Study visit in – Local context and cultural policies

1. About the city

Number of inhabitants 1.013.400

Area in Km² 267.77 km2 for the city 598.9 km2 for the urban area Annual budget of the city £3.2bn (2015-16)

Annual budget for culture 85,903£m (2013/2014)

The local/regional context Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK, after London, with 1,100,000 inhabitants. Situated in the , Birmingham is the largest city economy in the UK outside of London, the regional centre of business, retail, leisure and culture – acting as a regional hub for employment with half a million people working in the city. Birmingham is a driver of the regional economy, with an economic output of over £21bn, which accounts for 21.5% of total output in the region.

The city has a strong heritage of crafts and industry and was at the forefront of many innovations during the Industrial Revolution. By this time, Birmingham had become an industrial and commercial centre. Today’s economy is dominated by the service sector, manufacturing and engineering. Birmingham is still a major international commercial centre. Its five universities make it also a large centre of higher education.

Birmingham is the youngest major city in Europe and the second most diverse, throwing up significant and specific challenges for cultural provision. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK but retains pockets of severe deprivation and high levels of youth unemployment. As a super-diverse city, with 40 per cent of residents from a non-white background, with more school children from Muslim family backgrounds that Christian family backgrounds, and with a growing population of young people (in sharp contrast to the ageing population nationally), Birmingham is having to find new ways to engage its residents in cultural activity that reaches out to them, and builds social integration.

Specific competencies/governance system - Birmingham City Council is comprised of 120 councillors, representing 40 wards. The Labour Party currently has the majority of councillors and runs the council. The city is governed by a Cabinet of portfolio holders, with a Leader (Cllr John Clancy) and Deputy Leader (Cllr Ian Ward). The Cabinet Member for Skills, Learning and Culture is Cllr Penny Holbrook. An arrangement of Overview and Scrutiny Committees which hold the Executive to account relating to decisions.

The council publishes its annual Business Plan and budget each financial year. The business plan explains the Council’s priorities for the years to come. In the Council Business Plan 2015+, objectives and priorities of the Council are: a fair, prosperous and democratic city.

Birmingham is in the process of developing into a Greater Birmingham combined authority, connecting to its wider urban region.

Birmingham, in common with many UK cities, also has a Lord Mayor, which is not an honorary post, equivalent to the “first citizen” of Birmingham. The current Lord Mayor of Birmingham is Councillor Raymond Hassall.

Key cultural indicators/facts Birmingham has a lot to offer in terms of cultural facilities. Birmingham's major cultural institutions – including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations,and the city has vibrant and influential art, music, literary and culinary scenes.

Legacies of Birmingham's industrial heritage include its Jewellery Quarter, Cadbury manufacturing plant and a former that's been transformed into a cutting-edge creative hub. But cultural assets remain almost exclusively in the city centre, and the major cultural companies and venues receive the majority of the city council’s revenue support for cultural activities. The 10 administrative districts of Birmingham serve on average 100,000 people each. But they do not ave the venues and facilities which would be associated with towns of a similar size. In order to improve access to cultural activities for the inhabitants, the city decided to improve cultural facilities in the outer city and deliver programmes at a neighbourhood level, using facilities in the community.

Local cultural priorities At the time of the visit, Birmingham will be finalising its cultural strategy for 2016-20. This new strategy, common with previous strategies, has been written in close partnership with the cultural sector, business, higher education and health colleagues, and has the working title “Imagination, Creativity and Enterprise”.

The new strategy develops further the theme of “Culture on Your Doorstep” which was a key element of the previous strategy, Big City Culture.

Big City Culture was developed as the cultural component of Birmingham 2026 – the Sustainable Community Strategy for the city. This strategy enables effective strategic planning to support the development of the cultural sector and address the needs of local people. Culture on your doorstep is one of the four chapters of this global strategy.

Big City Culture expresses the shared priorities of the partners within the Birmingham Cultural Partnership. For the purposes of the strategy, 'Culture' is defined as including arts, museums, heritage, sport, sporting events, libraries, archives, creative industries, film and tourism. The benefits of participation in cultural activities can produce a range of individual and group outcomes including a sense of identity and belonging, social and community cohesion, civic engagement, economic impact, development of transferable skills; increased knowledge, experience and understanding of the world we live in and improved health and wellbeing.

