Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England. Image © Sunderland Echo
Last week, in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, something special happened. The District Council came together with the Ashfield Arts Partnership – a network of local creatives and cultural organisations – to launch Ashfield Creates: a brand-new, three-year, locally-led-and-shaped creative programme, supported with £1m of investment from Arts Council England.
The programme will see cultural activity of every kind delivered in Ashfield’s towns and villages, and sits at the heart of the district council’s wider 10-year arts, cultural and creative strategy. The authority hopes to help cultural activity – and the cultural and creative lives of its residents – flourish far into the future.
In 2020, Arts Council England identified 54 locations around the country which we designated ‘Priority Places’ – areas in England in which cultural investment and engagement had historically been low, but where it was clear that there was tremendous potential for partnership working and growth.
In each of these places, our local area teams based in our nine offices across England have been working closely with local leaders and cultural organisations to understand what is needed by communities in terms of art and culture provision, and to support them in developing carefully tailored development plans that build on existing strengths and assets.
The launch of Ashfield Creates is just the latest in a line of custom-made investments that ACE has made in our Priority Places over the last three years which collectively take us closer to our aim of making sure that people everywhere have access to the art and culture that they deserve.
These projects exemplify a step-change in the way in which Arts Council England and local authorities are working together with communities: upending the traditional top-down model, and giving power to local people to advocate for what they want, need, and enjoy when it comes to culture, creativity, and the arts.
It’s a way of working that we have learned from our Creative People and Places programme – a collection of 38 projects, from Wigan to Walsall and from Boston to Basildon, that have co-creation with local communities at their heart.
Cultural activities are at their best when they are rooted in their place. Ashfield is only one such example. Bradford’s successful bid for the UK City of Culture for 2025 drew on the rich and vibrant cultural past and present of all its communities, and plans are afoot to use the year as a catalyst for change and regeneration in the city.
Plymouth has for the past ten years made culture and creativity the heart of its plans for economic and social renewal – and invested to do that. The city’s amazing Market Hall and Immersive Dome are the result of this investment and partnership building by the city’s council, universities, arts organisations and our local Arts Council team.
At the Arts Council, we know that the best way to deliver the benefits of creativity and culture is through building strong partnerships. Local councils are one of the most important partners we have in making sure that our investment of taxpayers’ and National Lottery players’ money pays the greatest possible dividends to more people in more places.
We welcome the creation of more combined authorities with new powers and responsibilities to drive local economic growth, and are developing new partnerships with leaders who want their regions to become more prosperous and more successful.
As the national development agency for artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries, we want to make sure that creativity and culture are firmly on their agenda.
What the Arts Council brings to these partnerships is the expertise (in artforms; in working with children and young people; in creative health; and in a host of other fields) of our colleagues who live and work across the country, and our ability to set a national strategy which is able to invest in opportunities at local and regional levels.
We have done this in West Yorkshire, where our investment of £3.7m alongside that of mayor Tracy Brabin will allow every district to celebrate an incredible year of culture in the run up to Bradford 2025; and in Plymouth, where we have worked closely over many years with the council to support the city’s remarkable cultural transformation.
By working with locally elected leaders, we can help ensure that their creative and cultural sector is ideally placed to boost economic growth, give young people the skills and opportunities they deserve, and build the reputation of their regions on the national and international stage, and build the reputation of their regions on the national and international stage.
I strongly believe that it’s only by working closely and effectively in and with communities that the best outcomes can be achieved – and the organisation of Arts Council England itself reflects and supports this.
Our colleagues are based in each English region, and the majority of our decisions on who and what to invest in are taken locally. Our current National Portfolio, the group of 1,000 arts organisations, museums and libraries that we regularly fund, is our largest and most geographically diverse ever. It reflects our commitment over the past decade to make sure our funding is reaching more people in more places.
But we also recognise that we can all work together more effectively to achieve the outcomes we want to see: of everyone, wherever they live, being able to access arts and culture, and the benefits they bring. That’s why we identified those 54 places in which our investment and arts engagement were too low, but where chances were being created to improve investment and engagement through the ambition and vision of local leaders.
We have prioritised investment in these places – including Ashfield – and we are seeing results.
We know that devolution to combined authorities offers huge potential for stronger partnerships and greater growth in more places, and we will work with elected mayors and other local leaders to make the most of the chances it offers. Both Greater Manchester and the West Midlands combined authorities have committed in their trailblazer deals to increase the part creativity and culture can play in the future of their regions. We are looking forward to working with them to make the vision they lay out a reality.
We want to see our communities and the people who live in them prosper and thrive. We will do that by working in partnership with councillors and elected mayors in all parts of the country, looking at the new opportunities greater devolution is bringing to our regions.
Together we can help more people in more places to achieve their aspirations and ambitions, using creativity and culture as the key to unlocking that potential.
