Initial Bid - Summary Confidential 1 Contents
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Initial Bid - summary Confidential 1 Contents Foreword.........................................................3 Economic impact ..........................................15 Introduction ..................................................5 Tourism ............................................................18 Our bid area ...................................................6 Delivery and capacity .................................20 New city opportunity .................................7 Our track record ..........................................21 Our vision .......................................................8 Funding and budget ....................................22 Warrington 2021 programme..................9 Partnerships ..................................................23 Our cultural assets ......................................10 Legacy .............................................................24 Ensuring cultural excellence ....................11 Learning and evaluation ...........................26 Social impact .................................................12 Evaluation......................................................27 Ensuring inclusion and accessibility ......14 2 Foreword Over the course of the last few months, We expect to find out whether we have hundreds of people have been involved in been shortlisted in late June or early the development of Warrington’s bid to July. Whether we are shortlisted or become City of Culture 2021. The process not, we remain committed to ensuring has uncovered a huge number of ideas, culture is at the heart of our place – and has enabled new connections to be made we are energised and inspired by what has and has unleashed significant energy and been achieved so far. Irrespective of the ambition. outcome, our bid is just the start and we look forward to working with you on the We are grateful to everyone who has made next stages of our journey. a contribution to the initial bid process – it’s been a collective effort and without the support, dedication, passion and This is a summary of our bid. We hope you determination of all involved this bid would enjoy reading it. not have been possible. Thank you. From our proud history through to our present day innovation and our aspirations to become a New City, we have a compelling story to tell and a significant Dan Price, Chair, Warrington 2021 opportunity to build a scalable and sustainable cultural offer into our future plans. During the course of the bid process we have uncovered some fantastic work across all of our communities, but we also know we have more to do to have a ‘fully formed’ cultural offer. We’ve been honest about this in the bid and the process we have been through to develop the bid so far gives us a strong platform from which to build. 3 On behalf of the board Councillor Dan Price, Portfolio Holder Councillor Tony Higgins, Portfolio holder - - Culture and Partnerships; Chair, Leisure and Community Warrington 2021 Maureen Banner, Chair, Professor Steven Broomhead, Ian Cox, Centre Director, Ken Horn, Independent Emma Hutchinson, Gemma Johnson, Cultural Culture Warrington Chief Executive, Warrington Golden Square Television Producer Managing Director, Culture Director, Culture Warrington Borough Council Warrington & LiveWire Simon Kenton, Kate Lindley, Warrington Steve Park, Managing Colin Parry OBE, Chairman Paul Taylor, Director, Taylor Assistant Director, 2021 Bid Lead Director, Warrington&Co and Founder, The Tim Parry Business Park Warrington Borough Council & Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace 4 Introduction ‘A great and curious present’ Warrington either lurks in your The issues we face are not about mass From a floating cinema, provocations to subconscious or not at all. You may deprivation, unemployment or poor community festivals and a Grayson Perry- recognise it as a name on a motorway health. They are about a town discovering led tapestry to Slow Art, IKEA-inspired gantry, the cultural ‘desert’ implied by its soul. Our New Town has expanded commissions, gigs in gardens and peace the RSA’s 2015 survey of heritage assets over 50 years to embrace a collection exchanges, Warrington will be the stage for or a place of business parks and the UK’s of disparate towns and villages with a thrilling, unique and transformative year first IKEA. few natural connections to ‘the whole’ of celebration for the UK. and immense variations in affluence Our story reveals a dynamic and very and lifestyle. Beyond the pockets of distinctive town. A town of surprises deprivation that do exist, our area lacks a which, in 1598, gave a ‘great and curious vibrant centre and a fundamental sense present’ to the world – and which has been of identity and cohesion. With the arrival inspiring leading contributions to world of another 30,000 homes over the coming industry, commerce and culture ever since. years we have the opportunity to create a From the original ‘great and curious New City with a strong sense of place and present’ – an Elizabethan organ built by a a confidence in its future. Warringtonian for a Sultan, we have been Warrington UK City of Culture 2021 the home for innovation and creativity will be a catalyst for step changes which for centuries, catalysing the public library strike at the heart of these issues by movement and inspiring pioneering forging a new identity and sense of place; engineers, entrepreneurs and artistic putting the creative economy at the heart giants like Lewis Carroll and Dickens of planning; delivering a dynamic and illustrator Sir Samuel Luke Fildes. targeted uplift in cultural programming, Our vision for UK City of Culture 2021 audiences and outreach; and growing and stands out. It is the story of a 1960s New diversifying the local creative industries. Town coming of age, a town literally and It will be a paradigm for new cities metaphorically at a crossroads, a town everywhere, showing how culture can with ambitions to become a Garden City help create, and shape cities that are as it prepares for £1bn worth of housing SMART, vibrant, green, sustainable and and business development. people-centred. It is about celebrating the place of culture Our programme will capture these in modern, dynamic and successful ambitions, the energy of our area and communities; reaching out to the rest of this incredible moment in our evolution the UK by revealing our great and curious through four compelling and distinctive gift to the world; and defining Warrington themes: New Horizons; Surprising Spaces; to our own residents and beyond. Reveal; and Alternative Futures. 5 Our bid area All towns and cities are shaped by towns like Lymm and Culcheth and Our bid is about ‘making sense’ of an area It is the chance for these communities their place on the map – ours more ancient villages like Stockton Heath and that – right now - does not make sense to realise their place within the larger than most. It is defined by the local Grappenhall to the vast New Town estates to many people. It is about connecting conurbation, to celebrate the heritage that authority boundaries of Warrington in Birchwood and Westbrook, Warrington our incredibly diverse but culturally binds us together and share the immense Borough Council, covers a population of town centre and nearby areas of inner city rich communities, using culture, shared opportunities ahead as Warrington more than 200,000 people and is located deprivation like Bewsey and Latchford. heritage and the natural ‘threads’ - the prepares for devolution, city status and precisely 20 miles from Liverpool in the waterways and green pathways - that run one of the most rapid periods of growth in Each of our communities has its own west and 20 miles from Manchester in through the fabric of our area. its 1,500 year history. character and its own cultural contribution the east. to make – but too many sit in isolation For centuries our success has been from their near neighbours and have little MANCHESTER driven by our proximity to these two wider sense of what it means to be part 40 min (20.7 mi) via M62 conurbations – and by the incredible of Warrington. transport infrastructure which has made Beneath Warrington’s economic success, us one of the best connected locations in there are huge disparities in wealth and Culcheth, GlaseburyGlazebury Croft the UK. health which only serve to exaggerate Our area is largely bounded by three the distance between our communities. M6 motorways, the M6 in the east, the Our bid area has some of the most M62 M62 in the north, and the M56 in the persistently deprived wards in the UK as Burtonwood Winwick south. It has the largest 30 minute well as some of the most affluent (18% of Birchwood drive catchment outside the M25. It is residents live in the 20% most deprived Poplars Hulme M62 divided laterally by four historic – and areas in England). All this in a town that Poulton Westbrook North iconic - transport corridors: the River is consistently ranked in the UK’s top ten Great Sankey North Orford Poulton M6 Mersey; the Bridgewater Canal; the UK’s most economically Chapelford Whittle Hall Old Hall South first passenger railway and the mighty successful ‘cities’. Fairfield Rixton Woolston Bewsey Howley Manchester Ship Canal, busier now than it Whitecross For too many people – our residents City Lymm North Thelwall has ever been. The town is also at the rail Great Sankey included – our area is defined by Centre crossroads of the north west, with non- South what it is not, rather than what it is. Latchford West stop services to London