BTS WITH NMN: FAYE WATSON - DATA IMPACTS & OPERATIONS COORDINATOR
SW: Hiya Faye, what have you been up to recently?
FW: It’s been all about the recent Miners Gala prep; getting merch and events boxes ready, along with the usual arts admin for the programme and data collection from our fabulous events!
SW: Sounds busy and brilliant. Can you give us an overview of your role at NMN and what you’re looking forward to over this next programme phase?
FW: First off, I love data. It can tell tangible, measurable stories of the impact of arts and culture strategy. We can track this alongside other stories about our activity delivery as a Creative People and Places organisation across the huge geography of County Durham. I gather the data from our events and report this to Arts Council England.
Naturally, this is part of our funding agreement, but it’s vital to unlocking the delivery of activity that makes a difference to people and places with lots of artists, partners and residents, so it's really important that when people are asked to give a postcode or fill in a survey they realise it goes to prove how good the event has been and to unlock the development of what we do here at No More Nowt. I try to present the data in ways that are easy to digest and read..,well as best I can! I find data visuals easier to read, especially if it’s in the NMN high lime brand colours!
SW: You look after monitoring for the entire NMN programme and quantifying its impacts. So, when you’re looking at the data and statistics, what does it show in relation to how NMN connects to communities and individuals? Has it changed over the years? How’s it changed?
FW: We have recently had an increase in older individuals of the community who are increasingly engaging with our Go & See programme. A lot of the feedback we get is that this is their first experience of the theatre. There are experiences they have sometimes waited 70 years for, and it's a privilege to be the driving force of those life changing moments. It’s never too late! The expansion of the programme and going country-wide is reaching newer audiences and changing the map of where and how we engage people. However, we still ensure we are reaching people who are least likely to engage with arts and culture.
SW: Amazing. Do you have a story or pattern from the data that you’d like to share?
FW: In the early years the data was minimal and didn't show a lot. I’ve now developed a way of capturing data to show us “Mega figures”. These are the impact drivers that appear yearly on reports and are a wow factor in showing what we have achieved in collaboration with everyone we work with.
I’m still gathering data for our next report instance, but in April 2026 for example, our headline cumulative all-time data story was telling this
Creative Moments for residents – 499,595
Hours of activity – 14,9431
Artists worked with – 1,719
Volunteer hours – 14,251
Volunteer value £163,031
SW: How is the data and stats collected to show the stories of long-term social impact of the programme?
FW: The fact we have been doing this for 10 years and the same postcodes and people are popping up shows that there is a need for work in Co Durham, there's a need for a diverse cultural landscape in Co Durham, and creativity and culture is valuable to their lives here.
SW: What milestones or community moments will tell you that the NMN programme has worked?
FW: Our aim is to create work and a programme that lasts - evolving with opportunities and the contexts we all operate within. Once, in the early years, we hoped that we had an impact on people. Now, from the data and feedback we get from our activity, we have trackable evidence that we do. For many many of our “easy to ignore” residents across the county, their engagement with No More Nowt activity has been a reason to get out of the house, or a meaningful way that they feel part of their community. Surely that's an indication that it works?
