Report of Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)  

This report is the annual update report on Culture in the city.

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided an update on culture in the city.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• COVID recovery and impact of the cost-of-living crisis;
• Cultural Impact Survey;
• Core funding for culture;
• Zero carbon;
• Loads to Do;
• Manchester Culture Awards 2022;
• Collaborations and international partnerships;
• MADE – Manchester’s Cultural Education Partnership;
• Music Education - My Hub;
• Classical Music collaboration; and
• Cultural Consortium.

Officers provided an overview of the presentation at appendix 1, highlighting that the figure on Board Members who were Manchester residents was 36%, not 24%.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

• Asking about the organisations which were represented in the figures in the Cultural Impact Survey presentation;
• To recognise the important work of smaller, local projects, such as the community street art project Withington Walls, which might not be included in this data;
• That the percentage of audiences from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities was low and more needed to be done to improve this;
• The impact of class and socio-economic background on accessing and participating in cultural activities, how this intersected with other factors such as race and ethnicity and work to address this; and
• The impact of Brexit on the cultural sector.

The Statutory Deputy Leader informed the Committee about work which had been taking place for a number of years to widen access and participation in the cultural sector, identifying and removing barriers, and advised that this work was continuing.

The Policy and Programmes Manager (Culture) reported that all organisations on their mailing list were encouraged to take part in the survey and that it was mandatory for organisations which were funded by the Council.  She advised that over 40 organisations had taken part in the survey, and that this now included the Palace Theatre and the Opera House, as well as many other larger venues, museums and galleries across the city and a number of smaller organisations; however, she advised that many of the commercial music venues across the city did not contribute to the survey.  The Director of Culture informed Members about a piece of work which had been carried out in 2022 in relation to the music economy in Manchester.  The Policy and Programmes Manager (Culture) advised that her team would welcome the opportunity to include Withington Walls in the survey.  A Member commented that Ward Councillors could assist with distributing the survey to organisations they knew locally.

In response to a Member’s question, the Director of Culture informed Members about the background to the Cultural Leaders Group and the development of the new Cultural Consortium, which, he advised, would be a more democratic and representative body of cultural organisations in the city.  He informed Members about the impact of Brexit on the outdoor arts sector, on exporting work and working with international artists in the UK.  He informed Members about a seminar which would be taking place at HOME to respond to some of these challenges and work to continue to link with other cities internationally.  He reported that work to overcome socio-economic barriers to accessing culture focused on both outreach work and making events within venues more accessible, for example, through offering cheaper tickets.  He advised that a number of venues across the city had this kind of offer and that they were working together to find ways to promote them more effectively.  He advised that outreach workers from different cultural organisations were now co-ordinating their work to ensure a better spread across different areas.  He also highlighted the role of libraries in reaching communities.  

In response to a Member’s question, the Policy and Programmes Manager (Culture) confirmed that community-organised events and activities could be included on the Loads To Do website and she requested that organisers be signposted to the Culture Team.

In response to questions from the Chair about age, the Director of Culture reported that feedback he had received from across the sector indicated that the age group which had been slowest to return following the pandemic was the over-55s, commenting that there was still a feeling of vulnerability about COVID-19 and that people had got used to staying at home.  He reported that a lot of older people in the culture sector had decided to retire or take early retirement around this time.

The Chair highlighted concerns that Councillor H Priest had raised in relation to her ward of Charlestown.  These included disputing that the there was a low level of participation in culture in Charlestown, stating that Charlestown had its own cultural offer which was not being valued or recognised, that the ward was instead being offered outreach work from external organisations and that a production set in Charlestown had won an award but without the involvement of local people.  The Statutory Deputy Leader agreed that he would contact Councillor H Priest to discuss this.

The Chair thanked all the organisations in the culture sector and all the volunteers who helped to make many events possible.  She also encouraged residents to look at the cultural offer that was available to them.

Decision

To note the report and presentation.

[Councillor H Priest declared a disclosable pecuniary interest due to undertaking freelance work as part of the Festival of Libraries, run by the City of Literature, and left the room for the items on the Culture Annual Report and the Manchester Libraries Strategy Update.]

[Councillor Azra Ali declared a personal interest as a Board Member of the Halle Concert Society.]