Agenda item

The Cultural Producer’s report provided the Forum with a summary of progress made on the East Devon Cultural Strategy and set out a request for an internal budget to continue delivering cultural activity.  The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) programme funded by central Government would end in March 2026, with no replacement likely to benefit East Devon. Without future funding, there was a high risk that the momentum which had been generated in the delivery of the Cultural Strategy would stall.

The East Devon Cultural Strategy (2022 – 2031) was made up of 31 potential work programmes. Four years (and almost half-way) into delivery of the strategy six of the 31 programmes had been completed, 23 had made good progress and only two were yet to be started.  The Cultural Programme had been allocated £37,985 this financial year through the UKSPF and to date had overachieved on targets, with good value for money observed.  As the continued delivery of the Cultural Strategy and the Tourism Strategy was a corporate priority, it was felt that there was a strong strategic case for providing a rolling budget for this.

The Cultural Producer outlined some of the themes of the strategy currently in progress and successes so far.  There had been particular focus on the theme of ‘strengthen and support the people that do’, delivering 23 training sessions to the Arts and Culture East Devon (ACED) network since 2023, recognising volunteers through an annual ACED volunteer of the year award, and highlighting over 80 volunteering opportunities on the ACED website.  Another theme that had made significant progress was Cultural Tourism, with the creation of the East Devon Cultural Map.

In terms of the theme ‘creative enterprise and skills’, the ACED mentoring programme was set up last year and six young people to date had gone through the programme, which provided pathways to employment and increased capacity of the local cultural sector.  In terms of ‘protecting and enhancing the natural environment through culture’ the THG hosted regular climate conversation events and through the Carbon Action Fund (funded through the UKSPF) grants had been given for decarbonisation equipment to cultural venues.  Finally in terms of ‘connectivity’ the Cultural Producer explained that she had co-ordinated nine ACED network meetings at rotating venues across the district.

The culture budget request was:

·        Arts and Culture East Devon network: £2,500

·        Creative East Devon fund: £20,000

·        Villages in Action: £5,000

·        Screen Devon: £10,000

This would be in addition to the existing internal Arts Development budget of £14,000 (£10,000 for Villages in Action and £4,000 for Museums Development South West).  It was also hoped to accommodate a minor uplift of support for Museums Development South West of 8.8% (£4,355) in 2026/27 and 4.6% (£4,530) in 2027/28.  It was noted that the culture budget request sat alongside a tourism budget request in order to continue delivery on the tourism strategy, which was integral to cultural strategy delivery.  It was felt that small rolling budgets for culture and tourism should be regarded as investments to help secure additional income whilst protecting the existing revenues already generated.

The Cultural Producer was thanked for her informative report.

RECOMMENDED: that Cabinet approve the request of an internal budget of £37,500 to continue the successful delivery of the Cultural Strategy in 2026/27 as part of the budget-setting process.