The Culture Works Collective

Perhaps the time has come to recognise that – after the Future Works gathering – Culture Works is no longer just a framework, but it is now a Collective. Of course the people who were in the room on the day are not the entirety of the Culture Works Collective, but they are the start – and the event was a great demonstration of why it is important to always find ways to meaningfully include all kinds of voices in envisioning and shaping the future.

As the Culture Works Collective, we have a vested interest in making a difference to our city – and region – by threading arts and cultural activity through everything. And the work done at this event around envisioning and goal-setting will have an impact in far more strategy and policy areas than just arts and culture.

We only had a short time, so the connections made during the event will need care, they will need to be nurtured and grown, and perhaps we can all take responsibility for doing that in our own work, as well as as part of the Culture Works Collective?

At the end of something like this we always need to know what happens next – there are several things that we know must happen:

1. There will be ideas from the event that can – and will – be written into the Cultural Strategy refresh. But what has happened at the Future Works event is important – the ownership of that Cultural Strategy has shifted. It is no longer solely the property (or responsibility) of the Council or a University, but it is something living that we all own and that we all share responsibility for. It represents all of us now.

It’s democratic, transparent, and will continue to evolve as we work with it.

It’s a shared direction of travel

Something to gather around

A way of telling our collective story

And something that helps us all to be ambitious, connected, mutually supportive, and to (individually and collectively) generate investment and opportunities for arts and creative activities that benefit all of our communities.

2. An artist will be commissioned to hold responsibility for taking forward the spirit and energy of the event’s envisioning into the document and also to create something that communicates the document’s messages in a differently accessible way.

3. There are ideas from the event that are too big to be put into the refresh of the Cultural Strategy – and these are the markers for the next strategy – the one that will describe our cultural goals from 2027 (when the current Strategy expires). They are what the current strategy refresh lays the foundations for.

They are the route map to the future we have envisioned. The future we want to live in – and a jobs list for all of us – the new Culture Works Collective.

.