Strategising culture in the West Midlands

Cities Outlook is an annual health check that looks at the economic performance (since 2010) of English cities against indicators such as innovation, housing, skills, employment and productivity. It highlights the issues that have a direct impact on our region – the West Midlands – holding back our capacity and potential.

This year’s report revealed how the West Midlands has continued to suffer from limited job growth and increased child poverty, with four of the region’s cities in the top ten nationally for absolute child poverty. This has real impact on the people and places and, in turn, on our cultural ecology.

One particular factor of concern is the ongoing policy churn related to regional development, pointing to a history of strategies and structures – such as Regional Development Agencies, Local Enterprise Partnerships, the Shared Prosperity Fund and Levelling Up.

Its recommendations for resolving inequities include improving performance, introducing the next phase of devolution and reforming the planning system to meet the needs of people and places.

Devastating impact

In the five years leading up to the pandemic, the West Midlands Combined Authority area’s cultural sector grew by 20%. This was much higher than the trend for most sectors in the region and well in excess of the England average of 13%. But the pandemic had a devastating impact, especially on freelancers.

This precarity of cultural work has also been highlighted by the Work Foundation whose research shows that 40% of our cultural sector workforce is in insecure work, defined as contractual or financial insecurity and lack of access to employment rights and protections.

To improve the health of the sector, we need to change the ways we work and the work we produce but attempts to do so are often hampered by competition and lack of investment.

Creating opportunities through culture

Culture Central was formed to work – collectively – to address these challenges. As a voice for the sector in the region, we understand the power of culture – for people and places. Our principles of collective voice, inclusivity, collaboration, transparency and authenticity drive how we work and shape what we need.

Our role is to support the whole ecology by convening, challenging and connecting the sector, creating opportunities through culture, for the people and places of the region.

As a place-based sector support organisation, we know that working in place isn’t a new idea. Recently we ran a creative placemaking conference in Birmingham, and I was reminded of a 2011 paper entitled Beyond the creative city : cultural policy in an age of scarcity published shortly after the change in government which ushered in funding cuts and austerity.

Right now, it feels like this conversation is continuing. Everyone is talking about the economic and political climate. It seems we’ve moved from scarcity – to uncertainty and scarcity; a doubly precarious position for places that have missed out on investment and support.

Stronger together

To understand what this means for our region, we are about to launch an enquiry into cultural investment working with City-REDI at the University of Birmingham, mapping the investment challenges and their impact on our creative output.

One reflection contributed to the Durham commission on creativity in education is that, in a climate of scarcity, we often don’t have the capacity to be creative. This is particularly true for individual creatives, whose concerns about housing, finances or even putting food on the table can deeply limit their potential.

There is however much to celebrate. Off the back of all the work the sector has done in the region, many local authorities are now refreshing or creating their first cultural strategies and organisations are coming together to think about how they want to work in collaboration.

Culture Central’s summit this year – Collectively Strategising Culture – was the starting point. We often work in response to external strategies and contexts, shaped by partners, stakeholders and funders.

So, this summit was a moment to connect and collectively decide on our regional priorities, summed up by Rachael Thomas, chief executive of Birmingham Rep: “We’ve got some terrifically strong and varied cultural assets and cultural organisations and individuals in the West Midlands, but I think we are stronger when we come together with a collective voice.”

Collective ambition

This collective ambition is manifest through our collective action. We’ve been developing some region-wide projects, tools and research to help us understand more about place and our role within it. These are informed by our regional plans which we are excited to share.

Plan 1: Community powered culture
To understand more about people’s creative lives, we are working with the West Midlands Combined Authority to deliver the West Midlands Cultural Sector Research project 2.0 – the first regional granular level detail of cultural engagement.

To do this, Culture Central is working alongside Indigo Ltd, The University of Warwick Business School and Counting What Counts. We aim to conduct refreshed mapping combining wider definitions of creative and cultural engagement using the latest census and Participation Survey data (available at local authority level for the first time).

And we are building on the previous audience place profiler developed for the region, alongside a household survey on people’s perceptions of their own creativity, to be launched in 2025.

Plan 2:  Active collaboration to learn, understand and share practice
We continue to deliver an annual summit creating space to drive our collective mission and strategy and build on collaborative action.

Membership meetings and monthly West Midlands Culture Response Unit sessions create opportunities to share knowledge and practice relevant to the region by bringing together experts from within and outside of the sector.

Plan 3: A skilled, resilient and sustainable cultural sector
Working with Dr Mark Taylor from the University of Sheffield and Innovation Unit, Culture Central is developing a regional workforce strategy to understand and map the region’s workforce and design a plan to build and develop a workforce for the future, prioritising equity, skills and resilience.

We’ve undertaken an analysis of the region’s workforce using census and occupation data to look at the demographics and roles in our workforce and set out initial priorities and actions.

Plan 4: An equitable sector for all
With Dr Lucy Lopez we are developing a regional Charter for Equity, that will ensure the establishment of good conditions for work in the sector. This includes building and nurturing a consistent approach to equity, diversity and inclusion alongside ensuring equitable working practices and employment.

We see this as foundational to ensuring the sector is both inclusive and relevant for the people and places of the region.

Stronger sense of community

We’re not alone or unique in doing this work – there are excellent things happening at all scales within the ecology. For example, the work on devolution and local cultural decision making by Culture Commons, the recent report on Joint Cultural Needs Assessments looking at how to meet the needs of communities, and the work of colleagues in Creative People and Places areas like Stoke On Trent, Redditch and the Black Country.

There is also inspiring and innovative work in place such as MAIA’s Abuelos, Imagineer and Artichoke’s Sanctuary and so many more all informing and extending what we can do together.

We know working collectively will build a stronger sense of community, an increased sense of support, greater empathy, more capacity to help each other and more stability.

We invite you to come to the West Midlands, see the work we are doing, and share your knowledge, skills and practice to make all of our places better through culture and creativity for the benefit of all the people and communities we serve.

To find out more about our work and updates on these projects, you can subscribe to our newsletter.