Agenda item

To receive an update on the Cultural Strategy from officers engaged in this work and from the Executive Portfolio Holder for Culture, Leisure and Information Technology, Cllr Loraine Rossati.

Presentation slides to follow.

The Chair introduced Councillor Loraine Rosatti, Executive Portfolio Holder for Culture, Rob Gregory, Operations Director, Sam Daisley, Museum Cultural Development Officer, and Jo Ward, Museum Manager/Curator.

Cllr Loraine Rossati informed Members that there had been a lot of progress since the Cultural Strategy last came before the Community Select Committee. They were focusing on “people powered art” and “people powered culture” which aimed to lead culture, heritage and leisure for our area and our people. There was a lot of activity and creativity at the community level and there was more the Council could do to support this, but not lead. This also linked to the Councils ambitions to reduce health inequality and improve mental and physical health. Covid and the cost-of-living crisis has impacted mental health and the ability to take part in creative activities that local residents did before.

The Operations Director gave a presentation which included:

·         An Arts & Culture Officer was appointed in 2018.

·         They were focusing on the Stevenage story of the first new town.

·         The Junction 7 Creatives were formed in 2018 to come together in an organised way to fund creative activities.

·         There had been successful funding bids in 2020 to the Arts Council and National Lottery Heritage Fund.

·         The vision was to have flagship performing arts, museum and heritage facilities, creative industries spaces and hubs to attract talent, aniconic public realm arts programme, and support for wellbeing and skills development.

·         The ambition was to grow the festival and event offer, protect the Gordon Craig Theatre offer to provide a good or better facility, a new museum, high quality music facilities like Old Town Live, recognising the sports heritage in Stevenage, and the Hertfordshire Cultural Education Partnership in schools.

·         The priorities were to encourage more people to participate in culture, particularly looking at ways to engage people who wouldn’t typically be involved.

·         So far, they had mainstreamed the Cultural and Museum Officer role as they recognised the importance of the museum.

·         Junction 7 Creatives had created the utilisation of Meanwhile space, so empty buildings can be used for culture, arts, and creative potential. These would eventually be commercial buildings but in the meantime can be used as a creative space.

·         There had been some projects such as Battle of the Bands, New Town New Art, new bus station artwork, and adding to the Stevenage walk of fame.

·         They were focusing on culture led regeneration and ensuring culture was linked within the Stevenage regeneration.

The Museum Cultural Development Officer informed the Committee that:

·         They had been planning an art and heritage trail to create a safe and interesting route, both cycle and path to view points of interest. There would be different routes for different abilities/times and would be a reusable resource.

·         They planned to improve cycleways, such as new murals in three underpasses near the Stevenage Football Club.

·         They were using the meanwhile use policy to display artwork to encourage community pride.

·         They had a working relationship with Junction 7 Creatives and had projects such as the Only Connect project which aimed to liven up the open reach and broadband cabinets and discourage tagging. Boxes on Grace Way and London Road were nominated for the pilot.

·         They were using event island as a centralised venue for different events, which are important and can display diverse cultures.

·         There was a central home for Stevenage Museum being designed by architects. There had been resident involvement on Stevenage Day, in person and through online surveys. This would display various art works of Stevenage history and there had been collection developments such as a long-term loan of a car driven by Lewis Hamilton.

Cllr Rossati added that they wanted to expand the opportunity for art in underpasses and showcase photos of Stevenage taken by residents and visitors. She added that the Council was in consultation with local people to involve them in new facilities such as the museum and new sport and leisure facilities.

The Museum Manager informed Members they had received pricing for the fitting for the new museum which totalled a maximum of £2.3m. They were receiving £2m of town funding but needed to confirm how much was allocated to building costs. They were beginning to look at a fundraising strategy for this. She also added that they wanted to make the collection accessible online.

A Member agreed artwork in the underpasses was a good idea and asked whether this would be rolled out across the town. Cllr Rossati advised that this was done in partnership with Hertfordshire County Council, and they needed to contribute funding as well. They wanted to get a priority list of underpasses to work on and start funding through various means, such as grants, fundraisers, or local community budgets.

Another Member asked whether there could be work done on the skate park in Bedwell as the gates were closed. The Operations Director advised that the ownership sat with Herts County Council. They were looking at how to protect and make it accessible and there were opportunities with the new leisure centre. Cllr Rossati advised that she had met with a skateboarding advocate and was interested in looking at how we can have safe and modern facilities.

A Member asked whether there was a nomination system for designing telecom boxes. Cllr Rossati advised that this project was linked with the graffiti project with Councillor Simon Speller and the Stevenage Borough Council cleansing teams. Open Reach had been working with the Council to clear graffiti and were open to designing the boxes. They were starting small and trialling, and then would look for funding for community-based ones, such as near schools.

A Member asked whether the schemes and projects would be viewed as too town centric. Cllr Rossati advised that there had been a concentration of funds around the town centre. They were interested in people powered art across Stevenage and there were opportunities for everyone to change the town centre dynamic and be part of the solution.

Another Member highlighted the shared culture in Stevenage town and heritage and asked how the different communities would be interconnected. The Museum Manager advised that the museum often did projects and got funding to work with community groups at how stories were being told. There was an audience development plan, and the museum was reflective of the community in terms of users but there was room to do more work.

Councillor Jeanette Thomas highlighted the community involvement across the town, such as the Art in the Park, Music in the Park, Sport in the Park, and the teddy bear picnic in Pin Green.

The Chair suggested an annual photography competition of photos of Stevenage. The Chair also suggested that the promotion of STEM subjects in schools should be extended to include the Arts as this was being overlooked, so the acronym could be STEAM subjects with the A representing the Arts. She recommended that Officers make links with A Level and Level 3 Extended Diploma Arts students about engaging them in local arts projects.

The Chair thanked the team for their presentation and for the excellent focus on cultural issues that were happening in Stevenage.