Updated 24 October: I have added a direct download of the report to this blog post owing to issues experienced in accessing the report on mobile phones. Thanks so much to those who’ve pointed this out!
Just over a week ago we were able to publish our report on MOLA’s public impact for the financial year 2022-2023. I am very proud of this document, which is the first to be published since I started at MOLA in late 2019 – and indeed the first since 2016-2017.
Some of you will know that it has long been an ambition of mine to revive the public impact report in a rigorous fashion, shaped around purposeful and measurable commitments to people and planet. Especially in development-led archaeology, where meaningful impact often requires formidable championing and constant effort to protect the integrity of the programme design, to be able to develop and then implement a coherent, overarching strategy to public engagement seems a tremendous feat. It entails the advocacy and labour of very many people, from delivery team members to project managers, senior leaders to trustees, clients, consultants and beyond.
MOLA’s report reflects the significant work that we have done over the past few years in driving fundamental change to how we conceive of, deliver, and rigorously assess the impact generated from our archaeological practice. Recognising that the archaeological activities we conduct are extractive in nature (i.e., we are actively taking things away from the people and places who live on and around the archaeology), we have invested significantly in ensuring that some form of positive difference can be made to individual lives, communities and environments.
In the blog post that I prepared to announce the report’s release, I couldn’t individually mention the very many people who contributed both to writing the document and to delivering all the activities around which it is based. Whilst I worry about not acknowledging key contributors, I do think it’s important to shout out to a few folks without whom this would not be possible, notably Caroline Barrie Smith (Head of Audience Engagement) and Andrew Henderson Schwartz (Head of Communications), Amy Atkins who oversees MOLA’s training programmes and Emma Dwyer who oversees our grant-funded research, and Sadie Watson and Kate Faccia who have launched MOLA’s newest venture – the Hub. I am inspired by many people at MOLA, but especially Shantol Campbell, the founder of the Network for Ethnically Diverse Staff, whose principles and approach have fundamentally shaped how I think about public practice. I also hope that Magnus Copps, who moved on from MOLA last year to pursue a Clore fellowship, can see himself in all that we managed to accomplish in 2022/23.
I hope you too can find something that inspires you in the report. And if not, perhaps you’ll be galvanised to partner with us on a future Impact Acceleration Account grant to achieve new forms of impact that we’ve yet to imagine!
SARA PERRY 