Our Reflective Progress & Process
Meet Emma McFarland
Creative Evaluator
Hi, I joined the Well-City Salisbury team in February 2025 as Creative Evaluator and my role is to be curious and learn about… what is and isn’t working so well – so we can refine the programme in real time for a better experience – and the impact the programme is having on the people who take part. I’m working with the team to find more creative ways and meaningful ways to do this as we know how frustrating form-filling and tick-boxes can be.
I’ve enjoyed a career which has been a joyful zig-zag, led by curiosity and a love of collaborating and working with people. After spells leading regeneration, social inclusion and digital programmes in the early noughties, I spent over a decade working in the Performing Arts as a Creative Producer, Evaluator and community dance artist, and wrote a book on Dance for Oxford University Press.
I then moved into design-led innovation and digital creativity, researching, designing and producing digital and other experiences with organisations including The National Gallery and Nesta. My work often brings artists, audiences and experts together to solve knotty problems or re-imagine how culture can inspire new ways of seeing and being.
Alongside Well-City Salisbury, I’m currently working with Town Anywhere, an initiative using creativity and social design to help communities imagine how they can adapt and thrive in the face of climate and other challenges.
When I’m not working, you’ll find me sea swimming, on wild hikes with my dog or singing in a local choir.
Our Reflective Progress & Process
At Well-City Salisbury, we want to make sure our project is meaningful and successful as possible for the people who take part, for our partners, for our funders and the wider creative health sector.
To help us do this, we invite everyone taking part in our creative course to take part in our reflective process. This helps us better understand how the Well-City Salisbury programme is delivered and the impact it can have on the individuals involved.
Everyone who takes part in the project is invited to take part in our reflection process. It’s completely optional but it really helps us see the real impact that creative wellbeing on people’s lives.
One of the main ways we gather feedback is through our Reflections Journal. Created in partnership with the Well-City Salisbury Team, participants and our external evaluator, Emma McFarland. It is designed to capture your thoughts and feelings over the duration of our courses.
Throughout the journal, you will find a mix of guided questions and prompts to get you thinking about specific things, as well as moments where you can doodle, draw or write as you however you like.
Many of the questions are based around the 6 Ways to Wellbeing, these are, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give, Connect, Take Notice and Care for the Planet.
All of the questions are designed for us to better understand what’s important to you and the difference Well-City Salisbury can make.