Cara Pickering and Sarie Mairs Slee examine how place-based collaboration can support innovative, creative-led regeneration of our towns and cities.
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In the last in our series profiling the shortlisted candidates for City of Culture 2025, Claire Whitaker says Southampton has been connecting the UK with people across the globe for thousands of years.
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In the third of our series profiling the shortlisted candidates for City of Culture 2025, Ian Bancroft reveals Wrexham as “one of the last punk places in the UK”.
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In the first in a series profiling the shortlisted candidates for UK City of Culture 2025, Alison Clark introduces the county whose bid is inspired by the Durham Miners Association.
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Voters across England go to the polls next week (2 May) to elect many thousands of new councillors and 10 metro mayors – one of them being the Mayor of London. Phoebe Gardiner outlines what mayoral hopefuls need to understand about the capital’s culture.
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Plans for a new arts and cultural quarter in Essex have been give the green light by a council planning committee.
Harlow Council secured £19.6m of government funding in 2023 to be spent regenerating the town centre's Playhouse Square and College Square.
The plans include major improvements to the Harlow Playhouse, which will be extended.
Land to the west of the theatre will be redeveloped to create a new live performance and music venue with a music school and recording studio.
A public square for events, outdoor performances, a cinema and outdoor dining will also be created.
Council officers described the planning application as "exemplary" and praised its "high-quality" design.
Harlow Council said the redevelopment will "bring people to the town".
Corporate sponsorship deal sees amount raised by Bradford City of Culture 2025 reach 90% of predicted costs of year-long programme.
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Sunderland Music Arts and Culture Trust has received more than £300,000 for a music initiative designed to provide people from diverse backgrounds with full access to educational and cultural events.
A total of £300,000 has been provided for the Sunderland Music City project from a social investment fund for the North East of England established by Northstar Ventures and £37,500 from the County Durham Community Foundation.
MAC Trust currently organises several major events in Sunderland, including Summer Streets, in partnership with Sunderland Council and Arts Council England.
Through Music City, the trust hopes to establish and brand Sunderland as a 'music city', using music, audiences and venues to help change people's cultural experiences in the city and the region, make it a more vibrant place and somewhere musical talent want to study and live.
Paul Callaghan, Chair of MAC Trust, said: "By developing and supporting music we can help the city and the region in several important ways through job creation, economic and artistic growth, tourism development, reputation and brand building.
"It will involve not just the music community but also the education and public sectors, voluntary bodies, and the community at large covering all musical genres, all ages and everyone who wants to play, sing, or listen."
A citizens' jury of 30 West Cumbrian residents will advise and create a new cultural project with a budget of £100,000.
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Analysis from the start of last year found less than half of England’s local authorities have a publicly available cultural strategy.
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Successful grant bid for the Royal Cornwall Museum comes less than two years after it faced closure following a loss of council support.
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Three towns in North Yorkshire have been awarded £350,000 in funding from Arts Council England (ACE) to stage cultural events over two years.
The BBC reports that the Now Then! project will see arts events and activities staged in Selby, Tadcaster and Sherburn-in-Elmet between April 2024 and March 2026.
North Yorkshire Council's Executive Member for Culture and Leisure Simon Myers said it was an "exciting and ambitious" project that would focus on people's pride in where they live.
"Visitors will see our towns as places of singular cultural experiences, and local people will see where they live through fresh eyes," he said.
In Selby, new commissions will be based in the town's abbey and its surroundings, including music, dance, writing and performance.
In Tadcaster, members of the community arts company ARCADE will work with children and young people to create a programme of new work, while in Sherburn-in-Elmet, the community will select creative practitioners they would like to work with to co-devise and deliver activities there.
The programme has been given a Place Partnership award from ACE through the National Lottery.
Pete Massey, ACE's Director for Northern Economy and Partnerships, said they were delighted to fund the project.
"It's great to see so many partners working collaboratively on a project that will tell the stories of places and people as well as offer children and young people in Selby, Tadcaster and Sherburn the opportunity to get involved and develop their artistic skills," he said.
Following plans for a Northern creative corridor, research identifies six more areas of the UK that could adopt the model to stimulate growth of the creative industries.
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For ten years, The Agency has supported young people to create social change projects for their communities. Andrew Westle shares its journey over the decade.
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A new study has quantified the additional social value provided by cinemas to its local communities for the first time.
