Agenda item

To receive a presentation providing an update on creative and cultural development.

The Panel received a presentation from the Creative and Cultural Development Manager providing an overview of the work being carried out in the district and the direction of travel. 

The presentation included:

1.     Current Areas of work

·        Cultural Strategy: A New Forest Cultural Development Board had been established with a range of partners, including Hampshire Cultural Trust, Culture in Common, Folio, social prescribers and the Arts Council England.

·        Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) projects: Funding has been used for a number of projects, the development of Folio and rural and outdoor arts development (ROAM), this was to raise awareness of arts and culture in outdoor communities.

·        Folio: The District Council was talking a lead on this with sector support.  16 organisations and over 200 freelancers were involved in the New Forest.

·        Culture in Common: This had been created with Arts Council funding and was designed to create art with the community. 

·        External Project support: The Council had been supporting organisations and projects with consultancy advice, for example with Furzey Gardens / Minstead Trust.

·        Internal project support:  Examples of small scale projects included the cedar carving at Appletree Court and a roving litter sculpture.

2.     Cultural Strategy Update:  There were three areas of work.  The first being community engagement, led by Culture in Common.  Engagement sessions had been held with Councillors, industry and local residents to seek information on what residents would like to see and how they felt about the cultural offer in the area.  Data collection and asset mapping would bring together existing information and identify what was available. The third piece of work was early scope and delivery funding.  Discussions were taking place with the Arts Council England on potential funding streams.  It was highlighted that there was some uncertainty in relation to this following the recent General Election and any resulting impact.

3.     Community Engagement Sessions:  There had been over 150 attendees to various engagement sessions involving local town, parish and district councillors, folio, young people and local residents.  An artist and poet had been in residency during each of these sessions.  Recommendations arising from this will help form the basis for the forthcoming Cultural Strategy and action plan.

4.     Timeline for Cultural Strategy: The engagement data was being reviewed and the priorities and themes were emerging.  It was anticipated that the Strategy would be published in early 2025, but this would depend on the direction of travel from central government.

5.     Activities carried out in the district over the last two years:  This included Waterside Arts Festival, the Lake Monster trail at Gang Warily and creative clubs.  It was highlighted how over this time, there had been a movement from low cultural engagement to mid cultural engagement which was a positive step forward.

6.     Future work 2024-2026:   The District Council would continue to take a leading role in cultural development working with partners.  Further funding would be sought, and resources would be aligned.  Funding had been sought for a further year for Culture in Common and a decision was expected shortly.  Decisions would be required in relation to the future governance of Folio.  A public art programme would be considered, and discussion would be held with planning to consider whether CIL funding could be made available.  ROAM would be developed further to raise awareness of the cultural offering and ensure that it was as accessible as possible for local residents.

Members highlighted examples of organisations and venues which they felt needed some advice and support to raise the profile and awareness in order to encourage greater attendance at events.  The Creative and Cultural Development Manager acknowledged this as an issue and it was hoped that through ROAM, this outreach work would create relationships with the community which would encourage future engagement. 

In response to a member question about the data collection work which had been carried out, feeding into the Cultural Strategy, it was noted that the data would be high level and create a picture of the current cultural offering and a map of the assets in the District.  It would then be used to identify further development opportunities.

A member asked about the Film Industry, recognising that this was not represented in the District and that anyone seeking employment needed to travel to other areas.  Film New Forest was sat within the Council’s economic development team and had been scaled back to a film office only.  There had been challenges with film requests making it harder for filming to take place in the district.  The data collection for the Cultural Strategy would include a skills audit for the creative sector which might pick up on opportunities for young people in terms of education and training.

Members recognised that more could be done in relation to public art and that there were historical events and famous people associated with the forest which though public art could encourage more people to visit places in the forest.  It was also recognised that any public art should be installed for the benefit of the local community and in consultation with them.