City of Culture Purple
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
POLICY BRIEFING UK City of Culture programme - history and update as Hull wins the 2017 title Author: Marion Catlin LGiU associate Date: 27 November 2013 Summary • This briefing covers the result of the UK City of Culture competition including background to the competition and essential information about likely impact and legacy both of winning and of losing the competition. • In 2002-3, the department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) ran a competition to choose a city as the UK representative in the European Capital of Culture year that was designated to a UK city in 2008. • It was decided, (following a suggestion by Secretary of State for Culture Andy Burnham and Phil Redmond), to set up a UK-wide version of the City of Culture title, given that it will not be until 2023 that another UK city will be able to become European Capital of Culture because of the number of new and accession states joining the European Union. • The UK City of Culture competition was inaugurated in 2010 and Derry/ Londonderry was chosen, from a shortlist of four cities (Norwich, Birmingham and Sheffield as well as Derry/Londonderry) for the (current) 2013 year. The competition runs every three years and therefore the next UK City of Culture year is 2017. Hull has just been announced as the winner for 2017. • This briefing will be of interest to councillors and officers leading on the arts and tourism and the economic impact of the arts and to partner arts organisations. Briefing in full The roots of the UK City of Culture competition are to be found in the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) programme (originally European City of Culture) which has © Local Government Information Unit, www.lgiu.org.uk, Third Floor, 251 Pentonville Road, London N1 9NG. Reg. charity 1113495. This briefing is available free of charge to LGiU subscribing members. Members are welcome to circulate internally in full or in part; please credit LGiU as appropriate. You can find us on Twitter at @LGiU POLICY BRIEFING been running since 1985 when Greek culture minister Melina Mercouri decided that culture should have as prominent a place and recognition as politics and economics, with its own profile and programme. The intention was that each member state would be highlighted in turn by putting forward a city of its choice to be the representative of the nation, and to bring Europeans together through their cultures and distinctive characteristics as well as their shared history. It has been recognised for a number of years that the competition is normally beneficial to the chosen city and can act as a catalyst for investment, infrastructure improvement, profile and confidence and pride of place among citizens. This can translate into positive social and economic impact as well as improved artistic and cultural quality and objectives. 2008 was the turn of a UK city to take the title and in 2002 the DCMS launched a competition across the UK for cities to bid to win. Each candidate city had to answer 11 questions about their definition of culture, artistic programme and more. Twelve cities finally submitted a full bid (Liverpool, Belfast, Bristol, Newcastle/Gateshead, Norwich, Brighton, Birmingham, Canterbury, Inverness & the Highlands, Oxford, Cardiff and Bradford) which was then shortlisted to six (Oxford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle/Gateshead, Cardiff and Bristol) with Liverpool being the eventual winner following another bidding round and more questions and presentations. The bidding process was long and complicated, and required a great deal of resources. Apart from answering the 11 questions, each city had to complete presentations and host visits, and there was a lot of marketing hype and stunt campaigns in a high-pressure, high-profile process. Liverpool was the winning city with candidates from all countries of the United Kingdom. Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture in 2008 was deemed to be a success in spite of some difficult times, and in the aftermath, it was decided, (following a suggestion by Secretary of State for Culture Andy Burnham and Phil Redmond), to set up a UK-wide version of the City of Culture title, given that it will not be until 2023 that another UK city will be able to become European Capital of Culture because of the number of new and accession states joining the European Union. As Liverpool was selected, the remaining bidding cities formed a UK Cultural Cities Network to support Liverpool as Capital of Culture and to lobby the Government for some recognition of the work they had completed. It was also thought that there was a unique opportunity to undertake some research and evaluation of the longer term effects of bidding on cities that were not successful in attaining the title. The Cultural Cities Network worked alongside Liverpool on a number of collaborative