{"id":558,"date":"2011-04-11T08:54:10","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T08:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=558"},"modified":"2011-04-11T08:54:10","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T08:54:10","slug":"what-now-for-leeds-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2011\/04\/11\/what-now-for-leeds-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"What Now for Leeds Culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the consultation phase on the Vision for Leeds is now over, and the resulting draft Vision with City Priority Plans is snaking its way through various committees and boards on its way to adoption by the City Council and its partners as the strategic planning framework for Leeds.<\/p>\n

And while our opinions and thoughts on progress are no longer\u00a0actively\u00a0sought, the process is open and\u00a0transparent\u00a0and it may be appropriate to put it under a little scrutiny.<\/p>\n

So what do the does the draft Vision and City Priority Plans have to say about ‘Culture’? \u00a0Is there enough of the right stuff here to help us improve our cultural report from C minus – Could do better…<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Strategic\u00a0Partnership for the City will be led by the Leeds Initiative Board which will oversee the work of 5 Strategy Boards, and\u00a0culture has its home, with the\u00a0economy, on the ‘Sustainable Economy and Culture Board’.<\/p>\n

Now personally, while I\u00a0can\u00a0see some advantages in this, I am always a little deflated when\u00a0culture\u00a0is seen as synonymous with, or a comfortable bedfellow of ‘ the economy’. \u00a0Once we start to conflate culture with the economy all sorts of things can start to happen. \u00a0Not least of which is the relegation of ‘culture’ to providing a ‘necessary and becoming backdrop’ if we are to attract and\u00a0retain\u00a0‘proper’ wealth creators in our city.<\/p>\n

If the main benchmark for investment in\u00a0culture\u00a0becomes GDP, ROI or some other financial metric surely we are\u00a0failing\u00a0to understand the\u00a0fundamental\u00a0role of culture in our communities; to provide opportunities\u00a0for self-expression and development, to bring people together and to provoke fresh insight? \u00a0But it seems that much of the cultural ‘leadership’ is happy to justify its existence on purely economic terms so perhaps they will be happy to be bundled in with ‘the economy’. \u00a0Perhaps that is how our\u00a0cultural\u00a0leaders emerge,\u00a0through\u00a0their fluency in economics as much as culture?<\/p>\n

The problem of cultural representation on the Sustainable Economy and Culture Board will be an interesting one. \u00a0I can find no hard information on the composition of Strategy Boards or how they will be appointed. \u00a0But I would guess that the Strategy Board will be dominated by business and economic interests, with places going to big business (retail, finance and other representatives of large employers), and a place going to the Chamber of Commerce as the ‘representative’\u00a0of the small businesses in the city. \u00a0I also\u00a0suspect\u00a0that property developers and their ilk will be well represented. And of course tourism will need a place. \u00a0So how many places will be made available for ‘culture’? \u00a0Time will tell. \u00a0And in a Strategy Board that will almost inevitably be\u00a0focussed\u00a0on the ‘sustainable economy’ it will be interesting to see just how much airtime the cultural questions get.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see whether the large, diverse, and\u00a0poorly\u00a0defined sector that gets labelled ‘cultural’ is able to put forward its own\u00a0widely\u00a0supported suggestions for credible and effective representative leadership. \u00a0I suspect not. \u00a0And this might be a\u00a0challenge\u00a0that it wishes to reflect on.<\/p>\n

But enough worrying about governance. What does the draft City Priority Plan have to say about culture?<\/p>\n

Well, at the top-level it says that Leeds will be a City where ‘People enjoy a high quality and varied\u00a0cultural offer’. \u00a0Now already I detect a bias towards consumption of culture over its production, but perhaps that is more a\u00a0reflection\u00a0of my own prejudices than anything else. \u00a0The City Priority Plan goes on to describe what it calls a ‘4 Year Priority, that\u00a0‘More people get involved in the city\u2019s\u00a0cultural opportunities’. \u00a0 It\u00a0then\u00a0offers a ‘Headline Indicator’, what I believe to be a first take on how we will measure progress towards both the 4 year priority and the overall Vision: and the Headline Indicator is the ‘Proportion of adults and children who regularly\u00a0participate in cultural activities’.<\/p>\n

Now for those who work in the cultural field this maybe both straightforward and sensible. To me it looks like a nightmare of\u00a0definitions, baselines and measurement. \u00a0What counts as culture? \u00a0Who decides? \u00a0Who counts and how?<\/p>\n

But set all this managerialism to one side.<\/p>\n

The thing that worries me is that this is likely to advantage the large players over the small. \u00a0The ones who can offer large audiences. \u00a0The big set piece events over the local. \u00a0 Is this the direction that we\u00a0want\u00a0to move in? \u00a0Or should we set a 4 Year\u00a0Priority\u00a0and a\u00a0Headline\u00a0Indicator more\u00a0likely\u00a0to promote independent and grass-roots culture?<\/p>\n

But perhaps most worrying \u00a0for me is that with the arrival of the Leeds Arena, however we define and measure this headline indicator progress is\u00a0likely\u00a0to be achieved without any additional effort. \u00a0With a new 13500 seat arena looking to put on over 100 events a year the ‘Proportion of adults and children who regularly\u00a0participate in cultural activities’ is\u00a0surely\u00a0bound to rise. \u00a0But that ‘proportion’ will surely overwhelmingly represent\u00a0the well-heeled of the city.<\/p>\n

Culture as just another vehicle for economic transaction….<\/p>\n