Culture Commons

Congratulations to everyone at Wandsworth Council and the #creative #cultural and #heritage sectors who launched the big year as London Borough of Culture today! Culture Commons Director, Trevor MacFarlane FRSA was invited to the special launch ceremony this morning at the stunning Battersea Arts Centre alongside London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture, Justine Simons OBE and Leader of Wandsworth Council, Simon Hogg. “We’re wishing everyone helping to pull this important year of celebration together all the very very best. We know that locally rooted festivals like this can bring so much attention to the power of culture to connect communities, promote civic engagement and - ultimately - spark so much joy. We can’t wait to share in the creativity and talent of the people who live, work and play in Wandsworth!” Mayor of London, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund

We're calling on the UK Government to include '#cultural #infrastructure' in #New #Town materplanning. The UK Government has committed Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to building 1.5 million new homes to address the UK's housing crisis. A New Towns Taskforce has been set up to identify places where a New Town might be needed to make this happen. Culture Commons and 30 partners want to make sure that people who make these New Towns their home have all the assets they might need to share and iterate their best creative, cultural and heritage selves. You can read more about this recommendation, and the 19 others we've made as part of a major four nations open policy development programme exploring 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK', on our digital policy hub here: 💻 https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f --- We're grateful to all our phase one programme partners: Belfast City Council Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Cardiff Council Durham County Council Greater Manchester Combined Authority Harlow Council The North East Combined Authority South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Sheffield City Council Wigan Council Local Government Association 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 Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Art Fund Association of Leading Visitor Attractions Arts Council England #SheffieldCultureCollective Creative Industries Council Creative Estuary Culture Counts Historic England Libraries Connected The RSA (The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce) Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Today, the UK Government has revealed a £270 million boost as part of a new 'Arts Everywhere' Fund! Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy will make the announcement as part of a lecture marking the 60th anniversary of the first and only white paper of the 20th century focussed on #culture by former arts Minister, Jennie Lee. Culture Commons Director, Trevor MacFarlane FRSA has been invited to join Lisa and sector leaders at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon later today. “There is no doubt about it: this is a major investment in the UK’s culture, creativity and heritage. I’m delighted to be with so many of the clients and partners we helped secure it with today. Our sectors are extremely well placed to help the government deliver on their Plan for Change and today feels like a real recognition of that.” The package of support includes: 🟢 £85 million for a #Creative Foundations Fund supporting urgent capital works for #venues 🟢 £25 million for a fifth round of the #Museum Estate and Development Fund 🟢 £20 million for a Museum Renewal Fund to help keep #civic museums open 🟢 £15 million more for #Heritage at Risk funding to support repairs and #conservation 🟢 £5.5 million for a fourth round of the #Libraries Improvement Fund to upgrade #buildings and #technology 🟢 £4.8 million for a new Heritage Revival Fund to empower local people to take control of local heritage #assets 🟢 £3.2 million for the Museums and #Schools programme, Heritage Schools Programme, #Art and #Design National Saturday Club, and the British Film Institute (BFI) Film Academy. 🟢 29 regional museums will also be receiving a Museums Estate and Development Fund In addition, we've also had the details of those who will sit on the independent board supporting Dame Margeret Hodge with the review of Arts Council England.

Today, the UK Government has revealed a £270 million boost as part of a new 'Arts Everywhere' Fund! Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy will make the announcement as part of a lecture marking the 60th anniversary of the first and only white paper of the 20th century focussed on #culture by former arts Minister, Jennie Lee. Culture Commons Director, Trevor MacFarlane FRSA has been invited to join Lisa and sector leaders at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon later today. “There is no doubt about it: this is a major investment in the UK’s culture, creativity and heritage. I’m delighted to be with so many of the clients and partners we helped secure it with today. Our sectors are extremely well placed to help the government deliver on their Plan for Change and today feels like a real recognition of that.” The package of support includes: 🟢 £85 million for a #Creative Foundations Fund supporting urgent capital works for #venues 🟢 £25 million for a fifth round of the #Museum Estate and Development Fund 🟢 £20 million for a Museum Renewal Fund to help keep #civic museums open 🟢 £15 million more for #Heritage at Risk funding to support repairs and #conservation 🟢 £5.5 million for a fourth round of the #Libraries Improvement Fund to upgrade #buildings and #technology 🟢 £4.8 million for a new Heritage Revival Fund to empower local people to take control of local heritage #assets 🟢 £3.2 million for the Museums and #Schools programme, Heritage Schools Programme, #Art and #Design National Saturday Club, and the British Film Institute (BFI) Film Academy. 🟢 29 regional museums will also be receiving a Museums Estate and Development Fund In addition, we've also had the details of those who will sit on the independent board supporting Dame Margeret Hodge with the review of Arts Council England.

