Culture Commons

📢 New publication! 'Devolution: perspectives from the UK's creative industries' In the week we congratulate Baroness Shriti Vadera on her appoint as co-chair of the Creative Industries Council, we're delighted to publish this new Insight Paper capturing perspectives from CIC members. This paper is part of a major open #policy development programme led by Culture Commons and 30 partners - including Creative Industries Council. Together, we're unpacking how #devolution and increased local decision making might affect the #creative #cultural and #heritage ecosystem here in the UK. Just a few of the insights coming through in the paper: 👉 There is a general uncertainty about what the UK Government's vision for devolution vis-à-vie our sectors looks like; more clarity on the direction of travel will aide industry figures to contribute helpful proposals, particularly as the 2024 Spring Budget approaches. 👉 Decentralisation of decision making is widely seen as an opportunity to help regional economies to grow through the creative industries. Nonetheless, a wholesale devolution of powers won't always be the answer to challenges that DCMS sub-sectors face - national level coordination and decision making will still be needed. 👉 The potential of further 'policy fragmentation' between different tiers of government (local - regional - national) is a concern for creative businesses who want certainty and stability; this should be given particular attention as the sector Taskforce gears up to contribute to the incoming Industrial Strategy. Read more of the insights in this short paper: https://lnkd.in/ef_W79hQ 📕 👀 As ever, views expressed in the programme Insight Papers are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect those of Culture Commons or the 30 programme partners. We've engaged many other stakeholder groups as part of the programme, including the workforce, the public and the cultural and heritage sectors too. You can find out more about 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' and engage with the wider findings and recommendations we've been making here: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f 💻 👀

Pleasure to be with colleagues at Demos and Policy Lab UK this evening to share thoughts on #devolution and increased local decision making This session is drilling down into how #art #design and #participation can actually support better #Public #Policy design Culture Commons has been exploring high quality participatory decision making as part of an open policy development programme with 30 UK wide partners exploring Cultural Devolution You can find out about the programme here: https://lnkd.in/ep9ggskC Just two of circa 25 research papers we commissioned of relevance here: 📕 A lovely Discussion Paper by Leila Jancovich University of Leeds and Culture Commons' PDRA's Lucrezia Gigante (AFHEA) and Dr. Claire Burnill-Maier outlining different methods of participatory decision making over the years: https://lnkd.in/eF6KemTC outlining different methods of participatory decision making 📘 This Insight Paper from the Culture Commons team drawing on several live projects engaging with different stakeholders groups across the UK: https://lnkd.in/eVitCMzs #FutureLocalCulture

We're pleased to see our work here at Culture Commons being highlighted as best practice in this new publication by Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) - 'How does Arts and Humanities research influence public policymaking?' The paper, co-authored by Prof Arlene H. and Luke Sewell, draws on a series of examples of where higher education institutes and #arts and #humanities researchers have successful influenced policymaking processes. Professor Ben Walmsley from Centre for Cultural Value - longtime collaborators of ours - outlines how the Centre unlocked internal Research England funding to work with the Culture Commons team as part of the 'Culture of Crisis' - a large scale Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research programme responding to the #Covid19 pandemic's impacted on the UK's #creative #cultural and #heritage ecosystem. At a time of great disruption, we worked with the core multidisciplinary #research team across the four UK nations to ensure key findings were being fed through to policymakers in UK Government and the devolved governments in real time as the pandemic progressed. This productive partnership led to the development of a series of co-designed recommendations that we shared with policymakers at an event in the UK House of Lords in 2022. These centred around better social security provisions for #artists and cultural practitioners; new fora for local cultural decision making; investing in targeted #skills training for early career workers; moving away from competition-based models of funding; and developing mission orientated investments into the ecosystem. You can read the full UPEN paper outlining some of the benefits of the collaboration here: https://lnkd.in/evR3thbS And catch the policy recommendations we worked up together with the Centre team back in 2022 (but which are still very relevant!) here: https://lnkd.in/eNftGH6Z

In a new blog, Owen Garling and Professor Michael Kenny share insights from their ongoing work on 'cultural infrastructure' in relation to Culture Commons' work on developing more inclusive and responsive approaches to mapping both tangible and intangible cultural infrastructures. The concept of "cultural infrastructure" has gained attention as policymakers expand the idea of infrastructure beyond traditional utilities to include spaces and amenities like libraries, parks, and cultural venues such as museums and theaters. This infrastructure supports both social and cultural life, fostering community identity and economic growth, particularly in the creative industries. A new cultural infrastructure map could identify and address cultural deserts, but its creation involves complex decisions about what to include and how to measure. Engaging communities in the process is essential for capturing the diverse values these spaces offer, contributing to healthier, more creative communities. https://lnkd.in/eFkb8P_N

