Impact case study database

Impacts took the form of a series of layers, starting with the initial cultural and educational impacts of the museum exhibitions, aspects of which formed the stimulus to impacts in commerce (investment in and developing capacity in business), and local authority cultural policy. Further educational and cultural impacts were spun off, extending the project’s reach socially and in terms of numbers.

Initial Cultural and Educational Impacts: From Making the Archive Accessible to Public Museum Exhibitions

As the Academic Director of the Lancelyn Green Conan Doyle Collection since 2005, McCaw oversaw the processes by which its 60,000 items were catalogued and archived in such a way as to make them available to the public. Over the period 2014-17 he worked with archivists, designers, curators, and librarians to open up the collection digitally, thus reaching publics via both archival and digital modes of access.

Deeper personal and group impact was achieved via two public museum exhibitions. The initial ‘A Study in Scarlet’ exhibition, which has remained in situ at Portsmouth Museum since 2008, has received in excess of 200,000 visitors, and the newer ‘You Don’t Know Sherlock Holmes, Yet’ display has, since opening in 2018, been visited by in excess of 100,000. There have also been targeted education projects linked to the later exhibition which have engaged a range of marginalized and hard-to-reach social groups, including young carers, looked after children, and young people outside mainstream education, as well as those with disabilities. The visitor research that has been conducted suggests this has all had a significant impact on their knowledge and understanding of nineteenth-century literature and culture, Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the regional history of Portsmouth and its environs [C]. Both the general public and specific, targeted hard-to-reach groups [E], such as looked after children, young people from difficult backgrounds, and partially-sighted and blind support groups, say that they have both learned new things, understood the nineteenth century in new ways, and also changed their perceptions of the present as a result. For instance, 87% of all visitors say that the exhibits encouraged further debate and discussion, 99% of visitors felt that they learnt something new, and 79% said they would return for a second visit.

Commercial Impacts: Commissioning of Exhibition Design Company

One of the related consequences of the development of a new Sherlock Holmes museum exhibition was to create a project specification which would go out to tender, and under the auspices of which McCaw would work with museums and archives professionals from Portsmouth City Council as well as a private sector heritage design company. The company appointed was DrinkellDean (http://www.drinkalldean.co.uk/ ) who were employed – with a working budget of in excess of £100k - to produce an in situ design plan and with whom McCaw worked closely in refining the initial conception [A].

Policy Impact: Local Authority Strategy

As a consequence of the museum exhibition’s impact on Portsmouth visitors and residents, McCaw was commissioned to write an evaluative report for Portsmouth City Council in 2017, which was in the process of employing “The Visitor Attraction Company” (https://thevisitorattractioncompany.com/\) to conduct a feasibility study into a regional Sherlock Holmes visitor venue. McCaw’s report explored the global potential for such an attraction, looking at comparable nineteenth-century and Sherlock Holmes-related attractions across the world, and then linking this with national cultural and heritage priorities. His grasp of the global presence of Holmes across various continents (a product of both his research and his experience mounting exhibitions) was central in arguing the case for a feasible new visitor attraction in the UK. It was, as such, crucial in helping the cultural services and tourism departments of the local authority to frame its own longer-term strategy for seeking external funding and support for a potential future visitor attraction of this kind [A]. This has led to the establishing of a working group drawing in local authority professionals, external consultants, and heritage attraction planners, with McCaw providing the academic input. [A]

Further Educational Impacts: Secondary School Teaching and Mentoring

In 2015 and 2017 McCaw spent a year – each time – teaching and mentoring a GCSE English cohort of 35 pupils in an English secondary school based in an area of significant economic deprivation – Crookhorn College, Hampshire; in each instance he taught the Language and Literature curriculum for the entirety of their Year 11 studies. His task was to help them better comprehend a range of literature, as well as writing and reading skills, in order to prepare them for their eventual examinations. Key to the more recent versions of the GCSE English Literature syllabuses have been the increasing focus on the ‘context’ of such literature – and this is where the work McCaw was doing towards the ‘Victorian Murder’ article [section 3 item 4] was priceless. He was able to help the young people better understand the wider cultural context of the works they were studying, and how the interrelation of popular texts was a key feature of how nineteenth-century people saw themselves and the world around them.

At the end of both years, the overwhelming majority of the Year 11 students exceeded expectations in the GCSE grades they achieved, with the Headteacher praising the ‘extraordinary impact’ of the work McCaw did with them and the excellent examination results: ‘the significant increase in the performance of the higher attaining students at the College’ [B].

Further Cultural Impact: TED-ED Animated Film

McCaw scripted an educational film about Sherlock Holmes and Victorian culture: ‘Who Is Sherlock Holmes?’. The film has, since 2016, been featured on the TED-ED online education channel as well as their Youtube platform, and has been watched by more than 1.5 million viewers, of whom 20,000 have offered positive comment regarding the film’s educational value, or else who have engaged with the accompanying educational resource that asks them to see Sherlock Holmes within the context of Victorian popular culture and the many other texts within that [D]. Visitor comments include: ‘A fascinating new look at the world of Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘So many things about the Great Detective that I did not know’. [D]

Bakari’s work over the years has forged and disseminated new global and postcolonial perspectives on the frames of representation of Africa and Africans in relation to ‘modernity’. As such, Bakari’s research has enhanced ‘Public and Diasporic Awareness and Engagement’ within communities intersecting across the UK and globally; enhanced and influenced initiatives concerned with ‘developing archives and related awareness’ in the UK; and influenced practitioners concerned with ‘policy development in Africa’ at various levels.

