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Recommendation
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Implementation
as of March 2019
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i.
The
Council should demonstrate its commitment to the city’s
cultural sector by progressing the development and promotion of a
clearly defined Cultural Strategy with the Cultural Leaders Group,
with the Council showing leadership in its creation and
adoption. This should include the provision of:
•
A
one-off sum of £20k early in the new financial year, to
support its development;
•
An
ongoing sum of £6k annually for secretarial
services.
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To progress the
city’s Cultural Strategy the Executive made available a sum
of £38k for Make It York, £20k to be used directly on
preparation of the strategy and £18k to be used over 3 years
to provide support to the Cultural Leaders Group. The
strategy work has been delivered on budget.
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ii.
The
Council should support the Cultural Leaders Group in working as a
cohesive unit to build and achieve wide acceptance of that Cultural
Strategy
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Following a
review of the Impact of Arts & Culture on the Economy,
the Executive agreed, in January 2018, that a cultural strategy for
the city should be progressed. Under the Council’s
leadership this strategy was to be steered by the Cultural Leaders
Group, and ultimately adopted by the Council on behalf of the city.
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iii.
As
part of renewing Make It
York’s Service Level Agreement, the Council should clarify the role of Make
It York in supporting York’s cultural sector and
offer, and
ensure it:
Ø
Develops a
narrative about York’s ambitions with cultural
partners;
Ø Improves its collaboration
with Welcome to Yorkshire
Ø Facilitates
greater collaboration and co-operation between the cultural
sub-sectors in the city
Ø Co-ordinates
future funding bids to the benefit of all cultural
providers
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Make It York
Service Level Agreement extracts
Drive the development, refresh and
implementation of a cultural strategy, to be steered by the
Cultural Leaders Group and approved by the Council, which is
consistent with and delivers on the objectives of the city’s
economic strategy
Support the sector through product
development, facilitating the necessary partnership working to
promote innovation and develop new initiatives
Work cooperatively in areas where
the Council or commissioned partners remain the lead organisation
responsible, but the remit is overlapping with business growth,
tourism and culture
Work with
both Leeds City Region and York, North Yorkshire & East Riding
Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure that delivery by both
organisations includes York, participating in shared programmes and
seeking to meet match funding requirements
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Service Level
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Partners / Roles
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A strategy to
make a fresh loud statement of cultural and visual identity for
York
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To be guided by
the Cultural Leaders Group and approved by the Council. MIY will
provide leadership to the process as well as the
“secretariat” to the Cultural Leaders Group to ensure
that the process delivers against the agreed brief.
In particular
MIT will ensure that the strategy aims to achieve the buy-in of all
sectors: cultural, business and third sector organisations,
communities, citizens, key external stakeholder groups, scrutiny
members
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An evidence base
to demonstrate cultural impact and excellence to inspire funders,
policy-makers and politicians to invest and engage in and with the
city
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Cultural Leaders
Group, Council, key external stakeholders and funders, especially
Arts Council England.
MIY
will:
• develop
income streams
•
provide city-wide leadership,
working through the Cultural Leaders Group to deliver the
strategy
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iv.
The Council should
work with
York Business Improvement District to explore all means available
of achieving improvements to the public realm in the city centre,
particularly Parliament Street.
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The
Council budget approved in February 2019 allocated £100k
–to invest in a ‘My City Centre’ consultation be
held with key stakeholders (including residents, businesses,
cycle/pedestrian groups and groups that represent people who have
special access requirements) on the wider issues of accessibility,
safety and traffic management in the city centre as recommended by
Executive in September 2018 as part of the report on City Centre
Access report
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v.
The Council should
seek ways of protecting and utilising the city’s stock of
historic buildings to attract more growing business, rather than
increasing residential use, by encouraging imaginative approaches
to redevelopment through the Local Plan and master-planning
frameworks, and through its Asset Management Strategy and the
future development of its commercial
portfolio.
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The
Draft Local Plan recognises the critical importance of York City
Centre as the economic, social and cultural heart of the area. It
aims to strengthen the role of the city centre
through, among
other, things:
·
ensuring
development sustains, enhances and adds values to York’s
culture;
·
developing an
improved high quality affordable office space offer for small
enterprises and start-ups in the arts, creative, digital media and
related industries;
·
protecting and
enhancing its unique historic and cultural assets;
·
protecting and
enhancing its existing office provision
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It was also
recommended that Make It York:
vi.
Concentrates its
focus on higher quality events and festivals in the city centre to
protect the York festival brand and maximise their GVA.
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Make it York will:
·
Drive the development and
implementation of an events strategy in consultation with the
culture and events sectors and the Business Improvement District to
ensure that York has a vibrant, all-year-round programme
·
Create a high-profile calendar of
events ensuring that partners such as the BID are enabled to
contribute to the full
·
Programme high quality city centre
festivals, activities and events
·
Promote the events calendar through
all appropriate means including through highly visible city-centre
information
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vii. Works with York Business
Improvement District and other interested parties e.g. York Civic
Trust, to devise a comprehensive 21st century system of
way-finding within the city using all available methods and
technologies incorporating smaller cultural providers into those
way-finding opportunities to expand the city’s promotion of
its full cultural offer.
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The Council
budget approved in February 2019 allocated the match funding
contribution from the Council so that York Business Improvement
District can deliver the way finding project following the
successful trial in St Helen’s Square.
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It was further
recommended that the Cultural Leaders Group:
viii. Explores the suggestions for
initiatives identified through the consultation for the
review.
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The
Cultural Strategy Vision 2019 – 2025 is that:
York brings together outstanding, internationally renowned heritage
with a cutting-edge contemporary approach to creativity.
By
2025 York will be internationally recognised for its unique
interface between exceptional heritage and contemporary
art.
Through the
Cultural Leaders Group the strategy will be further shaped by the
initiative to attract increased investment in York by promoting our
strengths and assets through the development of a shared vision for
the city.
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