The strategic awareness of an agency with the attentiveness of freelance

We’re a purposively small London-based research bureau providing impactful and creative research, evaluation and storytelling projects for creative and community placeshapers, cultural districts, social and community enterprises, purposeful businesses and the creative industries.

lɪv because everyone needs a project to live into and lʌɪv to reflect our passion for projects and enterprises that animate people, places and communities.

We fuse research and consultancy methods with storytelling and impact journalism to bring about positive change. We help our customers build deeper connections with their audiences and communities, plan and grow with purpose, and communicate their impact and legacy.

Our work takes us to the intersections of community, culture, and consciousness in cities and neighbourhoods.

We exist to be of service to creative leaders and changemakers – bringing the strategic awareness of an agency with the attentiveness and flexibility of freelance. We stand for a world where decision-making is evidence-led and citizens, customers and communities are empowered.

+ Core delivery

Chris Hayes, Lead Research Consultant

Chris started Live Projects in 2015 and leads LP’s research, strategy and storytelling projects.

Chris has over 13 years of project consultancy. He brings a broad-cross sector experience across the creative and cultural sectors, youth and education, sport and leisure, tourism and place, community services, and local government. MRS Advanced Certificate in Market and Social Research; CPD in Civic Design and Cultural Infrastructure with Bartlett; Social Value UK Member.

Huda Awan, Research Associate and Freelance Digital Communications Consultant

Huda brings a brings a wealth of experience in research and communications gained through working with arts, culture and non-profit organisations, most recently Open City Documentary Festival.

She has a distinction in advanced qualitative and quantitative methods through her MSc from UCL. Huda is a freelance digital communications consultant and has worked with charity and non-profit clients such as North London Waste Authority, Scar Free Foundation, Oceana and Leadenhall Market through Barley Communications. More recently, she has worked with Open City Documentary Festival and Arcual, an Art Basel and LUMA Foundation-backed start-up, developing and implementing digital audience and content strategies that have significantly increased the online profiles of these clients. Huda has provided a wide range of research, project and solutions journalism support to Live Projects and the team.

+ Friends and Collaborators

Fran Gkotsi, Associate

Francesca is an experienced programme and creative learning consultant with over seventeen years of project consultancy, supporting organisations with their strategy, planning, partnership building and beneficiary led approaches. She has a strong programme devising, delivery and strategy and consultancy skillset, as well as experience in individual and group mentoring and workshop leading. She brings a broad-cross sector experience : youth and education, voluntary and community sectors, creative and cultural sectors and local government. Fran has run programmes and projects for local authorities, schools, community and cultural organisations of all sizes e.g. Barbican, Museum of London, A New Direction, Trinity Laban, British Film Institute and the Roundhouse to smaller organisations e.g. Stratford Circus, Eastside Education, Green Candle Dance Company, Chisenhale Dance Space and RichMix.

Beth Crosland, Associate

Beth is an experienced senior leader committed to social justice and arts-based social change. Skilled at developing and managing partnerships and in monitoring and evaluation, Beth values rigorous creative and critical thinking and enjoys collaborating to explore and improve practice and to understand and deepen impact. As Senior Programme Manager at then Culture Mile Learning led by the Museum of London, Beth led a programme of work to support local schools to embed creativity, cultural learning, and skills development across the curriculum. Other client collaborations include work with Into Film, Future City, BalletBoyz, Addnebroke’s Arts, Arts at the Old Fire Station and Koestler Arts.

+ Contributors ctd

Friendly CFO, MetaValue Strategy Consulting and Sighthound Consultancy (Strategy, Finance and Governance advice)
Ken Hettiarachi and Freedom Works UK – Community Leadership, Coaching and Citizen Research.
Common Vision (Intergenerational thinktank)
The People Speak and Talkoake – (East London-based artist collective helping people and communities understand each other through fun interactive participatory formats and interventions)
Sian Rowbotham, Research and Evaluator
Liza Fletcher, Life Films
Caroline Wilson and UndrLdn – London based film collective
Our Community Enterprise – Community Fundraisers
Meaningful Marketing – Social Media & Digital Marketing Experts

+ Writer network

Our network of writer-researchers and SoJos (solutions journalists), with a reach across London’s boroughs, support us to deliver on-the-ground insight, community listening and storytelling.

To be sustainable and grow, purpose-led services and organisations require a deeper understanding of their customers, audiences and market environments.

Businesses need to build an ongoing dialogue with their customers and understand experiences and intentions. Agile market and audience research can help start-ups and scale-ups to test ideas and grow.

Placeshapers must listen to and design with communities to shape authentic places and spaces that inspire growth, sustainability and wellbeing.