Culture Commons has spent the last year examining what #devolution might mean for the #creative #cultural and #heritage ecosystem. Alongside 30 core partners and more than 300 organisations across all four nations of the #UK, we've produced over 25 #research papers on the subject. We're delighted to see our work already having tangible policy #impact. Just a few recent examples include: 📑 #Culture has been negotiated into the UK #Government's 'English Devolution white paper' as a standalone policy area, in line with our policy principles. This white paper will shape all future legislation associated with devolution from here. 🏡 The New Towns Taskforce is socialising our recommendation to consider ‘cultural #infrastructure’ in master #planning frameworks and hashtag #town codes. This could see our thinking sitting within UK Government’s flagship policy to build 1.5 million new homes. ⚙️ Several arm’s length bodies within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport family have backed our recommendations in full as part of their formal submissions to the consultation on the #Industrial #Strategy. 💬 An existing combined authority has initiated a project to build a #regional Culture Forum that includes the #public in joint decision-making. This will see several of our policies tested at the regional spatial scale for the very first time. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 A higher education institution in #Scotland taken forward our recommendation to collaborate with multiple local #councils to develop a pan-regional plan for cultural governance. This work has piqued the interest of Scottish Government. 📊 We're working with a national research institute and several #data specialist organisations to scope a new National Cultural Data Observatory, bringing one of our more ambitious recommendations to life. #DCMS are engaging with the partnership to shape the plans. --- 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' is a not-for-profit partnership. We're taking a radically #open and #inclusive approach to #policy co-design, publishing details of all of our activity and outputs open source so that everyone can benefit from them. 🔍 💻 You can find all our phase one findings and recommendations on the project's digital policy hub here: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f #FutureLocalCulture

Culture Commons has spent the last year examining what #devolution might mean for the #creative #cultural and #heritage ecosystem. Alongside 30 core partners and more than 300 organisations in all four nations of the #UK, we've produced over 25 #research papers on the subject. Thanks to this growing evidence base, we've been able to make several #findings and co-design a suite of new #policy recommendations. We're delighted to see our work already having tangible policy #impact! Just a few recent examples include: 📑 #Culture has been negotiated into the UK #Government's 'English Devolution white paper' as a standalone policy area, in line with our policy principles. This white paper will shape all future legislation associated with devolution from here. 🏡 The New Towns Taskforce is socialising our recommendation to consider ‘cultural #infrastructure’ in master #planning frameworks and #town codes. This will see our thinking sitting within UK Government’s flagship policy to build 1.5 million new homes. ⚙️ Several arm’s length bodies within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport family have backed our recommendations in full as part of their formal submissions to the consultation on the UK #Industrial #Strategy. 💬 An existing combined authority has initiated a project to build a #regional Culture Forum that includes the #public in joint decision-making. This will see several of our policies tested at the regional spatial scale for the very first time. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 A higher education institution in #Scotland taken forward our recommendation to collaborate with multiple local #councils to develop a pan-regional plan for cultural governance. This work has piqued the interest of Scottish Government. 📊 We're working with a national research institute and several #data specialist organisations to scope a new National Cultural Data Observatory, bringing one of our more ambitious recommendations to life. #DCMS are engaging with the partnership to shape the plans. 🚨 We're now planning for phase two of the programme! 🚨 We will run #action #research projects that extrapolate our recommendations into real-world activity and assess how devolution is impacting different #places, #communities and sub-#sectors in real-time. If you're thinking about devolution and would like to join this unique 'think and do tank' phase of the project, get in touch! 👋 We'd be delighted to explore how we can support you and your organisation to respond to #devolution over the coming months and years. --- 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK' is a not-for-profit partnership. We're taking a radically #open and #inclusive approach to #policy co-design, publishing details of all of our activity and outputs open source so that everyone can benefit from them. 🔍 💻 You can find all our phase one findings and recommendations on the project's digital policy hub here: https://lnkd.in/eu24gH_f #FutureLocalCulture

