Agenda item

To consider evidence as Session One of the Board’s inquiry into cultural organisations’ engagement with communities

The Board conducted the first session of its inquiry into cultural organisations’ engagement with communities. In attendance to address the Board and answer Members’ queries were:

-  Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, Executive Member for Leisure and Skills

-  Phil Cave, Director of Engagement & Audiences, Arts Council England

-  Cluny Macpherson, Chief Officer Culture and Sports

-  Matthew Sims, Head of Arts and Venues

-  Abby Dix-Mason, Leeds Inspired

The session commenced with a well-received presentation from Phil Cave on engagement and participation in arts and culture – patterns, influences and impact. Members also discussed a report setting out the council perspective as provider, funder and commissioner of culture in Leeds. The report included a number of case studies.

The Executive Member made the link between the scope of this inquiry and the recent debate on whether Leeds should bid to be the 2023 capital of culture, and the desire to ensure that, if the city bids, everyone should be able to benefit.

The following issues were raised in discussion:

·  Ways of engaging young people other than through schools, and a query as to the availability of further information on the levels of young people’s engagement outside of school

·  The role of ‘bridging’ organisations, such as Cape UK working in Leeds, to broker partnerships between schools and arts organisations

·  The buzz created by the project taking art work into schools

·  The potential for those who miss out on culture as children to learn to appreciate the arts in later life

·  The role of ambassadors in helping to introduce people to culture, including accompanying them to events

·  Surprise at the drop off in engagement after the age of 65

·  Anecdotal evidence of older people being put off the city centre at night by other aspects of the Leeds night time economy

·  Inter-generational work particularly between children and grandparents and an increase in grant applications for this sort of work

·  Work being piloted with the Arts Council in some local authority areas with older people’s homes

·  The importance of good experiences to ensure people are not put off trying again, and that this applies to the venue as well as the performance

·  Audience loyalty to venues

·  Historical venues such as working men’s clubs and workplace bands which have largely disappeared as opportunities for cultural engagement

·  The appeal or otherwise of certain types of activity across communities, highlighting dance as having a particularly wide appeal

·  The potential for Leeds to become known as a ‘dance city’

·  The role of social media in creating momentum

·  The popularity of evening events for young people in leisure centres, such as the Friday and Saturday night clubs and the half term programme in museums

·  The success of the summer takeover by young people at York’s theatre

·  The emergence of new centres, such as the Seacroft Arts Centre, with ambitions to have an appeal beyond as well as within their local area

·  The need to ensure existing opportunities are well publicised in communities across Leeds City Council

·  A desire to do more to encourage greater engagement by black and minority ethnic communities, particularly through grant funding and the opportunities to link community groups with artists

·  The importance and appeal of the West Indian Carnival and its 50 year anniversary coming up in 2017

·  Price as a factor in limiting some people’s engagement with the arts, and the ability to offer free or subsidised tickets to events

·  The need to be clear about what we can afford to offer, the challenge of sustainability of events and the need to look at different business models

·  The emergence of culture as important in times of recession

·  The role of culture and sport as an economic driver for the city

·  The role of partners

·  The potential to provide cultural experiences at sports fixtures on a routine basis, building on the cultural events linked to major sporting events such as the Tour de France and the Rugby League World Cup

·  The amount of money coming into Leeds from the Arts Council, and the existence of a toolkit for calculating the benefit to the economy

RESOLVED – That the issues raised by this session of the inquiry be noted.

(Councillor J McKenna joined the meeting at 10.40am during the discussion of this item.)