Changemakers and community organisations need the freedom to experiment with local approaches. They should evaluate and tell their stories in meaningful and cost-effective ways built on dialogue, trust and the instincts of community leaders.

Policy makers, commissioners, and funders must join the dots and ensure that decision-making is grounded in the lived experiences of people and communities.

We help people and projects make a difference by delivering impactful and creative research and storytelling projects. We work with and inspire leaders and changemakers in the community and creative sectors and in public policy environments.

Our audience, market and policy research gives you the insight you need to make informed decisions on strategy. Our evaluation and storytelling helps you understand and communicate the impact and legacy of your work. Our policy and insight products help you stay ahead of change and in touch with trends and learning.

We specialise in agile research, strategy, and storytelling support for: B2B; culture, heritage and the creative industries; sport and leisure; young people and millennials; tourism and place; tech for good; community services; and local government.

To help organisations listen, create and inspire. We stand for a world where decision-making is evidence-led and citizens, customers and communities are empowered.

We are guided by the principles of a ‘society 5.0’ – problem-solving and value creation, diversity, decentralisation, wellbeing, and sustainability – and our set of values: listening and creativity; collaboration; inclusivity, flexibility and nimbleness; being campaign and cause-led, enjoying our work and lives; a commitment to quality and learning; conservation and democratisation; being multi-disciplinary and open to new ideas. With the help of the brilliant Soofiya in 2022, we have located ourselves in three primary values and possibilities: creativity, progressive and fusion.

Policy makers, commissioners, and funders must join the dots and ensure that decision-making is grounded in the lived experiences of people and communities.

Live Projects founder, Chris Hayes, started his career in writing, journalism and project support before embarking on a consultancy career in the public and non-profit sectors and local government. He began freelancing in 2014 and founded Live Projects the following year. Live /lɪv/ because everyone needs a project to live into, and Live /lʌɪv/ to reflect our passion for creative projects and ventures that animate people, places and communities.

Our early work included research, writing and project support for a small handful of clients – all of who we continue to support today. We’ve pivoted to provide a broader offer and honed our niche and specialism in research, strategy and storytelling for the creative and community sectors.

But good research and writing are still at the heart of what we do. We started working with the brilliant Suzie Campbell and Selena Bolingbroke at MetaValue and changemakers Common Vision led by Caroline MacFarland – long-term collaborations we are pleased to continue. Place and space-based projects with MetaValue included leading the public libraries’ cultural offer, contributory research for a space and service redesign of a London library, business modelling for a creative hub in Lincolnshire, and supporting the masterplan development of a small independent museum. With Common Vision, we have been involved in policy and advocacy projects to champion the needs of young people, millennials, and young-person-led businesses and social enterprises, and undertaken national research on the civic role of the arts. With Freedom Works UK we can bring wrap-around community-based coaching, mentoring and leadership expertise to our project work.

Over the years and during the pandemic, we sharpened our storytelling, social value and impact work, bringing our support and expertise to partners that make up the Culture Mile district in the City of London, and East London creative funders Foundation for Future London – alongside business support to start-ups and SMMEs.

In 2022 Live Projects’ Chris Hayes took part in CPD in civic design and cultural infrastructure with UCL/Bartlett and CivicWise in 2021/22, with embedded working as part of a student design team in London Paddington’s Church Street estate to co-design solutions for an improved public realm and public engagement process. This has cemented our passion and interest in participatory research and engagement in the public realm.

Recent project work includes supporting the Barbican and Culture Mile partners with high-profile community-led storytelling evaluation projects in the City and East London (documenting and telling the story of community-powered programmes Leytonstone Loves Film, Imagine Fund, and the Fusion Prize), impact research for grantees in receipt of Connecting People and Places funding from Foundation for Future London, an audience research and development project for the Beacon museum in the North West, business planning for Nottingham-based Culture Syndicates CIC, and ongoing policy research to the local government sector.

We now have a strong track record of helping organisations to be open, diverse and inclusive in their research and public engagement through co-ordinating citizen-led and participatory research and storytelling projects, as well as extensive experience in running training, workshops and mentoring clients in impact evaluation and business planning.

In our social value and impact evaluation work, we’ve been inspired and influenced by Arts at the Old Fire Station’s storytelling methodology for rich person-centred data collection, Emma Warren’s ‘document your culture’ manifesto, Helen Kara’s work on creative research methods, the solutions journalism trend in the US, evaluation in placemaking, alongside our own 12+ years’ experience of finessing and tailoring our tools to best meet the needs of the people we work with.

We are grateful to have worked with many incredible creatives, changemakers, leaders and writers who now form our network of support and collaboration.

Moving forward, we are passionate about taking our research services to events, festivals, creative and community projects, young-person-led creative collaborations, and local place shapers.

Would you like to collaborate?
Let’s chat