Agenda and minutes

It was proposed by Councillor Nawaz, seconded by Councillor Tierney and resolved that Councillor Sennitt Clough be elected as the Chairman of the Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee for the Municipal Year 2024/25.

It was proposed by Councillor Sennitt Clough, seconded by Councillor Nawaz and resolved that Councillor Hoy be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee for the Municipal Year 2024/25.

Previous minutes to be confirmed and signed of 19 February 2024

The minutes of the meeting of 19 February 2024 were confirmed and signed.

Creativity & Culture Development Officer Update: (JLT to lead)

·        UK: Shared Prosperity Funded ‘Amplifying Community Art & Culture’ Project

·        Integrated Care System Funded ‘Express Yourself’ Project

·        Fenland Culture Partnership and Sub-groups

·        ACE Place Partnership Project

Jamie-Lea Taylor gave a Creativity and Development Officer update as follows:

·         UK Shared Prosperity Funded Amplifying Community Arts & Culture project - there has been a positive reaction around one of the Fenland culture funds at the beginning of this year, with round two of the fund expected to launch at the end of this year. There is £35,000 secured funding which will allow a similar size project to be run as round one and there will be joint working with Fenland Partnership, the Arts Council and Cause 4 to build on last year’s learnings, take on feedback received and develop an event to celebrate those achievements in the first round and launch the next opportunities of the grants along with alternative fundraising opportunities. Within this project there are also some training opportunities, with one potential project under review which will include a Fenland specific training and mentoring programme aligning with the CPCA skills and training priorities, in addition to this the Fenland Culture Partnership sub-group are going to offer a series of free training sessions which is in response to identified support needed in the local sector, specifically around marketing skills. A programme is being put together of educational sessions that will be free to attend and provide high quality professional training on subjects including data, digital marketing and understanding audiences.

·         the Express Yourself project is coming to an end, this saw £50,000 of tackling prevention funding secured by the Council from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System, it was delivered in collaboration with 2020 Productions who are Fenland based Arts Council national portfolio organisation and across the project 363 children and young people took part. It was a six-week programme of art and culture activities, and the sessions were held in all four of the market towns and ten of the village schools, the breakdown was 269 primary school children, 78 teenagers and 16 young adults between 18 and 24 years old took part, positive feedback was received across the board from the young people involved with their parents, teachers, and professionals. 11 artists and creative professionals living and working in Fenland worked with the well-being team at 2020 productions to deliver those sessions and they were able to offer free training too at the beginning, throughout and at the end of the project which involved skills and development training about special educational needs and disabilities, safeguarding the NHS five ways to well-being model, how to support children and young people who might be struggling with social emotional mental health challenges and then the last session was about embedding well-being into personal practice as an artist.

·         the Fenland Culture Partnership and its sub-groups has held three meeting since this committee was last together earlier in the year, and continues to meet with purpose, the membership has grown and is now up to 11 members including two FDC Councillors and two FDC officers and also artists, funders, community organisations and venues. The Partnership has been travelling around the district to  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAH4/24

Fenland Poet Laureate Awards (Cllr Sennitt Clough to lead)

Councillor Sennitt Clough gave an update on the Fenland Poet Laureate Awards, including feedback from last year’s awards and asked the committee for ideas and feedback for the upcoming awards

Members made the following comments:

·         Councillor Nawaz stated that the format worked well last year and suggested to keep it the same for this year’s awards.

·         Councillor Tierney stated he has been to a few awards and thought that last years Fenland Poet Laureate Awards was one of the best he has attended, he agreed with Councillor Nawaz that the dates and organisation with the help from officers should be the same for this year.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough stated that the dates the competition worked on last year were mid-December for entries

·         Jamie-Lea Taylor confirmed the entry date was the 4 December 2023 until the 31 January 2024 and then the Awards were held in the middle of March 2024.

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough asked the committee if they were happy to agree a date for the beginning of December 2024 until the end of January 2025 for this year’s competition entries to be submitted and for the ceremony to take place around mid-March 2025?

·         Councillor Wallwork agreed the dates would work well and should not be affected by any local elections that happen in May.

·         Councillor Foice Beard asked are there some Fenland Unsung Hero Awards around the month of March? Councillor Wallwork responded that the Pride in Fenland is being moved back slightly so as not to clash with the elections and the Unsung Heros Award has been moved to January which means the Fenland Poet Laureate Award should fit in nicely mid-March.

Members agreed to the timeline discussed.

Councillor Sennitt Clough asked the committee for feedback on whether enteries should live, work or attend schools in the Fenland area and if agreed how can this be a bold rule?

·         Councillor Tierney agreed that entries should live or work within the Fenland area to be able to keep this as a Fenland award.

Members agreed to keep the Fenland Poet Laureate Award Fenland based and to have this stated within the guidelines of the competition.

Councillor Sennitt Clough asked the committee if they were happy to filter the entries as was set out last year and then for herself and Hannah, last year’s winner, to choose a winning selection?

·         Councillor Nawaz agreed this was a good idea.

·         Councillor Tierney suggested it would be a good idea to have an officer present as an independent observer. Councillor Sennitt Clough responded that Jamie-Lea Taylor does anonymize the entries before the judging takes place and was concerned that an officer may not have the time to observe.

·         Councillor Purser suggested if officers time is sparing the Council Chairman could be asked as an independent observer.

·         Councillors Tierney, Wallwork and Nawaz all agreed they did not feel, and observer would be necessary but that the idea should be taken on board the situation arise in the future.

Members agreed to filter the  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAH5/24

ACE Stowmarket Visit: (JLT to lead)

Jamie Lea Taylor shared with member the ACE Stowmarket visit which the Arts Council has recommended to enable learning to enhance what this committee can bring to the Fenland area.

Councillor Sennitt Clough stated she will supply an update to members after the visit has happened.