Agenda item

The Cultural Producer’s report provided a summary of the first year of outputs of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UK SPF) cultural programme (January – March 2023).  This was a three-year funded programme which would help to both support the delivery of East Devon’s Cultural Strategy 2022-2031 as well as deliver funding into the district’s diverse and distinctive creative communities and help to support their activities and events. The three-year cultural programme would also help to enable the delivery of the Council Plan 2021-2023 strategic aim to `develop a stronger commitment to and offers in arts and leisure through the development of a Culture Strategy and an Events Strategy for our own land’. It was therefore a significant programme that would benefit the whole of the district.

The Arts and Culture Forum would be informed annually on the progress of the three-year UK SPC cultural programme in a reliable and transparent manner.  The cultural programme year one outcomes would feed into the overarching monitoring and evaluation being reported into the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities by the Economic Development team as the UK SPF programme co-ordinators.

The vision of the cultural strategy 2022-2031 was for East Devon to be a vibrant cultural ecosystem whose distinctive communities and outstanding natural environment were enhanced and enriched through creativity, curiosity and collaboration.  There were eight core themes:

·        Strengthening the community.

·        Protecting the environment.

·        Growing cultural tourism.

·        Creative enterprise and skills.

·        New places for culture.

·        Connectivity.

·        Cultural leadership.

·        Capture value.

Specific focus had been on theme one – strengthening and supporting the ‘people that do’.  Free training sessions had covered fundraising, marketing, volunteer recruitment, carbon literacy, collection care for museums and governance. Future sessions would include a public speaking workshop and mentoring training.

The Cultural Producer’s presentation explained that Arts and Culture East Devon (ACED) was a network connecting the creative communities in East Devon and provided a central platform to engage, promote and talk about Arts and Culture across the region.  It currently had 113 members.

The Creative East Devon Fund (£50,000) provided discretionary financial support to local art and culture initiatives and projects that could demonstrate a commitment to developing the East Devon Cultural Strategy.  This recently launched scheme was funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) and had received a positive response.  Organisations could apply for a maximum of £3,000, with applications being thoroughly scrutinised.  The closing date for the first applications was 15 November 2023, with a second funding opportunity available in April 2024.

The goals of the Cultural Strategy were contained in the presentation and considered by the Forum.  It was noted that the SPF provided funding for the first three years so other sources of funding would be needed for the remaining seven years, to 2031.

It was suggested that the success of the cultural programme so far be widely shared and publicised.  A great deal of work had taken place during the first three months of its delivery and officers including the Cultural Producer and economic delivery team were praised.  As well as enhancing quality of life it also helped promote East Devon’s economy.

RESOLVED:  that the Arts and Culture Forum endorse the Cultural Producer’s report and the successful delivery of the year one outputs of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund cultural programme.