In this new blog for Culture Commons, Owen Garling and Professor Michael Kenny from Bennett Institute for Public Policy at University of Cambridge share insights from their pioneering work on 'cultural infrastructure'. Owen and Michael examine how '#infrastructure' has risen up the policy agenda in recent years, and how increased interest in '#cultural #infrastructures' could now help our sectors to make the case for future investments. Read the full blog here: https://lnkd.in/eFkb8P_N 👀 On 5th November, Culture Commons made a bold recommendation in 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' alongside 30 national partners about mapping both tangible 🏰 and intangible💡cultural assets. It is hoped this will see new responsive methodologies being adopted that bring about more #inclusive and #equitable approaches to national resource distribution. Because of the unique cultural context in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿, we propose that Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government is particularly well placed to explore a nationally co-ordinated approach to the co-design of a new taxonomy for identifying 'cultural infrastructure' on behalf of the UK 🇬🇧 alongside civil society and the #creative #cultural and #heritage sectors. You can dive into this recommendation, and the 19 others, in the digital report 💻 here: https://lnkd.in/egw2w_fY #FutureLocalCulture

🚨 New Publication 🚨 'A review of devolution and the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem' Co-authored by: Trevor MacFarlane FRSA of Culture Commons Eliza Easton of Erskine Analysis Jack Shaw of Labour Together In this Discussion Paper, a multi-disciplinary team of experts take a look back at how #culture #creativity and #heritage have interacted with #devolution policy so far. Just a few of the key findings: 👉 From 1997 successive UK governments have centred the 'creative industries' in their industrial strategies, and the strategic importance of the wider ecosystem in addressing policy priorities is increasingly recognised in all four nations. 👉 Since 2010 financial constraints across the UK has meant that many local authorities have under-invested in the ecosystem - particularly in the cultural and heritage sectors. 👉 Since 2014 the rise of combined authorities has opened up a new frontier for cultural policy in England. Metro Mayors have played a relatively peripheral role so far but that is now changing; they are moving their thinking on from ‘duties’ and ‘powers’ towards shared decision-making over the priorities and distribution of resources. 👉 In the devolved nations, the debate has tended to focus on what the UK Government should devolve to Holyrood, Senedd and Stormont, and comparatively little attention has been paid to ‘double devolution’ from those legislatures into their respective regions, sub-regions and localities. 📕 Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/eXZ-m3ea This paper is one of many published as part of 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' - a major four nations open #policy development programme led by Culture Commons and 30 partners from across the UK. Find out more about the wider programme and the policy recommendations we published earlier in the year on the programme’s microsite: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f #FutureLocalCulture Place partners: Belfast City Council Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Durham County Council Greater Manchester Combined Authority Harlow Council South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Sheffield City Council Wigan Council Cardiff Council The North East Combined Authority Local Government Association Research partners: Centre for Cultural Value Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre University of Dundee University of Leeds Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place University of Kent University of Warwick   Sector partners: Association of Leading Visitor Attractions Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Art Fund Arts Council England #SheffieldCultureCollective Creative Industries Council Creative Estuary Historic England Libraries Connected The RSA (The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce)   Funding partners: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation  Paul Hamlyn Foundation

A fantastic newsletter below from the Creative Industries Council - one of our open policy development programme partners. Thank you for sharing news of the launch of our report on ‘The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK’ last week: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f We’re nestled amongst a diverse round up of Creative Industries news, including an overview of the Autumn Budget and details of a VR experience set in the acid house era!

A new report sets out a series of policy recommendations designed to help the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem to reap the benefits of devolution in the coming years, while also tackling "socio-economic and geographical injustice". It's based on research carried out by Culture Commons in partnership with 30 UK organisations, including the Creative Industries Council, over the past year. Key findings include: 📝 Appetite for more localised decision-making is a UK wide phenomenon – but it’s complicated and underexplored. 📝UK wide collaborations bring benefits – and there is significant potential for more 📝There is a fear of further policy fragmentation 📝 Regional imbalances in ecosystem investments are universally recognised – and ‘local decision-making’ is offering hope. 📝 The creative, cultural and heritage sectors are tightly woven. Culture Commons has developed this evidence into a series of policy recommendations, based on six key policy principles: ✅ Harness the lens of place ✅ Back local authorities to maintain their role as anchors ✅ Facilitate decision-making across wider spatial scales ✅ Move away from purely competition-based models of funding ✅ Enable multi-agency decision-making ✅ Engage the public in decision-making at all tiers of governance. The report also includes specific recommendations for action at an international, national, regional and local level.

Below are the Policy Principles from 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' - launched earlier this week. These principles underpin the all of the more detailed recommendations and come out of a year-long programme of evidence gathering and research. 30 UK-wide partners helped us build them in the largest policy co-design process of its kind. Explore the recommendations which are grouped into local, regional, national & international spatial layers here: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f We would be delighted to know what you think...! If you want to hear more, have someone from the team come and talk to your networks or to collaborate in bringing these recommendations to life - please get in touch. #FutureLocalCulture

This week we attended the launch of Culture Commons’ recommendations from their open policy development programme, which explores cultural devolution in the UK. These policy recommendations have emerged from a year-long period of research, creative workshops and insight gathering sessions, which Culture Counts have been participating in as a partner. In this blog, we reflect on the policy recommendations, and their resonance with the Scottish context and Culture Counts' forthcoming priorities on: 💸 Funding (inc. the value of arms-length funding decisions, place-based programmes and longer-term, needs-based and proportionate funding systems). 📢 Local voice (supporting the greater inclusion of a range of voices in cultural decision-making) 💡 Decision-making (considering what the UK can lead from regional-level collaborations across the world), and 🗺️ Culture-led place-shaping (recognising cultural activity at the heart of thinking about the future of our places, and in driving investment in them) https://lnkd.in/eYzssh-Y