Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

This report provides an update about the Histories, Stories and Voices programme.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided an update about the Histories, Stories and Voices programme.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Background to the review;
• The consultation;
• The review of cultural and heritage objects in the city; and
• Public Art Strategy development.

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

• To welcome the way that the Whitworth Art Gallery had put its origination and connection to its benefactor into context;
• That information should be displayed next to statues in the public realm to inform the public and provide context, in a similar way to what the Whitworth had done;
• That any future public objects, street names and plaques should represent the city that Manchester had become;
• That some aspects of the city’s history were not widely known and that this should be addressed;
• Concern that the respondents to the consultation were not representative of all demographic groups;
• The approach to any identified objects of concern in a modern-day values context or objects that were the subject of significant controversy or at potential risk;
• That the mural of Marcus Rashford in Withington had been omitted from the list in the report;
• That a lot could be learnt from the project which led to the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, including how the sculptor, Hazel Reeves, had engaged with local communities; and
• The campaign for a statue of the boxer Len Johnson.

The Deputy Leader advised that the responses to the consultation indicated that most people wanted to understand more about the people and events that were memorialised through these statues and monuments and the historical context rather than wanting them removed and that work was taking place to develop a platform through which this could be achieved.  He reported that the other main feedback from the consultation was that there was not enough diversity reflected in the public realm.  He commented that Len Johnson’s story was one which reflected the diversity of the city, that he supported the campaign and that the Council would be working with and supporting the campaign group, which was trying to identify a suitable site for his statue.

In response to a Member’s request to see an example of the database providing information on these objects, the Head of Libraries, Galleries and Culture advised? that this could be shared with Members once it was available.  He reported that, in addition to the database, this work would also involve telling the story of Manchester through the city’s libraries and Archives+.  The Deputy Leader informed Members that work had previously been carried out by various organisations to record information on objects in the public realm but that it needed to be made more easily accessible.

In response to a Member’s question about objects outside of the city centre, Karen Shannon from Manchester Histories reported that the responses to the consultation had demonstrated that people wanted objects and figures from their local area to be included in this work and that this had been taken on board in the project.  Regarding contested statutes, such as the statue of Robert Peel, she noted that most people did not want the statues to be removed but wanted to understand the story behind them and that this involved complex issues relating to inequality, racism and underrepresentation.  She advised that difficult stories from the past needed to be told with better interpretation of them which made them relevant to modern times and representative of the city as it was now and that further consultation was needed in order to achieve this.  She outlined some of the work to address the under-representation of some groups in the consultation responses, including a task group looking at how to engage with young people. 

The Deputy Leader highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the consultation and assured Members that this was an ongoing process, with more work taking place to engage with different communities, including young people, ethnic minorities and areas of the city with lower levels of engagement.  In response to a Member’s question, he confirmed that the Council had looked at how other cities had responded to this issue.

Decision

That the Committee will receive further updates on this work.