Local authorities

A new permanent venue for the Museum of Homelessness will open in London next year, it has been announced.

The museum said Manor House Lodge, in Finsbury Park, will be its base of operations as well as a centre for creativity, healing and community cohesion. 

Plans for the site are being developed by people with experience of homelessness alongside Stephen Greenberg, a museum planner who has worked on more than 100 museum projects. 

The museum said it hopes for the venue to be "a world class creative hub" that hosts performances, talks and workshops developed by people with experience of homelessness. It will provide 250 support sessions per year designed in partnership with those in need, which are likely to include regular surgeries focused on housing and legal rights as well as the provision of essentials during the cost-of-living crisis.

The plans for the site also include an open access professional standard arts studio for people experiencing homelessness and a home for the national archive and collection for homelessness, poverty and social action. 

The museum has been granted a 10-year community lease from Haringey Council which is currently undertaking initial works on the site. The Museum of Homelessness team is due to be onsite later this year and will undertake a six-month community development period prior to opening to the public in spring or summer next year.

Museum of Homelessness Co-founder Matt Turtle said: “After working in borrowed venues for seven years and relying on the generosity of partners especially the Outside Project, we are delighted to be putting down roots in Harringey. 

"We are excited about transforming this precious site into a museum space like no other, a place where people can hear stories they won't hear anyone else and receive practical support when they need it.

"Our community will work with partners including the council and people experiencing homelessness locally to make a space for everyone.”

Funding totalling £114,051 is being awarded as part of an ongoing grant scheme to support local culture and creativity in Wakefield.

The grant scheme, run by Wakefield Council, is designed to support art, culture and creativity to flourish in the run-up to its Year of Culture in 2024. 

Each artist or organisation will be awarded between £1,000 and £15,000 to work with local communities.

The council has announced details of 16 of the projects to have received funding so far. They include creative activities themed around mental health and tailored to people at risk of homelessness, visually impaired people and pregnant women.

“This investment will enable diverse and high-quality creative projects right across our district,” said Michael Graham, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport.

Applications for Made in Wakefield grants remain open until October 17.

Arts and culture organisations in Manchester will be able to apply for up to £40,000 a year as part of the latest round of the city council's Cultural Partnership grants programme.

A total of just under £1m is available over a three-year period starting in April 2023 for charitable and not-for-profit organisations with a track record of delivering arts and cultural activity for people who live in or visit the city. 

The fund is designed for organisations that work in artforms such as combined arts, dance, museum, film and broadcast, heritage, literature, visual arts, digital art, music, photography, theatre and performance, and craft.

The council has said it wants to fund organisations that are "inclusive, representative of resident communities and which contribute to Manchester’s zero-carbon ambitions". In the last round, 15 of the city’s small and medium sized arts and cultural charitable organisations were supported.

Luthfur Rahman, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Manchester is world famous for its cultural scene and we have a long tradition in supporting artists and cultural organisations in the city. We want to continue this legacy and ensure all residents can benefit from inclusive and vibrant cultural opportunities."

Applications for the programme are open until 9am on Friday 7 October 2022. 

The Harris Museum in Preston is set to undergo a £14m refurbishment with the keys officially handed over to a construction company this week.

The Harris Your Place project aims to "restore and reimagine" the Lancashire museum. In preparation for the massive refurbishment, more than 250,000 objects have been removed from the site by expert movers and placed in storage. Works including oil paintings, watercolours, sculptures, drawings and prints have been individually cleaned using conservation tools.

The museum's ceremonial key, designed by Alfred Gilbert, was initially used to open the Harris back in 1893 by Arthur Stanley, the 16th Earl of Derby. It consists of an Art Nouveau-style openwork terminal enclosing a rock crystal drop below a finial crown and features an enamelled coats of arms from the Stanley family.

This week, Peter Kelly, Cabinet Member for Arts and Culture at Preston City Council, will hand it to Michael Conlon, chairman of Conlon Construction, signalling the official launch of the restoration project.

“Accepting the ceremonial keys to the Harris, a building of tremendous cultural and historical significance to the city of Preston, is a huge honour,” said Conlon.

The museum will reopen in 2024 and hopes to see annual visitor numbers increase from 350,000 to 450,000.

Specialist consultants have been lined up to help develop a five-year cultural strategy for a new unitary council being established in Somerset next year.