📢 'The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK', Culture Commons and partners programme update 📢 It's been so busy with #outreach and #advocacy that this update is a bit of a bumper edition! Over the last fortnight, I've had the great pleasure of meeting with: 🤝Art Fund A core partner on phase one of the programme. We discussed how our co-designed #policy recommendations have been landing with their members (#galleries and #museums) so far, and exploring opportunities to gather more perspectives as cultural leaders respond to devolution in live contexts. 🤝SXSW London An iconic cultural movement birthed in Austin, Texas and now heading to London in June to build a new #European platform for creative discovery and #artistic convergence. We talked about how the UK's #regions and #nations could be showcased to show our full cultural #diversity on a global stage. 🤝The National Archives, UK A non-ministerial department and official archive and publisher for the UK Gov, and for #England and #Wales. We're thinking about how devolution could affect how creative, cultural and heritage information is stored and shared in future. 🤝REMIX Summits - Culture, Tech & Entrepreneurship We spent two days at Royal Academy of Arts and HERE EAST to socialise our policies with leaders at the forefront of #industry, inc. Bloomberg, Google Arts & Culture, Somerset House, UK Research and Innovation. There is clearly much potential for new #digital #technologies to promote #public involvement in cultural decision making. 🤝Creative Estuary Another key partner on phase one! The team are busy disseminating project outputs ⬆️and⬇️ the #Thames production corridor and beyond. We'll be joining their annual conference later this year to brief leaders on the fast-moving devolution landscape. 🤝Community Leisure UK Following the publication of the English Devolution white paper in Dec '24, we're considering ways to partner and explore the role that #trusts might play in building new cultural governance mechanisms as #local #government reorganisation kicks in. 🤝West Yorkshire Music Network A new body nurturing #music production and diverse #talent pipelines. We talked about the potential implications of devolution on the UK’s music industry and now thinking about deep-diving into this as part of phase two. 🤝The Young Women's Movement #Scotland's national organisation for young #women and #girls leadership and #rights. We discussed how a new 'suite of cultural rights’ (a phase one recommendation) might work in practice given divergences in Scottish and UK legislation. 🤝Hampshire Cultural Trust #Hampshire & #Solent was confirmed as a 'priority devolution region' by Angela Rayner MP this week. We met with the team at one of the UK’s foremost cultural trusts to exchange ideas about next steps! You can read all findings and recommendations from phase on Culture Commons dedicated digital policy hub here: 💻 https://lnkd.in/ep9ggskC

Later today, the UK House of Lords will be debating the impact of the #creative industries on #jobs and #growth in the UK. Baroness Glenys Thornton (The Labour Party), former Lords opposition spokesperson for #culture, #media and #sport, will be putting forward the debate. During the session, members will be discussing current issues and draw the government's attention to key concerns from the sector. Trevor MacFarlane FRSA, Director of Culture Commons has been briefing members on all sides of the House in advance. You can watch live on Parliament TV from 11.45am or read the Lords Hansard transcript (available from three hours after the debate): https://lnkd.in/e2gGcpBK

It was great to meet with Trevor MacFarlane FRSA, CEO of Culture Commons last week to talk about their work on devolution, and the role that arts centres across the UK could play in the future in localised decision making. We look forward to developing these conversations!

We've hit the ground running in 2025 here at Culture Commons...! We've been sharing findings and #policy recommendations from our major four nations open policy development programme on 'cultural devolution' with colleagues right across the #creative #cultural and #heritage ecosystem. Just a few meeting highlights from the last couple of weeks: Arts Council England: to share plans for 2025 with one of our key programme partners and compare notes on the English #Devolution white paper published in December 2024. CVAN South East (Contemporary Visual Arts Network): to discuss the potential impact of devolution on a region with a particularly complex political makeup. CREATE Cambridge: helping the steering group to think about how their newly established organisation might position themselves within fast-developing plans for culture at the combined authority level. Northern Place & Culture Partnership: to think about how recommendations might play in the north of England as decision makers consider new pan-regional collaborations. Historic England: to explore future collaborations in the devolution and heritage policy space. (We're thrilled that this important national arms length body and programme partner recently backed our recommendations in full as part of their submission to the UK Government's #IndustrialStrategy consultation!) Future Arts Centres: to think about how #arts centres across the UK can play a central role in providing communities with the space and skills they need to participate in new localised decision making associated with culture, creativity and heritage. Sheffield Hallam University: to talk through how our programme recommendations might dovetail with their new Mayoral Innovation Network focussed on health and wellbeing. We'll continue to update the sector on our programme impacts from here: Read all the findings and recommendations: https://lnkd.in/eSa6Qczt