Purpose
This assignment assesses your developing knowledge and skills of investigation in the field of cultural events, exhibitions and festivals studies. Drawing on core ideas and competencies introduced in the first three sessions of the unit the assignment asks you to produce a critical review of a specific cultural event, exhibition or festival of your own choice. As part
of your learning in the unit, evaluation of your performance in this assessment is aligned to your ability to:
1. Identify and articulate the function of events, exhibition and festivals and their role in the cultural economy;
2. Critically evaluate the formulation, character, objectives and value of events, exhibitions and festivals and their role in the cultural economy
3. Apply independent research skills to analysis of cultural events, exhibitions and festivals utilising a cultural economy framework
4. Communicate effectively a breadth and depth of analysis applied to evaluating the character and role of cultural events, exhibitions and festivals.
Task
Identify a cultural event, exhibition or festival (CEEF) as defined in this unit. Drawing upon relevant scholarly studies and primary resources such as CEEF websites, promotional materials, reports, reviews and wider social media engagement (if physical attendance is not possible) write a critical review that addresses the following aspects of your chosen CEEF as expressed in these questions:
1. What is the context and function of your chosen CEEF in the creative economy?
2. What is the character and identity of your chosen CEEF and how is it constructed?
3. What is the nature of the experience/s offered by your chosen CEEF?
4. What is the constituency of your chosen CEEF?
5. What further research might develop from your review?

Conditions
Your critical review should be no more than 1500 words in length excluding references. You are encouraged to include illustrations in support of your review (event photographs, screen grabs of online materials, social media etc) as well as properly presented appendices (event documentation etc). Your review should be informed by no fewer than THREE relevant scholarly sources.
Assessment criteria
Your Critical Review will be assessed equally against the following criteria Identification and understanding of issues in cultural events, exhibitions and festivals Depth, breadth and application of research and resources Interpretation and critical insights
Communication
See the available feedback sheet in the assessment space on the unit Moodle for more detail on the assessment criteria.

Guidance
Please post any questions you have to the assessment forum. The assessment asks that you provide a critical review of your chosen object of study. This means that while you will necessarily describe aspects of your CEEF, your review will need
to be informed by some of the questions and issues introduced in the unit, accessed across your independent research and thought. A critical approach involves asking scholarly questions, conceptualizing meaning, significance and the social contexts and roles in which CEEFs are formulated and have a function. Above all, your descriptions, interpretations and
conceptualizations will be based in empirical primary evidence from and about your CEEF.
Here are some ways of thinking about the organising questions for this assessment which you are welcome to adapt as section headings for your review.
1. What is the context and function of your chosen CEEF in the creative economy?
This question involves identifying your CEEF in terms of where, when and in what form it takes place. How can you categorise the specificity of your subject and how we should understand it? Why is it significant culturally and economically and what is its role in the wider creative economy? Across the first three topic sessions we have identified that the study of CEEFs is informed by a range of academic disciplines, theories and practical concerns which you should explore and draw upon to anchor your approach and focus your review.
2. What is the character and identity of your chosen CEEF and how is it constructed?
This question concerns what kind of event your CEEF can be categorised as, its ‘USP’ as a cultural event. As discussed in the unit, character and identity are not simply stated in any factual but are created in the deployment of various strategies that
create the status and appeal of CEEFs, as ‘authentic’ or ‘alternative’ or ‘inclusive’ for instance.
3. What is the nature of the experience/s offered by your chosen CEEF?
This question is about the range of practices, activities, goods, encounters etc that your CEEF offers, of the particular pleasures, satisfactions and effects it produces. Some of these experiences are specific to particular cultural sectors (readings at a literary festival, recitals at a classical music festival) but can also be generic (talks, workshops etc). The kinds of experiences offered at CEEFs interact with and cross over other questions and are also a focal point for creative and innovative aspects of the USP.

4. What is the constituency of your chosen CEEF?
This question is a way of investigating the identity and experience of your chosen CEEF and its address to a particular audience, community or constituency. This may be broad or niche in reach, it may be specifically inclusive, addressing participants as consumers and/or as active citizens and participants in the creation of meaning and USP. Issues of value (the economic importance of attendees) and values (taste, cultural consumption) come into play in investigating and considering this issue as opposed to simply describing it.
5. What further research might develop from your review?
This question is a means of identifying further questions and issues that merit investigation on the back of the insights produced by your review. What is missing and what more would you like to know? How might your CEEF be framed more
broadly and how does it compare to other activities and issues for the creative economy? Ultimately, the aim is to articulate what further meaningful and manageable research would look like.