Tipsheets to help you plan and execute your projects

We've brought together the best advice worldwide and identified seven common features of successful community arts projects. Read the tipsheets

General guides and resources

Inspiring Communities
A virtual organisation consisting of people from all over the country who have skills, expertise and experience in Community-led development approaches. The website includes some great resources including these for community activators

Making art with communities – a work guide (Australia 2013)
A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to creating art with communities.

CommunityNet Aotearoa
An online hub where you can find and share resources designed to strengthen community organisations.

Arts Access Aotearoa
A national organisation that advocates for and supports access to the arts for people with disabilities and lived experience of mental health issues. They have a range of resources to support community arts.

Creative People and Places (UK)
An action research project. They have a range of case studies and evaluations as well as tools and resources to support working with communities.

Working with young people

Creatives in Schools information guide for schools and artists (pdf 2MB)
A best practice handbook developed by the Ministry of Education to support the Creatives in Schools programme, including useful guidelines and templates.

Ministry of Youth Development
Some great resources for working with young people.

Taking young people seriously
An Australian guide to consulting young people about their ideas and opinions.

Youth arts toolkit (Ireland)
A wide range of resources and case studies for youth arts activities.

Ara Taiohi
More great resources for working with young people and youth.

Guided by Young Voices (pdf 34MB)
A UK guide to including young people in governance and decision making.

Creative Youth Development in USA and Canada (pdf 6MB)
Churchill Fellow ship report by Jo Higgins from Museum of Contemporary Art (Syndey) investigating different models of informal learning youth-led engagement in arts organisations.

Partnerships

Shared Decision Making (UK)
An excellent toolkit to support collaborations with local people to shape relevant and inspiring arts programmes.

Volunteer Management Toolkit (Creative New Zealand)
Intended for use by boards, managers and coordinators to help attract, manage and retain volunteers.

Planning, delivery and evaluation

Is this the best it can be? (Artworks Scotland)
A toolkit to help develop, deliver and evaluate projects. It includes downloadable tools.

Quality principles for participatory arts (Artworks Cymru, Wales)
This toolkit provides some practical steps for assessing the quality of your project.

Creative and inCredible (pdf 1.3MB)
A 101 toolkit developed by New Zealand practitioners about how and why to evaluate community arts.

Evaluating Community Arts and Community Wellbeing
A 'how to' guide created by Creative Victoria.

Evaluation in participatory arts programmes (Creative People and Places, UK)
Provides a selection of approaches, models and methods for evaluating participatory arts programmes.

Murals Toolkit (Auckland Council)
This toolkit is a great guide for developing mural projects. Keep in mind that this is specific to Auckland and you should have a conversation with your local council if you are planning a mural to find out about their specific requirements and if they can provide support to you. Wellington City Council has also produced a Mural Guide and Toolkit.

Keeping your community and project safe

Worksafe
The government’s health and safety site. It provides a range of tools and templates for developing simple but responsible health and safety plans.

Risk Management Toolkit (Creative New Zealand)
Specifically developed for larger arts organisations.

If you know of any other useful resources email us