A role map can make a small art partnership easier to run. Its purpose is to clarify the decisions and tasks that could otherwise fall between people, from welcoming participants to approving a display description.

Creating a Role Map for a Collaborative Art Project

Separate responsibility for an outcome from helping with a task. Several people may contribute, but the team still needs to know who can confirm that an arrangement is ready.

Clarify the difference between a host, a collaborator and a delivery partner. These roles can overlap, but they involve different expectations about decisions, labour, public credit and responsibility. A short shared note can prevent each person from assuming the other is handling an essential task. Revisit it when the project expands or the people involved change.

Three useful steps

• List the main decisions and recurring delivery tasks.
• Name the responsible role and the people to consult for each.
• Check the map with the actual team and revisit changes.

Make promises through the people who can actually deliver them. An enthusiastic conversation does not establish a venue booking, a staffing commitment or permission to use equipment. Record confirmed arrangements separately from ideas still being explored. This protects the collaboration from discovering too late that its public invitation depends on an assumption nobody approved.

Consider a small example

Imagine a project where the artist prepares the work, the host manages access to the room and another partner handles registration. Writing those roles down can reveal that nobody has agreed to return participants' materials afterwards.

A local partner brings knowledge and relationships as well as practical resources. Do not reduce the relationship to access to a room or an audience. Ask what the proposed activity means for the partner's ordinary work, what effort it creates and what they hope to learn or receive. The answer may change the format before a public invitation is issued.

Where the approach can go wrong

Avoid making the map so elaborate that it is not used. Focus first on decisions where confusion would affect participants, deadlines or the public presentation.

A partnership needs a clear ending as well as a clear beginning. Agree how materials will be removed or returned, what documentation the partner will receive and who will answer later questions. Do not leave ongoing maintenance or participant contact as an unspoken obligation. A modest, completed handover can be more useful than a broad promise to keep the relationship active indefinitely.

Consider the people and the context

Give decision-making an owner. Artists and hosts need to know who can approve changes, who represents the venue and who will receive questions from participants. A long list of interested people is not a substitute for a clear route to a decision. Record the outcome of important discussions so the project does not depend on private recollections of a meeting.

Treat the location as a working environment rather than an empty backdrop. Notice deliveries, ordinary journeys, neighbouring activities and the people who already care for the space. Agree how the artwork will fit alongside those uses. A project can be temporary and still create responsibilities for access, communication, maintenance and the way the space is left afterwards.

Record the limits of the evidence alongside the findings. Responses may come mainly from regular attendees, people who stayed to the end or those comfortable writing in the chosen language. This does not make the feedback worthless, but it affects the conclusions that can be drawn. Describe the group and collection method rather than suggesting the responses represent everyone in the neighbourhood.

What to carry into the project

A useful role map turns shared goodwill into a workable division of responsibility without pretending collaboration means everyone does everything.

Related reading

Working with a Shopkeeper on a Window Art Project; Briefing Local Facilitators for a Community Art Programme; Planning Shared Resources for a Community Art Project.

Background and further reference

University of the Arts London: archive record for A Million Minutes.