nationwide projects with young people (National Friend Ship and Portrait of a Nation) in addition to meeting three to four times a year in different cities, thereby maintaining the momentum and effects of the bidding process, although not all of the cities were able to maintain membership beyond the bid decision. © Local Government Information Unit, www.lgiu.org.uk, Third Floor, 251 Pentonville Road, London N1 9NG. Reg. charity 1113495. This briefing is available free of charge to LGiU subscribing members. Members are welcome to circulate internally in full or in part; please credit LGiU as appropriate. You can find us on Twitter at @LGiU POLICY BRIEFING Liverpool’s year was considered, eventually, to be very successful in terms of regeneration and celebration. The 2008 programme was championed (after a very difficult start) by screenwriter Phil Redmond who is a Liverpudlian and who was expert at manipulating the media and bringing together the Liverpool population behind the bid. The Secretary of State for Culture at that time was Andy Burnham, also a Liverpudlian and they believed that 2023, the next time a UK city could qualify for ECOC status, was too far away and that the UK should develop its own version of the European-wide programme for UK cities to be run every three years. In consultation with the UK Cultural Cities Network and other national bodies, they devised the UK City of Culture programme, including a title city that was to be chosen through a bidding process every three years. The decision was made in 2009 at a time when the financial industries were in crisis and the new coalition government had started to make severe cuts in all areas. However, in spite of changes and doubts, the competition was launched in late 2009 and in May 2010, a shortlist of four cities (Norwich, Birmingham, Sheffield and Derry/Londonderry) was announced, beating off contenders such as Durham, Hull, Wakefield and more. The majority of the UK Cultural Cities Network declined to bid for UK City of Culture with only Birmingham and Norwich going forward. In many cases this was because they felt they were already on a strategic path of cultural development through the ECoC bid, or, in some cases, because they were lacking resources at a very stringent time. The UK City of Culture process was different to ECOC. A much more technical and limited bid was requested, requiring stringent levels of data indicating benchmarks, step-changes and impacts on social, economic and artistic areas of each city and a much tighter and less ‘showy’ contact with the judging team. An economic regeneration company, Regeneris, were engaged to run the bid process at arms length from the DCMS, and to assess the bids, and an independent judging panel led by Phil Redmond made the final decision. Derry/Londonderry was chosen, seen by many as a political decision as the announcement coincided with the publishing of the results of the Bloody Sunday Enquiry (Saville Report) and the presentation was attended by Martin McGuinness. It was suggested that Derry/Londonderry needed the title the most to try and unite the city, in spite of the risks involved. Derry/Londonderry has now mostly completed the inaugural City of Culture year. There was still some doubt whether the competition, which was initiated by the Labour Government, would continue for a second round, but in 2012 the competition for the second year of the title, 2017, was announced. After a pre-bid process, Hull, Leicester, Swansea Bay and Dundee were shortlisted in June this year (2013) and invited to submit a full bid. In the bid, cities were required to demonstrate their artistic programme and levels of social and economic impact, how they will fund the programme, and what the legacy will be. In particular, they are required to show how much difference winning the title will make to their city. © Local Government Information Unit, www.lgiu.org.uk, Third Floor, 251 Pentonville Road, London N1 9NG. Reg. charity 1113495. This briefing is available free of charge to LGiU subscribing members. Members are welcome to circulate internally in full or in part; please credit LGiU as appropriate. You can find us on Twitter at @LGiU POLICY BRIEFING There is no money ‘prize’ as such but winning the title means that events and conferences, prizes such as the Turner Prize and RIBA’s Stirling Prize are directed towards the incumbent city and Arts Council England, Visit Britain, Heritage Lottery Fund and other major national funders are encouraged to look favourably on applications from the City of Culture. Additional sponsorship and other backing brings the money required to deliver the contents of the bid. Hull has been announced, by Culture minister Maria Miller and panel lead Phil Redmond, as the winning city, and as such, it expects to be catapulted into the limelight for a short time before it starts on the three-year preparation period as it builds its programme for 2017 based on its bid.