As the third and final year of project gets into its stride, members of the TRACTION consortium met online for the fourth time with the project’s international advisory board (ICAT) on January 17th 2022.

The ICAT comprises several experts from the fields of academia, technology and performing arts whose role it is to observe, guide and offer feedback to the TRACTION consortium on the fulfillment of the project objectives. At the meeting were representatives from universities such as Emeritus Professor Helen Simons (University of Southampton) and Director of the Department of Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media (University of York) Marian Ursu. Also in attendance were Hugo Seabra – Project Manager of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Social Cohesion and Integration Program, and Tania Banotti – Director of Creative Ireland – a government funded programme promoting creative culture in Ireland. Representing an organisation that is rooted in artistic collaboration and opera cocreation with communities was Richard Willacy (Birmingham Opera).

The previous meeting with the ICAT was held in June 2021, and served to inform the members about the project’s first European Commission review. The ongoing progress with the technological pilots was also presented followed by a focus on the project communication, dissemination and social impact.

This time, the meeting was held with a view to gaining vital perspectives on the stage of evaluation that the project is currently undergoing. Hosted by Project Coordinator Mikel Zorrilla, the meeting was split into two parts. First the attendees were welcomed and the fundamentals about the progress of the project were outlined. The second part was led by leader of Work Package 4, Anna Matamala (UAB), who outlined the mid-process evaluation on co-creation and initial performances: instruments and results.

Later, a discussion was held surrounding the social impact evaluation of the project and the floor was then opened to questions. There will be much to reflect on in light of the feedback from the ICAT which will be discussed further and applied throughout the final year of the project.