Why cultural strategies are essential to growing our regions

Cultural strategies can be an essential way to build a strategic vision and commitment to culture within and across places. In this piece, Professor Dan Ashton from the University of Southampton explores how cultural strategies can connect with Creative UK’s Culture as Growth Infrastructure provocation paper and wider developments around local growth plans and the inclusion of culture in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act.

Throughout the last 18 months, the University of Southampton and the Local Government Association (LGA) have used Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Account funding to develop the insights and recommendations from the Cultural Strategies and Futures report into a Think Kit resource.  Dan and Ian Leete (LGA) worked with collaborators, including a Community of Practice of local government culture and creativity leaders, to co-design a set of questions, prompts, resources and templates. As a Think Kit, it provides resources that can be applied and emphasises reflection and questioning.

The Cultural Strategies and Futures report and Think Kit resource focuses on twelve recommendations which resonate in several ways with sections from Culture as Growth Infrastructure on productivity and spillovers, innovation and R&D in the cultural sector and culture as a national and regional growth driver.

Section 3 on productivity and spillovers addresses evidence of economic multipliers and culture as a local economic catalyst. The economy is a theme and priority set out within many cultural strategies. As such, there is the intention (if not always the capacity or expertise), for it to be focus for evidence and evaluation. Where there is the need for sustained generating of data and insight, the call for cultural strategies to be living and responsive lines up.

Cultural strategies can provide an established mechanism for regular and purposeful evidence and evaluation. The Cultural Strategies Data Overview Template is a way to add and structure the information on datasets being used, and the Cultural Strategies Periodic Review & Reflection is a way for aims to be regularly reflected on and evaluated in the future. Cultural strategies can provide the existing purpose and process for culture and creative sector data generation and evaluation which can then connect with and feed into local growth plans and other uses of evidence.

Section 4 on innovation and R&D in the cultural sector addresses gaps in recognition and appraisal. Specifically, ‘cultural assets are almost entirely excluded from long-term capital investment plans; and this exclusion can have downstream consequences for local and regional growth strategies.’ Here, the relevance of cultural strategies comes in recognising who is already engaging in asset mapping.

The significance of asset mapping is set out in LGA’s Cultural Strategy in a Box and the Cultural Strategies Think Kit resource on structure. The connection with and significance of cultural strategies is in responding to the observation in Culture as Growth Infrastructure that ‘no national audit exists to map their presence, condition or usage.’ With cultural strategies though, there can be both regional and local audits. There will be questions of comparable methods and frequency, but cultural strategies nevertheless are an important driver and convenor of asset mapping activities.

Section 5 on culture as a national and regional growth driver sets out that, ‘culture is appearing more frequently within local and regional planning documents.’ A consistent theme of the cultural strategies research and ongoing conversations faciliated through the network is where culture features within other strategies. For example, the West of England Growth Strategy references culture and creativity throughout.

Having a cultural strategy is an opportunity to stitch culture within and across a whole range of strategies and plans. The Cultural Strategies Policy and Position Template is a resource for visualising, planning and tracking not just how culture appears or features, but promoting a strategic, systematic and long-term positioning. Not overlooking the challenges of policy currency/churn, a cultural strategy can present the opportunity not just for mentions and recognition but for aligned and shared strategic direction.

Two final points on local growth plans relating to partnership and accessibility.

The cultural strategies research and ongoing conversations have identified that partnership is a defining feature in the development, operation and evaluation of a cultural strategy. The recommendation and resources on models and governance, explore the structures used for different stakeholders/interested parties to come together to initiate, resource and evaluate cultural strategies. Recognising the place-based nuances of cultural compacts, trusts and collectives, the development and ongoing maintenance of cultural strategies can make tangible the relationships needed to understand and advance culture’s role in local growth plans. The DCMS guidance on local growth plans set outs that, ‘local insight and expertise are essential to ensure that Local Growth Plans properly identify and address local needs and opportunities, and that they respond with the right solutions for each place.’ The partnerships around cultural strategies, including sustained and transparent consultation and co-design, can be an essential way in which insight and expertise on culture and creativity are ready and equipped to contribute.

The DCMS guidance on local growth plans also establishes the importance of accessibility: ‘plans should also be set out and published in an accessible format so communities can understand the plans and their commitments and hold Mayors to account for delivery and implementation.’ Approaches to accessibility and accountability is something that culture and creative sector organisations, agencies, practitioners, etc. can lead on. Returning to the Think Kit, accessibility and inclusivity were embedded as design principles from the start. Also, there is dedicated resource on access and structure with questions and resources to help prioritise and reflect on accessibility. Where public access and understanding are emphasised for local growth plans, there is an opportunity for culture and creative sector expertise to make decisive contribution, perhaps based on cultural strategy experiences, on how they are developed.

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The Think Kit can be accessed from https://culturalstrategies.soton.ac.uk/think-kit/ and there is also a Cultural Strategies Network comprising a LinkedIn Group and regular meetings.