Volunteer Voices: Engaging Volunteers with Contemporary Art and Heritage

根据“绘制遗产经验中的当代艺术：创作、消费和交流”(MCAHE)研究项目(AH/N007557/1)的结果，志愿之声将制定一项关于当代艺术解释的创新遗产志愿者培训计划，从而形成一种可推广到全国遗产部门的资源。MCAHE的研究表明，虽然志愿者在让游客接触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，无法向这些受众介绍当代艺术品，这些艺术品越来越成为遗产节目的一个特点。如果没有解释，许多参观者很难充分欣赏和享受他们遇到的艺术。志愿者之声旨在通过一个根植于MCAHE研究的共同开发的培训方案来解决这一差距。志愿者将与创意艺术家、遗产工作人员和其他利益攸关方会面并合作，获得知识、实用技能和信心，在其遗产遗址向参观者介绍和解释委托的当代艺术作品。培训计划将采用同行学习、群体社交和知识交流的方法，MCAHE的调查结果表明，这些方法可以增强信心，并使人们能够对当代艺术做出反思而不是‘反射’反应。这一培训需求已被确定为文物部门的当务之急，他们热衷于实施志愿者培训方面的变革：75%的遗产组织将志愿者发展、培训或提高经验作为招募后的首要任务(遗产志愿者组织调查2019年)。遗产组织严重依赖志愿者来丰富参观者的体验：近一半的遗产志愿者在家门口、教育或参与活动中工作，但只有3%的人在展览中工作。与新的项目合作伙伴和利益相关者合作，这项后续的影响和参与资金项目将志愿者置于其活动的核心，并寻求创建和促进‘最佳实践’培训，这将使志愿者和观众体验都受益，使遗产组织在委托当代艺术方面的投资(在时间、金钱、Ho资源和艺术家的创作能量方面)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.