Agenda item

Agenda item

Cultural Impact

Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

 

This report provides information on the results of the 2020/21 Cultural Impact Survey which demonstrates how severely the impacts of the pandemic have been felt within the culture sector. An update on workstreams related to the city’s Culture Recovery Strategy outlines the role that culture can play in supporting Manchester’s social and economic recovery, and the support needed to make this happen.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided information on the results of the 2020/21 Cultural Impact Survey which demonstrated how severely the impacts of the pandemic had been felt within the culture sector. An update on workstreams related to the city’s Culture Recovery Strategy outlined the role that culture could play in supporting Manchester’s social and economic recovery, and the support needed to make this happen.  Officers delivered a presentation which provided further detail on the results of the Cultural Impact Survey.

 

The main points and themes within the report included:

 

           Cultural Impact Survey 2020/21;

           Manchester Culture Awards 2021;

           Cultural recovery;

           Zero carbon; and

           Cultural Consortium.

 

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

 

          Opportunities for young people, including work experience and apprenticeships in the culture sector;

          Improving access to the city’s cultural offer, including to people from deprived communities;

           Promoting the city’s cultural offer internationally;

          The use of digital platforms for cultural events and how prominent a role this was likely to play post-COVID;

          That culture should be considered in its wider sense, for example, street art;

           The culture should reflect the diversity of the city; and

          That residents should be asked how they felt about culture rather than relying on responses from organisations.

 

The Deputy Leader reported that access to and participation in culture had been a key focus over recent years and that, while there was further work to be done, significant progress had been made in this area.  He drew Members’ attention to previous reports that the Committee had received on this work.  The Director of Culture advised that there were a number of cultural organisations that offered subsidised tickets, in addition to the city’s free cultural content, but that the cost of public transport was a barrier for some people and that engagement officers were looking to provide an increased cultural offer in neighbourhoods.

 

The Director of Culture outlined the work taking place to introduce young people to careers in this sector, including through the Factory Academy and the MADE cultural education partnership.  He advised that the culture sector in Manchester and the work taking place here was being promoted internationally, particularly in international professional networks, including hosting an international congress in Manchester through which it was hoped to increase international co-commissioning and international trade.  He also informed Members about research being carried out about the music sector in Manchester.  He reported that, during the pandemic, there had been a lot of interest in putting cultural events and content online and that this would continue, noting that this had enabled the sector to connect to people who might not come to cultural venues in the city centre; however, he advised that a lot of people were keen to get back into venues, citing that attendance at HOME had returned to pre-pandemic levels, and, therefore, he did not envisage digital content replacing physical venues and events.  In response to a Member’s question, he outlined how the Cultural Consortium would enable a wider range of cultural organisations to be involved in the development of plans for the sector.  The Principal Resources and Programmes Officer (Culture) reported that private sector organisations were invited to respond to the Cultural Impact Survey, advising that there was a challenge in getting a balance between gathering enough data for monitoring purposes from the organisations which had received funding and not asking for so much data that it deterred other organisations from responding.

 

In response to a Member’s question, the Director of Culture advised that cultural organisations in the city were responsible for less than 1% of the city’s carbon emissions and that the majority of its carbon footprint was from transport and that public transport needed to be improved to address this.  He informed Members that residents had been asked about culture as part of the research for the State of the City report and that further information could be provided in a future report to the Committee, if Members wished.  He outlined the work taking place to improve diversity, particularly of the leadership of the cultural sector, following on from the findings of the study by consultants The Fifth Sector.  In response to a Member’s concerns that MADE did not reflect the diversity of the city, he advised that he would pass those comments to the leadership of MADE and provide a response.

 

The Deputy Leader acknowledged that the cultural sector in the city was not currently representative of the diversity of Manchester but advised that there was a commitment from the sector to improve this and that he hoped that the Committee would be able to see significant progress on this if they looked at this again in a year or two.

 

Decision

 

To note the report.

 

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

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