IO3 is a methodology for exploring and catalysing innovations in cultural organisations. In the description of the project, the creative format of IO3 was stressed, while IO3 itself had to be based on the analysis of the incremental innovation in the cultural organisations. For us, the main focus in developing IO3 was the question of how cultural organisations implement innovative methods in their work. Our hypothesis was that innovation takes place when organisations seek to match the following parameters of the cultural work: resources - goals - community - and methods. The improvements of the organisations start from the examination and activation of their resources and finding new resources, matching them with the goals and with the needs of the communities (groups of people to whom they address their activity to and cooperate in archiving their goals).
The development of IO3 was based on the examination of the local projects that partners of “I_Improve'' were implemented during the project in cooperation with their changemakers. The addressee of IO3 is twofold: it is the partners of “I_Improve”, whom Laimikis.lt assisted in structuring and reporting their experience of developing the innovation in their organisations, and the decision-makers in the cultural sector, whom the report provides the insights on how innovative participatory approaches in different environments are set and introduces the workshop method and innovative tool, that was developed and tested during the “I_Improve” project to assist cultural organisations in mapping their resources and discover innovative methods. So, as an output IO3 was distributed and exists in the following formats, which are interconnected:
- Presentations of the methodological framework for structuring the experience of the cultural organisations that go through a process of innovation, which was introduced to the partners during the partners' meetings. Though according to the timeline of the project, the IO3 phase had to start in autumn 2020, Laimikis.lt has presented the framework (narrative structure) for structuring the experience of incremental innovation in the organisation much earlier, in November 2019. This was done to solve the growing need in strengthening connections between the diversified local projects, to help participating organisations to structure their experience in the way that it would be useful and applicable for other cultural organisations, and in this way to prepare for E1-E6 and E7-E12 events. This facilitation has also provided the insight that the local projects actually share the storytelling component (which was announced in the project description but remained non-actualised till November 2019), which is crucial for structuring the materials for the innovation labs (E1-E6) and result sharing (E7-E12).
- Profiles developed by Laimikis.lt for the partners, assisting the reflection on the process of developing innovative methods and describing the change (the very first ones are developed and introduced to the partners in November 2019, then in 2020, and the very last in 2021). The profiles themselves are the instrument for building a narrative and reflection of how the innovative approaches in the cultural organisations are developed, what resources are needed, how the communities were reached, what challenges are met, what are further perspectives of growth, etc. This part of IO3 was used by partners for arranging their preparations and for the report and exists in the form of an archive.
- Set of the workshop methods for mapping the experience of the cultural organisations. The development of the method was based on the analysis of the materials that partners presented during the earlier phases of the project. This method was tested during the partners meeting in March 2021 and in its turn has become the last step for the development of the creative tool “Method Roulette” for exploring and catalysing the innovative potential of cultural organisations. The workshop was documented, and its documentation is involved in the final IO3 report. The method of the workshop is applicable for any other cultural organisations that need to examine, discuss, rethink and innovate their resources-goals-audience-methods, but it is especially good for the catalysing the exchange between several organisations.
- Innovative tool (Method Roulette) was developed on the basis of the analysis of the materials, presented by the partners through the project, but is designed as an universal playful tool for exploring and catalysing the innovations in any cultural organisation through exploring of the resources of cultural organisations and finding out new methods in connection with the goals and the communities (the groups of people, to whom the cultural organisation addresses its activities). This tool was designed to meet a demand for the creative, easy-to-use format of disseminating the results of the project (in the project description, a cooperation with the designer, working on IO3 was noted). The description of this tool is a part of the report, it is also available as printable materials for the wide audience both at I_Improve (River // Cities) and at Laimikis.lt sites. The concept of this tool was presented in March 2021 and the design of it was finalized in June 2021. To make this tool accessible for other cultural organisations, we placed printable materials under (CC-BY-NC) in the open access.
- The Report summarises the developed and tested methodology that might be instrumental for cultural organisations in exploring their resources and (co)-developing and launching new participatory methods, and provides insights on implementing arts-based participatory methods in cooperation with the waterfront communities (based on the “I_Improve” partners experience). It includes the description of the workshop methods and creative tool “Method Roulette”. It was arranged to provide easy-to-use materials for the practical workshops and discussions in cultural organisations and with the decision-makers in the cultural field. It is placed at I_Improve (River // Cities) site as an open-access document.
Because innovation in the organisations happens in a cascade, as a sequence of experiments, events, and insights, which catalyse new experience and new experiments and insights, the development of the IO3 was done in stages, which depended upon the dynamics that the organisations went through the project. One of the most essential parts was finding the common ground between the local projects; for this reason partners meetings during which the organisations shared their progress and findings, were essential for the development of IO3 and for the project as a whole and for its communication.
Compared to the primary project timeline, the change was the earlier beginning of IO3 activities (developing and presenting the narrative scheme and profiles for the partners in November 2019 already). Also, as the Covid-19 lockdown has affected the schedule of the partners' meetings and the local events, it also has affected the dynamics of the development and testing of IO3. Primarily it was planned to be finalized in February 2021, however, after the shifts in the whole schedule and formats of the activities of the project, the “Method Roulette” was detailed after testing its principles during the partners meeting in March 2021 and presented as a finalised visual concept during the last partners meeting in July 2021; and the report, based on the materials collected through the project, was arranged in June 2021 with minor additions made in August 2021.
The materials of the project and the methodology developed for IO3 are planned to be published in a scholarly paper in the “Creativity Studies” journal. Some of materials are going to be integrated into the “Creative Urban Spaces” course at the Faculty of Creative Industries, Vilnius Tech University.
You can find a report on methodologies and results of implementing cultural innovations in different waterfront environments here.
A ready-to-print tool for cultural innovations is available to download from here.