Somerset’s five councils – Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton, South Somerset district councils, and Somerset County Council – have worked in partnership with Arts Council England to recruit cultural consultants, The Fifth Sector.

Since its foundation in 2011, The Fifth Sector has delivered more than 100 strategic and cultural projects, including cultural strategies and creative investment frameworks for Derby, Liverpool, Manchester, Rushmoor, South Yorkshire and Tees Valley.

Key aims and objectives of the strategy include ensuring that a cultural identity for arts and culture in Somerset is at the heart of the new authority’s strategic plans.

It is also intended that the piece of work will raise awareness and promote the role that culture and creativity can play in enriching communities and improving the quality of life, health, wellbeing and the local economy for Somerset residents.

Federica Smith Roberts, Somerset County Council’s Lead Member for Communities, said: “The Somerset Cultural Strategy will define how, as an organisation, the new Somerset Council will deliver cultural activities to better the lives of residents and enhance our communities.

“I am delighted that work will commence through The Fifth Sector now to create a strategy ready for adoption when the new Council comes into effect in April 2023. 

"Arts and culture are important to help improve the quality of life, health, wellbeing and the local economy for Somerset residents, local businesses and visitors and I look forward to bringing the strategy in front of fellow councillors in 2023.”

Controversial plans to add a new central hall to the National Railway Museum in York have been approved after a knife-edge vote from members of the local planning committee.

The plan to join the museum’s two halves with a rotunda has attracted opposition from local residents because it will close Leeman Road, a direct route used by people to access the city centre.

Residents will be able to pass through the museum to reach the city centre but access will be limited to opening hours and could involve delays and bag searches. An alternative route around the museum is expected to add 400 metres to the journey.

The application was initially deferred for a month at a meeting in July to allow an equalities impact assessment to be carried out, after councillors raised concerns about accessibility for disabled residents.

But disability rights campaigner Flick Williams described the assessment as “a hastily completed desktop exercise” and specialist access consultant Helen Kane described it as having “serious failings”, according to Yorkshire Live.

The museum’s director, Judith McNicol, said the museum took “issues surrounding access and equality very seriously” and said that the museum had employed accessibility consultants when designing the building.
 

A report by Bristol City Council has found that Bristol Harbour Festival is suffering from an "identity crisis", with many people unclear as to the nature of the annual event.

“Some think it predominantly a music or food festival due to the programming… Generally there is a feeling it is commercialised, with big brands monopolising the food offer and few people see it as a community festival,” the report noted.

It added that many people were put off by the festival’s “drinking culture”, calling for major changes to the event.

“The drinking culture has a detrimental affect on attracting participants from different cultures and the older community,” the report found, with many visitors to the festival choosing to leave the area before evening. The report also raised concerns that the event is “too middle class and white”. 

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol in 2020, it said that the festival needed to make changes to “better reflect Bristol’s communicates in the context of these global events”. Recommendations include installing a creative director to help attract a more diverse audience.

“The festival needs to reflect recent events in its addressing of the issues around the harbour as well as celebrating the diversity that Bristol represents,” the report said.

Despite this, members of the council's are expected to approve an extension to 2023 for the current festival organisers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

They are expected to use next year’s event as a transition to a new contract, which will be retendered in 2024.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority is launching a consultation into a new programme to develop arts, culture, heritage and sport in the area.

Locals are being invited to share their opinions and contribute to the final content of the Culture, Heritage and Sport Framework via an online platform.

The draft framework is part of West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin’s Creative New Deal, which aims to ensure the creative industries are included in the area’s post-pandemic recovery strategy. The framework focuses on four central themes - people, place, skills and business - all of which will be supported by the Combined Authority.

“There is no doubt that the arts, culture, heritage and sport bring so much joy to so many people in our region,” Brabin said.

“They improve our mental and physical wellbeing, create jobs, grow our economy, and attract talented people and businesses to our region.”

She praised West Yorkshire’s sculpture and contemporary art, as well as its “thriving and fiercely independent music sector, a rich literary tradition, internationally significant theatre, dance and opera companies, major music and literature festivals, and cutting-edge hubs for the games, screen and events industries.”

“This is served by an eco-system of innovative small and medium enterprises and freelancers,” she added.