National survey of visual arts to be launched
MONDAY will mark the launch of the first ever national survey of the visual arts in Bermuda.
The Bermudian owner of Bercon Ltd., the educational consulting group, is proud that her company has been entrusted with the 2004 Bermuda Visual Arts Survey.
She believes Bercon has chosen the optimum mix of surveying techniques to give its client, the task force of the Bermuda Visual Arts Education Initiative, a complete view of the visual arts on the island.
Angela Fubler of Bercon described a two-part strategy which will eschew the more traditional mass-mailing.
"When we first saw this project, in an advert for an RFP, a request for proposal, we got really excited about it, because it fit right into our mission. We both have experience in education, and so it felt like very familiar ground for us.
"My colleague Crystal Burgess is extremely visual, and we thought we could make this a fun project for people to participate in, while we could all add something positive to the community.
This is Bercon's third needs assessment survey, and its experience has led it to conclude that the most effective way to get a full picture of visual arts in Bermuda is by organising focus groups, and by sending the seven-page survey form by e-mail. It will reach those without access to computers by conducting a random telephone survey.
Crystal Burgess described how the different survey techniques will be put into operation.
"This is actually a two-pronged initiative. The first part will be members of the community participating in focus group discussion of visual arts and education and there are a broad range of questions we will ask in these group structures.
"The second part will be the survey itself, and that effort will be split in two, with access by e-mail or telephone. We think the Internet will be a useful medium to get the survey form out to the community, keeping in mind that this is quite a fun survey, in the sense that the information is not too sensitive, and we think that participants will enjoy taking part. For those in the community with no access to the internet, we plan a telephone survey.
Bercon expects a significant response by e-mail, and hopes that a minimum of ten per cent of those contacted by e-mail will participate. A number of local organisations and companies have offered to make databases available to help Bercon reach as large and diverse an audience as possible.
Ms Burgess continued: "For example, the Bank of Bermuda has offered us a link to their web site, so that as many as possible of their employees or other residents who access that site can take part. Of course, knowing how the Internet works, we will ask people who participate to copy the form to their local friends before they complete it. We think this is an appropriately 'cutting-edge' way to distribute a survey in 2004."
Ms Fubler said: "We are working with David Hill of Storm Design, who has put the web site together and done the graphics for the advert. It is very colourful and inviting, and we are just excited by the whole project. The focus groups are important because of the depth of information they provide, and they and the phone surveys are obviously labour-intensive but the Internet is such a user-friendly medium, and a wonderful way to introduce many in the community to a different form of survey. The different techniques produce the right mix of qualitative and quantitative data."
Those who take part in the survey will find an invitation to "Dear Bermuda Community" to "participate in the most exciting community assessment so far, this year!", followed by assurances that "this survey is open to everyone! All interested individuals are invited to respond. No one is excluded!"
After a question asking participants to define the visual arts by checking suggested categories, which, in addition to the more traditional fine arts, offers "cultural events", "carpentry", and "fashion design", there are eight questions to gauge the level of public participation in the visual arts.
The next six questions probe the general level of satisfaction with the range, quality and access to visual arts programmes and education, followed by five on the future of visual arts programming. The last six request the usual general personal information: age band, gender, income band, residence by parish, and eight choices of racial classification. Bercon stresses the confidentiality of the survey ? there are no names, addresses or phone numbers, but a final question asking if participants would be interested in learning more about the visual arts in Bermuda invites an e-mail address.
For the purpose of the focus groups, the island has been cut into into three zones, East, Central and West, and Bercon plans that separate groups of 15 people will represent those areas. The project begins on March 15, and Bercon expects to report back to the BVAEI task force in early April. Readers interested in taking part in the survey can access the web site at www.bercon.bm, e-mail infobercon.bm, or call 236-7190.
Special report ? see page 4