Increasing public and diasporic awareness and engagement

Bakari’s approach and perspectives are exemplified by ‘Africa in the Atlantic Triangle/Circle’ [5.1]. Written testimonies from the participants and organisers of the events said:

1. PASCF: ‘I was moved by how you had connected up a range of institutions and sites constructed in relation to archive […] the presentation went wider and deeper than I expected’

2. Khizra Foundation: ‘I was mostly surprised at how attentive the younger members of the audience were; the presentation was quite academic but, from the feedback forms the presentation was the most liked as it revealed a history that many in the audience were unaware of. […] They felt it helped to increase their wider black history knowledge and inspired them to learn about their own heritage in Britain.’

‘This session achieved positive outcomes by inspiring attendees to get involved in archiving projects and understanding that there's more research needed to explore Black Muslim heritage in the UK. This session assisted attendees to comprehend the importance of heritage, oral history and archiving that can benefit younger/future generations [and] instil empowerment.’

3. Numbi Arts: Among the participants at the Khiza Foundation events were Numbi Arts [5.2] collaborators: i) an architectural designer engaged in spearheading the design process for a Numbi Village in Gambia said ‘The most significant idea presented for me was the idea of approaching the problem by standing against injustice with a humanist social vision […] It's important to me that I think about spatial injustices before beginning to design social housing. Thinking in this way helps me to create with the end-user in mind, improving diversity and quality of the end product’. ii) An artist/educator said ‘The mapping and timely wealth of knowledge and experience on the subject both professional and academic, filmmaking and personal lived experience […] was truly educational […] it is going to be useful especially as we develop our first Somali Museum in the UK.’ This museum project was launched in 2020 with a successful crowd-funding initiative [5.2].

4. Engagement through public lectures and workshops has also been beneficial for a diasporic community in the UK other than the African Caribbean community, as feedback from the organisers and participants (50 at the discussion) at the Altab Ali Day - 40 Years On [5.3] commemoration event indicates. Written feedback from participants (mainly Asian) indicated that Bakari’s perspectives influenced perceptions of their own ‘diasporic social, political and cultural narratives’. Overall, the value and use of archival material was reinforced, in this instance, the use of ‘photography and audio-visual media’. One response particularly stated that the respondent was inspired to draw inspiration ‘from disseminating or emancipating hidden histories and fostering intercultural conversations around traumatic events, in the hope of fostering greater social cohesion, understanding, peace and amity.’

Knowledge exchange and cultural action

Bakari’s collaborative work has been recognized as ‘a key resource’ for varied publics: educational and film industry professionals, cultural and community arts organizations, galleries and museums, both within the UK and internationally. This has involved a range of JGPACA events, including screenings, panel discussions, exhibitions and symposia as exemplified by [5.4], engaging a range of students, artists and cultural activists; and [5.5] at Nottingham Contemporary. The Audience Report indicates that ‘People (45,148 visited The Place is Here; 59% were from Nottinghamshire; 43% within the 16-30 age bracket; 27% of the audience came from non-White British backgrounds; 31% were first time visitors; 21% were non-specialist audiences; 59% had a general knowledge of contemporary art) saw the exhibition as intellectually stimulating, and people attended “to learn something” as well as “to be inspired”’.

In addition to engagement as noted above (‘Awareness and Engagement’), Bakari has made other influential knowledge exchange interventions indicative of collaboration at the international African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) Conference in 2018. Drawing on [3.2], [3.3] and [3.4] (above), Bakari ‘has also contributed to debates about African film at major conferences and has helped provide new directions. Nollywood in Nigeria has benefitted from his insights as well’ [5.6].

Policy and institutional development in Africa

Bakari’s extensive research on the African experiences of cinema and decades of professional work in film production, combined with his influential role in film industry organisations and in organising and curating film festival events in the UK and in Africa, supported his prominent involvement in the consultative forum in preparation for ‘50 Years of FESPACO’, the premier film festival on the African continent. The work of this consultative forum culminated in a two-day symposium, ‘Confronting our memory and shaping the future of a Pan-African cinema in its essence, economy and diversity’, which was the centrepiece of the festival’s twenty-sixth edition held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 2019. This international event, and particularly the symposium, attracted widespread national and international media attention, particularly in the Francophone world [5.7]. Drawing on earlier research [3.2], [3.3], [3.4] and Bakari’s symposium intervention **[5.7]**), a peer-reviewed article [3.5] was commissioned for a publication dedicated to FESPACO 2019.

Bakari’s research has also influenced cultural policy development initiatives in Tanzania [5.8] and the East Africa region. As a result of this work, Bakari was consulted by the Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa (OCPA) to provide input for the ‘Regional Study in view of Preparation of the UNESCO Forum of Ministers of Culture, Paris, 19 November 2019’ ‘in which more than 120 Ministers took part, 110 of whom spoke, including 22 African Ministers’ [5.9]. The study produced by OCPA [5.10] made substantial use of the research provided by Bakari’s briefing document [5.11] and incorporates East Africa area specific information provided, and policy perspectives developed, from earlier research. OCPA reported [5.9], ‘we cannot fail to note the thanks and appreciation to the OCPA for its intellectual contribution to the preparation of the working document of the Forum of Ministers and in particular the Regional Study No. 7 on Africa’. It was indicated that the study would support ‘the formulation and the implementation of new appropriate cultural policies, the need for cultural infrastructure development, facilitating digital access, cultural and artistic education, promoting cultural diversity, protecting the freedom of creation, safeguarding the cultural rights of communities, new obligations of politicians facing the dizzying growth of cities, the economy of culture and the development of instruments for measuring the impact of culture on global development.’ ( OCPA News, no.386, p.6)