Volunteer Voices: Engaging Volunteers with Contemporary Art and Heritage

基于“当代艺术在遗产体验中的映射：创作、消费与交流”（MCAHE）研究项目（AH/N007557/1）的研究成果，“志愿者之声”将开发一项创新的当代艺术解读遗产志愿者培训计划，从而形成一种可以推广到全国遗产部门的资源。MCAHE的研究显示，虽然志愿者在吸引游客参观遗产遗址方面发挥了关键作用，但志愿者往往缺乏知识和信心，无法向观众介绍当代艺术作品，而当代艺术作品正日益成为遗产项目的一个特点。如果没有解说，许多游客很难充分欣赏和享受他们所遇到的艺术。“志愿者之声”旨在通过一个植根于MCAHE研究的共同开发的培训项目来解决这一差距。义工将与有创意的艺术家、文物工作人员和其他持份者会面和合作，获得知识、实践技能和信心，在文物遗址向游客介绍和诠释受委托创作的当代艺术品。MCAHE的研究结果显示，培训计划将使用对等学习、团体社交和知识交流的方法，增加信心，并使对当代艺术品的反思而不是“反射性”反应。在热衷于实施志愿者培训变革的遗产部门中，这种培训需求已被确定为当务之急：75%的遗产组织将志愿者发展、培训或经验提升确定为招聘后的首要任务（2019年遗产志愿者组织调查）。遗产组织严重依赖志愿者来丰富游客的体验：近一半的遗产志愿者从事前台工作、教育或参与，但只有3%的人从事与展览有关的工作。与新的项目合作伙伴和利益相关者合作，“影响和参与后续基金”项目将志愿者置于其活动的核心，并寻求创造和推广“最佳实践”培训，这将使志愿者和观众都受益，使文物组织在委托当代艺术方面的投资（在时间、金钱、世遗资源和艺术家的创造力方面）的全部价值得以实现。

Arising from the findings of the 'Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience: Creation, Consumption and Exchange' (MCAHE) research project (AH/N007557/1), Volunteer Voices will develop an innovative programme of heritage volunteer training on contemporary art interpretation, resulting in a resource that can be rolled out to the heritage sector nationally. MCAHE research revealed that while volunteers play a key role in engaging visitors with heritage sites, the volunteers often lack the knowledge and confidence to introduce this audience to the contemporary artworks that are increasingly a feature of heritage programming. Without interpretation, many visitors struggle to fully appreciate and enjoy the art they encounter. Volunteer Voices is designed to address this gap through a co-developed training programme rooted in the MCAHE research. Volunteers will meet and work with creative artists, heritage staff and other stakeholders, gaining the knowledge, practical skills and confidence to introduce and interpret commissioned contemporary artworks to visitors at their heritage sites. The training programme will use methods of peer-to-peer learning, group social interaction and knowledge exchange which MCAHE findings showed to increase confidence and enable a reflective rather than 'reflexive' response to contemporary artworks.This training need has been identified as an urgent priority within the heritage sector who are keen to implement change regarding volunteer training: 75% of heritage organisations identified volunteer development, training or experience enhancement as their top priority after recruitment (Heritage Volunteer Group survey 2019). Heritage organisations rely heavily on volunteers to enrich their visitors' experience: nearly half of all heritage volunteers work in front of house, education or engagement but only 3% work in exhibition-based roles. Working with new Project Partners and stakeholders, this Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement project places volunteers at the heart of its activities and seeks to create and promote 'best practice' training which will benefit both volunteer and audience experience, enabling the full value of heritage organisations' investment in commissioning contemporary art (in terms of time, money, HO resources and the creative energy of the artist) to be realised.