Public Art Strategy 2015-2019 – As part of Birmingham new Cultural Strategy and the forthcoming City Centre Public Realm strategy, Birmingham published its Strategy to refocus the city’s relationship with public art. The strategy’s production is the work of the Public

Art Strategy Steering Group. The strategy outlines a new vision for art in Birmingham’s public realm. The purpose is to set out a clear vision for public art in Birmingham, advocate the role of public art for the city’s economy and communities, ensure that the management and maintenance of public art is of high quality in times of budget cuts for the City Council, and involve artists and residents with the development of public art in the city.

The strategy defines ‘Public Art’ as:

1. the production of permanent or temporary art (including participatory and event-based) within the public realm 2. art within the built environment or through engagement with others; this could be a space-specific intervention, or part of a festival or event

Public art is celebrated for its intrinsic value, as well as its links to other council policies where culture-led innovation can make a difference. The vision for public art in Birmingham will be achieved through six objectives, each with an action plan. These objectives focus on:

• Improve the practice of commissioning and developing public art in Birmingham • Funding new public art • Facilitating changes to Birmingham’s public art portfolio • Supporting artists and a collaborative public art ecology • Maintaining the existing portfolio of public art • Promoting public art to improve awareness of education about public art in Birmingham The strategy should strenghten Birmingham’s communities and place-shaping, enable residents to experience creativity, improve Birmingham’s image and enhance the city’s cultural offer, as well as recognise and create key events around public art in the city. The strategy will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure updated action plans and new policy developments are incorporated. Birmingham also drafted a Festival Strategy 2014-2017 and a Heritage Strategy 2014-2019. The Year of Arts & Young People - 2016 is The Year of Arts & Young People in Birmingham and will see the city’s arts organisations working together to co-ordinate and communicate a cultural offer to children and young people which supports the new, collective Creative Future strategic pledges. Throughout 2016, the city aims to engage more young people in a range of accessible opportunities offered by theatres, galleries, concert halls, Arts organisations, independent companies, creative industries, schools, colleges, universities and communities.

2. About the study visit Main themes Culture for social inclusion, social innovation and intercultural dialogue

Sub themes • Access to culture in remote neighbourhoods • Social cohesion through culture

Projects and policies to be presented

Culture on CULTURE ON YOUR DOORSTEP is a programme with three strands, some of which your have been delivered over several years while others are relatively new. All are doorstep constantly evolving in their delivery and effectiveness. The challenge is to provide an infrastructure for culture beyond the city centre, including making best use of central resources and giving people in neighbourhoods more influence over what cultural activities are provided, including by linking them to other locally derived priorities, such as health, literacy and integration. A) ‘Arts Champions’ is a scheme designed to ensure that (eleven) funded major arts organisations (producing companies and venues) based in Birmingham’s city centre deliver audience development initiatives in outlying Districts across the city. Birmingham is divided into ten administrative districts and each arts organisation (Arts Champion) is paired with a new district every three years. Audiences have increased from 8,872 in 20011-12 to 18,166 in 2012-13 (51% increase). Participation has almost doubled from 1,103 in 2011-12 to 2,297 in 2012-13. B) A Local Arts Forum has been established in each district. The city council provides some seed funding to enable a local arts professional/group to manage the forum which is otherwise run by local residents including local arts organisations, artists and residents with an interest in arts. Arts Fora provide a much improved understanding and coordination of cultural activity provision at local neighbourhood level and their success / membership is increasing year on year. Several Fora have since become constituted as not-for-profit organisations in their own right. C) The ‘Culture Co-design Programme’ is a joint funded initiative with central government’s Department of Communities and Local Government. It is designed to enable a wide variety of residents, who have previously had no or minimal engagement in cultural activity, to become involved in cultural activities in their local neighbourhood. The stages of co-design are gathering of information about available activities, identifying those not currently participating, encouraging dialogue about the relevance of provision and barriers to engagement, then providing support for residents to commission cultural activities which speak more directly to them. The principles and aims of ‘Culture on Your Doorstep’ are likely to be universal. Birmingham has developed these relatively low-cost initiatives to improve engagement and participation outcomes across the city and to ensure value is driven from the major investments made in large institutions, to deliver for a wider range of residents. The Local Arts Fora are becoming increasingly important

resources as capacity to deliver within the local authority is reducing at a rapid rate. The Arts Champions scheme is fully established and supported by the organisations and locally based politicians alike. It assists in developing audiences and raising the profile and reputation or the organisations, as well as embedding them in communities across the city in a long lasting relationship.

