Agenda item

The Committee will receive an update from Buckinghamshire Culture on the development of the Cultural Partnership first conceived in 2019.  This will include an overview of the work undertaken in the past three years and a look forward to future opportunities.

Contributors:

Cllr Clive Harris, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure

Julius Weinberg, Co-Chair, Buckinghamshire Culture

Lallie Davis, Director, Buckinghamshire Culture

Ruth Page, Culture and Leisure Services Development Manager

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Clive Harris, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Julius Weinberg, Co-Chair for Buckinghamshire Culture, Lallie Davis, Director for Buckinghamshire Culture and Ruth Page, Culture and Leisure Services Development Manager, to the meeting.

Julius Weinberg and Lallie Davis provided an overview of the work of Buckinghamshire Culture and the following main points were highlighted:

·       Buckinghamshire Culture was created to be a co-ordinating body to support the implementation of the Buckinghamshire Cultural Strategy and develop a cultural partnership.  In 2018, Discover Bucks Museum, the only national Portfolio Organisation in the county and the Council secured a grant from the Rothschilds Foundation to take this work forward.

·       Buckinghamshire Culture formally became an independent charity in November 2021 and Rothschilds have also pledged a further three years of funding.

·       Offices are being moved into Buckinghamshire New University, providing access to academics.

·       A new Board of Trustees has been established which has some younger people on it.

·       Key outcomes for creativity and culture are: Thriving economy and transformed places, equality of access to cultural activity and opportunities, improved health and wellbeing of the population and an energized creative and cultural sector. Buckinghamshire Culture aims to support projects that get organisations together to talk about different topics, fundraising and form new connections. For example, an intergenerational storytelling festival ‘Summer of Stories’ was held in 2021. Storytelling was specifically chosen rather than a more highbrow literary festival as storytelling was all encompassing as it can include films, books and strong verbal storytelling and folk song culture of some of our diverse ethnic minorities too.

·        Further plans for similar projects in 2022 are in place including Bucks Open Weekend 28^th-31^st July, Bucks in 100 Objects and a project to celebrate 10 years since the 2021 Paralympics is also in development

·       Partnerships across and beyond the cultural sector have been and are continuing to be built. Networks such as Bucks Cultural Leaders are inspiring people to get involved and lots of groups have approached Lallie Davis for advice on projects, collaboration and fundraising opportunities.  A speed dating session had been held in November 2021 to encourage ideas and share best practice and two projects had been awarded seed funding as a result.

·       Four action groups to support strategy delivery have been set up: Culture, Health and Wellbeing, Culture, Access and Inclusion, Culture and Placemaking and Storytelling. Buckinghamshire Culture are hoping to work more closely with Community Boards to encourage celebration of ‘place’.

During discussion, comments and questions raised by the Committee included:  

·       Members praised the achievements of Buckinghamshire Culture to date and congratulated them on achieving charitable status. It was noted that the Cultural Leaders Programme was helping to promote their work and they had worked with students at Bucks New University to design their logo and branding.

·       Buckinghamshire’s cultural landscape is challenging as it is fragmented ranging from lots of artists working on their own in a studio in their shed up to the National Film and TV School in Beaconsfield and Pinewood Studios.  People are also very focussed on their immediate locality.

·       Culture and impact on mental health is a key priority. There is an aim to have conversations with health about including cultural activities in social prescribing.  In addition, Buckinghamshire Culture would like to work more closely with the education sector – Bucks in 100 objects could be a very educational project.

·       A member gave an example of Haddenham Feast, which had brought artists and makers together as a way of helping to support and bind communities.  Opportunities to pass skills and stories between generations should be encouraged.

·       It was noted that Arts Council funding would be beyond the reach of lots of cultural groups in Buckinghamshire and members were pleased to hear of the role that Buckinghamshire Culture was playing in linking, co-ordinating and enabling individuals and groups to achieve and deliver their best.  The Council should support this outreach work and encourage culture as an essential in life, not just a ‘nice to have’.

·       Lallie Davis was working with Hearts of Bucks to support groups to access Arts Council ‘Let’s create Jubilee’ funding. She had held a day of virtual surgeries to discuss ideas and talk people through the application process.

·       £300,000 of funding had been secured as well as support from the Council and support in kind from Buckinghamshire New University for the next three years, which covers running costs, some projects and staff salaries. We then bid for further grant funding for specific projects.  In terms of sustainability in the longer term, the aspiration would be to create a county endowment pot which would be able to leverage significant change.

·       In response to a question regarding the additional money invested in culture in the Council’s budget in 2021/22, Ruth Page explained that it had been difficult to spend this funding in the way the Council had wanted. The plan had been to use it for match funding for projects in partnership with Buckinghamshire Culture and other organisations, via the four action groups that had been established.  However, it had been hard to launch projects due to a lack of capacity, which reflected the history of underfunding of the cultural sector over many years. Match funding has been put forward for the Paralympics Anniversary celebration and also a programme called Volunteering Futures, which aims to get volunteers from sections of our communities are under-represented. 

·       The Council has also used some of the funding to support cultural outreach via the library service.

·       Buckinghamshire Culture work closely with the Cultural Educational Partnership and youth organisations such as Action for Youth to better engage with young people. There are also plans to develop a shadow youth board, with the Chair then attending the main Buckinghamshire Culture board.

·       A member asked about how Buckinghamshire Culture could celebrate Buckinghamshire’s diverse culture and break down barriers.  In response, Julius Weinberg explained that culture was not simply art and music, but any activity that people do in their free time are important. It has been more of a challenge to fully encompass diversity during the pandemic, but efforts are being made to engage with representative organisations to support diversity of cultural activity, for example through storytelling and dance.

·       It was further noted that Buckinghamshire Culture appreciates the support received from elected members of the council, at events, meetings and through involvement in projects, especially during the pandemic. This communicates the importance of culture to the community.

The Chairman thanked all attendees for their contributions.