Commissioned by the BFI and Creative Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC), the study used valuation techniques derived from DCMS’s Culture and Heritage Capital Framework to calculate additional social value and found previously unmeasured benefits equivalent to £600,000 a year for each of the six cinemas analysed.
This social value, amounting to £5.18m per cinema over 10 years, is in addition to the value generated by cinemas through ticket and other sales and memberships, which equates to £1.18m annually for the average UK cinema.
Analysis found the six chosen cinema venues – Broadway in Nottingham, Cameo in Edinburgh, Everyman in Cardiff, Light in New Brighton, Ritzy Cinema and Café in Brixton and Vue Cinema in Glasgow Fort – each provide a focal point around which people engage within an area, driving footfall and spending in other areas.
Less than 2% of cinema-goers surveyed said they do not engage in other activities as part of their cinema trip
“Our new research shows that the public derives significant value from cinemas over and above what is reflected in the prices they pay for tickets, such as in the contribution that cinema venues make to pride in place,” Creative PEC Director Hasan Bakhshi said.
“There are obvious challenges in placing monetary value on complex assets like cinemas and theatres, however when done with due care, it strengthens the economic case for investing in culture.”
The survey also found almost two-thirds (63%) of survey respondents agreed their cinema contributed to “their sense of pride in the area where they live”.
When faced with a hypothetical scenario of their cinema in question being forced to close permanently, cinema-goes said they would be willing to each pay £18 on average per year to a voluntary fund to keep the cinema operating – over twice the cost of an average cinema ticket.
BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are among those to sign a charter committing them to support at least one cross-regional initiative in the North of England next year.
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A £2.3m arts and culture centre has opened in Derry/Londonderry as part of an initiative funding projects in five urban areas of Northern Ireland (NI).
Funding for the New Gate Arts & Culture Centre comes from the Urban Villages Initiative, which is overseen by NI’s Executive Office.
The scheme offers funding for projects that develop thriving places where there has been a history of deprivation and community tension.
The new arts centre, located in the Fountain area of Derry/Londonderry, features a performance space, art and tuition rooms and a dance studio.
A spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council, which managed the development, said the centre will “assist in fostering positive community identities, building community capacity and improving the local physical environment”.
Joan O’Hara, Director of the Executive Office’s Urban Villages programme, added: “This is a fantastic regeneration project for the Fountain area of the city and across the region to provide a shared cultural space right in the heart of the local community”.
“The centre will invigorate the area and encourage the community to come together to celebrate their culture and backgrounds in a space that will use the arts to create new experiences and friendships.”
Plans to transform a former Yorkshire ironworks have been unveiled by Barnsley Council as it explores funding for the £25m project.
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The Royal Opera House has announced a three-year programme of work in Bradford ahead of its tenure as City of Culture in 2025.
Beginning with a Christmas concert at Bradford Cathedral in December, the Covent Garden-based company will partner with organisations in West Yorkshire to provide a range of events, performances and activities for young people and local communities.
Working with schools across the region, the Royal Opera House will bring some of its existing educational initiatives to the city, including Create & Sing, Create & Dance, and Create & Design programmes, offering students and teachers free resources, workshops and shows.
It will also roll out its talent development program for aspiring ballet dancers, Chance to Dance, to local primary and dance schools.
The Royal Opera House is the second Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation to announce a cultural collaboration this week after the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra unveiled a three-year programme of concerts, community events and educational activities in the Cumbrian port of Barrow-in-Furness.
Alex Beard, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, said: “We believe the arts have the capacity to change lives, and I hope that this partnership and the many events, performances and activities that come out of it, alongside the work we will be doing with teachers and schools across the region, will inspire imaginations across this great city over the many years ahead.”
Manchester City Council is calling on residents and cultural organisations to have their say on a new decade-long plan for culture.
The local authority has said it is keen to understand what types of creativity residents are interested in. It is seeking "ideas big and small" across everything from art, performance, galleries and museums to more hands-on art and craft opportunities.
The current 10-year strategy runs until 2026. The consultation on the new strategy will be open until 30 November 2023.
Luthfur Rahman, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “Manchester has a global reputation for arts and culture, bolstered in no small part by the opening of Aviva Studios recently.
"We are renowned for our nightlife, music and museums and we want to make sure that culture is an integral part of our communities over the next 10 years.
“This conversation involves everyone – your ideas could be big, they might be small. But they will all help guide culture in our city."
