Evaluation of Mayflower 400
Client: Plymouth City Council
Duration: 1 year
Funder: Plymouth City Council
Evaluation approach
The evaluation assessed the programme against objectives in four broad themes for Plymouth:
Develop the quality and size of the cultural offer within the city
Increase national and international visibility, and visitor numbers for Plymouth
Improve the health and wellbeing of city residents
Improve local perceptions of the city and ambitions for the future
Outcomes and impacts
Below are some of the key achievements, successes and insights from the project:
The Plymouth Mayflower 400 programme engaged with over 1.3m people, both in-person and digitally, including residents from every Plymouth postcode; UK-based visitors from the South West and beyond, and tourists from overseas. Participants and audiences spanned all ages, ethnicities, genders and sexualities.
Over 400 volunteers contributed 7,000 hours valued at over £100,000 in-kind contribution.
Mayflower 400 demonstrated how investing in a cultural programme has numerous benefits for the city, not least Plymouth’s positioning as a hub for cultural investment. The Mayflower 400 initiative helped secure funding for major city investments including The Box at over £45m and the highest uplift to Arts Council England’s ‘National Portfolio Organisation’ funding of £16m over five years.
A total of 50 organisations were commissioned through Mayflower 400 Community Sparks and successfully delivered grassroots activity, engaging over 48,000 people across different communities and geographies of Plymouth.
The Hatchling attracted around 25,500 people from all over Plymouth, the UK, and beyond, generated over £770,000 in visitor expenditure and received over £10m worth of media coverage. Hosting high quality, large-scale events, such as The Hatchling, not only attracts more visitors to the city and increases pride for local residents, but also serves as a vehicle in positioning Plymouth as a cultural destination, demonstrating what the city is actually capable of.
Every state primary and secondary school in Plymouth, 103 schools in total, signed up to at least one Mayflower 400 activity.
Mayflower 400 provided Plymouth with an opportunity to change the way it engaged with its own history and its position as a modern city. Whilst it took some time for the programme to become fully comfortable in tackling the challenging elements of the Mayflower narrative, the city has now matured and is much more capable of discussing sensitive topics.
Overview
Mayflower 400 was the commemoration for the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from Britain to North America, a programme of heritage and modern culture to explore all aspects of one of the most influential voyages in Western history. Mayflower 400 UK aimed to provide an honest, broad and inclusive commemoration of the Mayflower venture from England to America and its often challenging legacy.
A national and international programme of projects and events was planned for 2020 to mark the 400th anniversary of this important journey. However, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted considerably on delivery, with many local, national, and international events being postponed, adapted or some cancelled. Despite this difficult time, Mayflower 400 was well positioned to support Plymouth in its recovery from the economic challenges of the pandemic as well as commemorate the history with its partners. The programme was successfully redesigned to include a number of online events, as well as moving the majority of larger events into 2021. As the final departure point for the Pilgrims, Plymouth was central to the Mayflower 400 commemorations.
The Social Research Unit was commissioned to support the programme with evaluation advice, expertise and capacity as part of their support for the overall programme.