Cultural strategies are an essential way to build a strategic vision and commitment to culture within a specific place.
The University of Southampton and the Local Government Association are delighted to be collaborating on ‘The Connecting and placing cultural strategies’ project which will bring together a Community of Practice of those currently involved, or about to be involved, in creating a cultural strategy to share and shape practice.
The project takes a test and learn approach to develop the recommendations from the Cultural strategies and futures report. By participating you will:
- Join and contribute to a supportive space for exchanging experiences and suggestions on cultural strategies.
- Contribute to turning the recommendations from the Cultural strategies and futures report into an accessible resource pack that you and others can use in creating and sustaining a cultural strategy.
Who is leading the project?
The workshops will be led by Professor Dan Ashton (co-author of the Cultural strategies and futures report) and Ian Leete (Local Government Association Senior Adviser – Culture, Tourism and Sport). The project is funded by the University of Southampton Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Account.
What is involved and when?
The Community of Practice will meet online - hosted by University of Southampton using Microsoft Teams. There will be a launch workshop followed by four workshops focused on different groupings of recommendations. Each workshop will explore the recommendations using a variety of approaches and materials – prompts, worksheets, templates, and more. The proposed dates and focus are below:
- Launch workshop: Thursday 22 May 2.00pm - 3.00pm.
- Workshop one (Models and approaches, living and responsive): Thursday 5 June 2.00pm - 4.00pm.
- Workshop two (Themes, policies, geographies): Thursday 19 June 2.00pm - 4.00pm.
- Workshop three (Consultation, continuity and evaluation): Thursday 3 July 2.00pm - 4.00pm.
- Workshop four (Access, context, structure and language): Thursday 17 July 2.00pm -4.00pm.
Participants are asked to be available for all workshops.
Once the workshops are completed you will be invited to participate in ongoing evaluation including a focus group with each other after the final workshop. This will help in understanding how the resource pack has been used and ways to improve it. The intention is to share the resource pack and there will be further opportunities to feedback in the future as well.
Who could participate?
Place-based organisations (local authorities or cultural trusts working with local authorities) that are currently and actively involved in creating/renewing a cultural strategy.
Participation in the Community of Practice will be considered using responses to an Expression of Interest asking the following:
- name
- email address
- organisation
- role with this organisation
- how would you describe the current cultural strategy activity, if any, in your area? (50 - 100 words)
- what potential benefits can you identify from contributing to the Cultural Strategies Community of Practice? (50-100 words)
- would you like to participate with another colleague who will be working on your cultural strategy with you? (max 2 people).
The selection will be based on bringing together a range of different types of council and organisations. Future opportunities for involvement will follow in the future.
The Expression of Interest form is available on University of Southampton Microsoft Forms.
Information gathered as part of this form will only be used for the purposes of this project.
Summary of dates and deadlines
- Tuesday 6 May: deadline for expression of interest
- Monday 12 May: Outcome on expression of interest
- Thursday 22 May 2.00pm - 3.00pm: launch workshop
- Thursday 5 June 2.00pm - 4.00pm: workshop one
- Thursday 19 June 2.00pm - 4.00pm: workshop two
- Thursday 3 July 2.00pm - 4.00pm: workshop three
- Thursday 17 July 2.00pm - 4.00pm: workshop four.