Great and Grand Rumpus 2023-2025

So this is still a little bit hidden from the world, which is a good thing for the minute.

As a part of The Edge/Applied Creativity reimagining there is a spoken/unspoken assumption that we will deliver a revised Great and Grand Rumpus project. If we were looking at that project having a two year runway it would commence in the first half of 2024, which places it within the 2023-2024 budget cycle that will be formulate in February/March next year. Less than six months from now.

Scary right?

So to that end we all need to start having that conversation, identifying the aspiration and desired outcomes of the project and then look to develop the project plan to communicate internally as well as externally. As a starting point, here are some of my aspirations/expectations of the project.

The Great and Grand Rumpus (GRUMPUS 2)

Something to be written here.

The Great and Grand Rumpus Cookbook (AKA. How to make good engagement project.)

So the Cookbook analogy...

A recipe in a cookbook that is not the Cook's Companion, Escoffier (or similar) assumes the basic technology is understood by the reader; they don't explain was a fine dice is or how to use a knife. This is the core assumption. The recipe outlines the execution of technology to deliver the dish. This is the process. Each recipe provides the list of ingredients and equipment required to execute the process. These are the materials. We already do this when we document a workshop and each workshop is a recipe in this analogy.

A cookbook is the assemblage of thematically connected recipes usually (today) interspersed with fluff from the chef to provide colour and context. In some examples there are even cookbooks that assemble the recipes into structured offer. They're less technical manuals and more coffee table books but that is beside the point; they are well designed (usually) and readily usable/accessible to a human that understands the underpinning technologies to replicate this product.

Which get's us awfully close to what is in my head; a how to make good creative engagement guide that is GRUMPUS skinned.

If we were looking at the Great and Grand Rumpus through the same lens and assumption of the target audience, with the assumption it would allow them to wholesale or in part deliver the project from the page. what would that look like? How would we develop it? If we can crack this - and I believe that we can - this would be a significant piece of work and a lasting legacy for the program. Turnkey solutions for community engagement are not an easy thing to find and I wonder (out loud and open to being contradicted) whether that is because no one has publicly cracked it? I've got some example cookbooks at home (one from the exploratorium for science workshops is particuraly good; I'll bring it in) as examples to look through, which I'll bring in.

Let's normalise cookbooks as tax deductions for the Applied Creativity team! I am only half joking with that statement by the way.