to attend a ticketed event, and 78% planned to at least follow the Games on television or radio or online.

6.38 Beyond public engagement with the Games, the scale and reach of the 2014 Cultural Programme is hoped to impact on engagement with culture in Scotland. The indicator set shows that cultural engagement in Scotland is already high, with nine in ten adults either taking part in creative activities in their own lives or attending cultural places like museums, galleries or cinema in 2012.

6.39 The data also show some signs of increasing engagement in culture since 2008, though small improvements to the survey question wording may have contributed to some of the increase seen between 2011 and 2012.

6.40 The Cultural Programme aims to inspire both participation in cultural activities and attendance at cultural events and places. Notable elements of the programme aimed at inspiring participation include Get Scotland Dancing and the Big Big Sing. We will continue to track both participation and attendance at various cultural and arts activities through the connected indicators, and the evaluation of the Cultural Programme will provide more detailed evidence of participation in funded activities, including participation that may not be captured through the Scottish Household Survey - the participation of performers, artists and creative practitioners, producers, volunteers and outreach activity.

6.41 Within this broad picture of cultural engagement, we might expect to see any impact of the 2014 Cultural Programme to feature more on attendance at the arts - especially those genres that feature strongly in the programme. Figure 6.2, below, shows this derived indicator on arts attendance - in Scotland in 2012, 61% attended the arts at least once in the previous 12 months, with Glasgow higher at 63%. More frequent arts attendance is lower - attendance 3-4 times a year at the cultural events highlighted below was 40% in Scotland in 2012 (39% in Glasgow).

Figure 6.2 Attendance at specific arts events in the last 12 months, Scotland & Glasgow 2012

6.42 As with participation in sport and physical activity, engagement in culture varies among different groups, most notably by age, education, area deprivation and disability.

6.43 Finally, the evidence review points to some limited evidence that major events can boost civic pride. The extent to which the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games contribute to any change in civic pride is one of the six key questions we expect to address. Early pre-Games data indicates that just under a fifth of people anticipate that one benefit is Scots will feel proud following the Games, with the corresponding figure for Glasgow rising from 7% in 2012 to 17% in 2013. It is important to note that this is a spontaneous response to an open question about benefits from the Games rather than a direct question about specific benefits.

6.44 The GoWell East study measures civic pride among study respondents by asking to what extent the statements "I feel proud of this local area" and "I feel proud of the City of Glasgow" apply to them. 60% of participants expressed a great deal or fair amount of pride in their local area, with 87% saying the same of Glasgow. Only 20% expressed a 'great deal' of pride in their local area compared to over half of respondents expressing great pride in Glasgow. This indicates there is scope for improvement in levels of civic pride in the East End. This will be measured again in Sweep 2 and provide data on the extent to which people's sense of civic pride has changed immediately after the Games.

Prospective Assessment and Summary

6.45 Scotland already has world-leading cultural strengths: the Edinburgh Festivals are internationally renowned, Glasgow has a long history of championing culture and its cultural sector and importance as a creative economy hub have grown since it was designated European City of Culture in 1990.^[57] Nevertheless, the evaluation of the Cultural Olympiad concluded that even within the context of existing internationally excellent standards of cultural programming, the London 2012 Cultural Programme raised the bar.

6.46 Public engagement with and support for the Games do seem high in Scotland, in Glasgow and among residents of the East End. There are already some signs of the impact of this interest, for example on ticket sales and interest in volunteering. The impact of this engagement on wider outcomes remains to be seen.

6.47 The evaluations underway of the 2014 Cultural Programme, and of the official education programme, Game On Scotland, will provide evidence to inform the legacy evaluation and go some way to filling the existing gap in evidence around cultural and educational elements of major events.

6.48 A prospective assessment for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games is presented in the final chapter.