Links http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/artscommissioning www.birmingham.gov.uk/arts

Places to be visited : Name Library of Birmingham Short description

Designed by the architect Francine Houben, the Library of Birmingham is a public library situated on the west side of the city centre at , beside the Birmingham Rep (to which it connects, and with which it shares some facilities) and .

Upon opening on 3 September 2013, it replaced Birmingham Central Library. The library is viewed by the Birmingham City Council as a flagship project for the city's redevelopment. It has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe. In 2014 2,414,860 million visitors came to the library making it the 10th most popular visitor attraction in the UK.

The Library of Birmingham provides a showcase for the city's internationally important collections of archives, and rare books. New facilities including a gallery space opens up public access to the collections for the first time. It is also home to a BFI Mediatheque, providing free access to the National Film Archive. Other facilities include a new flexible studio theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre and other informal performance spaces and dedicated spaces for children and young people. Invite Links http://www.libraryofbirmingham.com/ http://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/

Name Midlands Arts Centre Short description

First opened in 1962, mac birmingham is a pioneering arts complex for everyone. Its mission is to promote innovative, creative arts activities in ways which help to establish them as an important part of people's lives.

Located in Cannon Hill Park, two miles south of the city centre, the centre attracts over 850,000 visits every year.

Specialising in contemporary work, mac offers a programme of theatre, dance, independent cinema, music, spoken word, comedy, exhibitions and special events, as well as practical classes in all aspects of creativity, from playing musical instruments to ceramics and jewellery-making. mac also develops work with children, families and young people of all backgrounds and works to support emerging and mid-career artists. Invite Link http://macbirmingham.co.uk/

Name Birmigham Royal Ballet Short description

Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the four major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet and the Scottish Ballet. Founded in 1946 as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the company was established under the direction of John Field. The company remained at Sadler's Wells for many years, becoming known as the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet. It also toured the UK and abroad, before relocating to Birmingham in 1990, as the resident ballet company of the Birmingham Hippodrome. In 1997, the Birmingham Royal Ballet became independent of the Royal Ballet in London.

As an independent ballet company, Birmingham Royal Ballet no longer has official links with the Royal Ballet or Royal Ballet School. To further establish its reputation as a separate entity, in 2002, it began a new relationship with the Elmhurst School for Dance, which is now its official associate school. Elmhurst relocated to premises in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 2004, becoming known as Elmhurst School for Dance, in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet. Invite

Link https://www.brb.org.uk/

Name Sampad Short description

Established in 1990, sampad is a development agency for South Asian arts based in Birmingham. It plays a significant role regionally, nationally and beyond, in promoting the appreciation and practice of the diverse artforms originating from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Through its work sampad serves, supports and initiates South Asian arts in all its forms working with youth, community, education and professional artists.

Sampad is a strategic partner with mac Birmingham and is located in the same premises. Invite Link http://www.sampad.org.uk/

Name Ikon Gallery Short description

The Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of , located in , Birmingham. It is housed in the neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.

Ikon was set up to encourage the public to engage in contemporary art. As a result of this, the gallery runs an off-site 'Education and Interpretation' scheme that educates audiences, promotes artists and their art.

Featured artworks include all forms of media including sound, and photography as well as . Exhibitions rotate throughout the year so that as many pieces can be displayed as possible.

Ikon is a registered charity which is partly funded by Birmingham City Council and Arts Council of .

Invite Link https://ikon-gallery.org/

Name Bimingham Hippodrome Short description

The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham. Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust Ltd is an independent, not-for-profit registered charity, established in 1979.

Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting and ballet companies.

Between 2013/2014, Birmingham Hippodrome presented 404 performances attended by 625,732 patrons, retaining its position as the highest attended single theatre in the UK, and the busiest venue for dance outside London.

Birmingham Hippodrome do not receive revenue grants from or Birmingham City Council. However, they regularly work closely together for support towards eligible projects, such as Hippodrome Creative. Invite Link http://www.birminghamhippodrome.com/

Name Birmingham Museum & Short description

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) first opened in 1885. It is housed in a city centre landmark building. There are over 40 galleries to explore that display art, applied art, social history, archaeology and ethnography.

The art gallery is famous for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings, which are part of the largest public Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world.

The museum/gallery is run by Birmingham Museums Trust, the largest independent museums trust in the United Kingdom, which also runs eight other museums around the city. Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee. Invite Link http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag

Contacts in Birmingham

Val Birchall - Assistant Director, Birmingham City Council [email protected]

Symon Easton – Head of Culture Commissioning [email protected]