Agenda item

To receive an update on:

·         Amplifying Community Art & Culture Project

·         Fenland Culture Partnership and Sub-groups

·         Arts Council England Place Partnership Application.

Jamie-Lea Taylor provided an update on Creativity & Culture Development as follows:

Amplifying Community Art & Culture Project

§  Fenland Culture Fund Round Two. A collaborative project funded by UK: SPF and ACE. It was launched in-person this time at a celebratory event held on 20th November with the afternoon opening with a reading from 2024 FPL winner Hannah Teasdale, and previous recipients brought work to show and talk about and celebrate what they had achieved with the fund. The second round was then open for entries until 13th January. Support was offered in-person if people wanted to access it, and more commonly by phone and email.  55 applications were received, which had increased from the 42 in round one. The decision-making panel were selected and they met Friday 31 January 2025 so notifications to applicants are expected this week. The budget available has been slightly increased to £55K and the panel have awarded this budget in full, with the Council looking forward to seeing a range of new projects, activities and investments take place in Fenland across the year.

§  The Council have been offering a series of free workshops for those working or volunteering in the arts, culture and heritage sector in Fenland. These training sessions are responding to identified support needs in the local sector specifically around marketing skills development. The first of these sessions was called Understanding Audiences in Wisbech in November with a Social Media & Email Marketing workshop held in March in January 2025, and the next session is about Practical Strategies for Data and Ticketing which will be in Chatteris later this month. So far these have been well attended, been both a great opportunity to offer this high-quality, professional education to the local cultural workforce for free, but also, the Council has found there has been a real benefit to bringing people together around a table, in a room, to share, learn and network. 

Arts Council England (ACE) Place Partnership Application.

• This is one of ACE’s most significant funding streams and following a huge amount of work from partners over a very extended period of time, Fenland submitted an EOI and found out in October that it was accepted and were invited to submit a full application which was submitted at the end of November 2024.

• The lead applicant is Clarion Futures with FDC as a strategic partner as well as several other partners as there are varying degrees of partnership options which is allowing the opportunity for those that can invest time and skills alongside partners which have actual cash match investment too.
• If successful the project will start in April of this year and last for three years finishing in 2028, with there being two main areas of focus which are about improved infrastructure and cultural leadership development in readiness for multi-art form, landscape wide, quality festival programming at the end.

·       The Council are expecting a decision by the end of this month whether they have been successful.

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·       Councillor Nawaz asked, once this funding finishes, what happens then? Jamie-Lea Taylor responded, the Shared Prosperity Fund itself has been in place a long time but there is other funding available, and she was just waiting to hear some news as to whether she has been awarded it or not. She continued, with the Whittlesey project in particular, it is almost a bit of a pilot project as there has been good connections with health funded projects previously, the learning was taken away and eventually a good case study produced to then look at fund raising additionally going forward, and because with the Whittlesey one there is a substantial amount of funding to get this started and fuel the project to continue if it is what the town wants to continue with.

·       Councillor Nawaz referred to the Section 106 money and the SEAL funding as a possible option for funding. Carol Pilson stated this is not something that can be accessed by Fenland District Council, but she was happy to ask the question. Councillor Hicks confirmed Section 106 money is ring fenced for education. Councillor Count confirmed this information is correct but agreed it would be right to ask the question and inquire where the money goes and if they are willing to split the money to invest into some community run events, suggesting it was worth following up with the County Council. Councillor Nawaz recommended that the committee followed this up. Councillor Hoy confirmed that she had the spreadsheet with the information needed and agreed as a committee it would be worth investigating timelines and specifically how the money is being spent. Carol Pilson committed to investigating the spend plans regarding the Section 106 funds with the Head of Planning and would circulate her findings to the committee once the information has been collected.

·       Councillor Count asked for an example regarding the various artists being given a commission to develop a project pack that individuals could take home. Jamie-Lea Taylor explained that the project proposed is in its infancy and until the artist respond to the call out pitch and what their specialism is and what type of art form, the work in a pack can then be created whether that is in textiles, for example a crochet pack, which is then sent home to a person and they spend a few weeks using the tutorial video that the artist has provided and in a few months’ time when the physical workshop happens everyone brings their individual crocheted squares that they have made at home to create a bigger piece of work together which is just one example because it depends on the artist and the work they offer. Councillor Count expressed concern regarding the amount of funding involved and what the Council is actually paying for, as if someone visits a craft store there are rows of craft kits of all varieties and costs and he would like to understand how this is going to be different to something that could be purchased off the shelf and is there added value to having an artist involved with advice and follow up, which is not be available from a store. Jamie-Lea Taylor responded the physical material in the packs is only a small element of what the whole project will look like and as this is a Health and Well-being group the benefit will come from working with the Doctor’s surgeries and within those groups, to engage with people that would not normally turn to arts and creativity to support mental health and well-being. She continued by engaging with people and bringing them together so they can learn form an artist, the artists will be commissioned to put videos together and host advice and network sharing to give people support and encouragement and then there will be two physical meetings a year to bring people together to share their experiences and work plus offer further workshops. Jamie-Lea Taylor continued from a Cultural Strategy perspective, local freelancers are hopefully going to gain jobs out of this project by working within their town or in their area to run projects for local people which means longevity wise if they have had that experience the Cultural Strategy could look at how they might be able to self-fund their projects for further income generations models to continue that going forward. Councillor Count stated he was looking forward to seeing the evidence.

·       Councillor Hicks stated he runs a Facebook group called ‘What’s on in Cambridgeshire’ for the community to share all the arts and culture events being held locally and that Jamie-Lea was welcome to use this page to promote the items she has spoken about today.

·       Councillor Hoy asked what work had been done with the Town and Parish Councils regarding the Place Partnership Application? Jamie-Lea Taylor stated there was a workshop held in March Town Hall and all levels of local authority were invited including all the Towns which was a great way to get people together and find out what they wanted to put forward for their towns, local town venues and organisations have come forward but not Councils specifically. Councillor Hoy responded that she had wrote about Wisbech Town Council along with colleagues and she could not understand why this had got lost. Jamie-Lea Taylor reassured Councillor Hoy that the paperwork is not lost and the nature of the project is for the whole of Fenland and not just targeting one particular place, She continued that until the Council knows what that is going to look like with the projects, the strands and the art forms  which will determine a lot as they go through the three years of the programme to pick where places might actually become venues.

·       Councillor Hoy expressed her concerns that Town and Parish Councils do not seem to be included in the decision making and fear they may not get involved. Jamie-Lea Taylor responded that all the Town and Parish Councils have been on the journey and received updates regarding this project as much as possible at this point.

·       Councillor Sennitt Clough asked if there was still an opportunity for Wisbech Town Council to get involved with this project? Jamie-Lea Taylor confirmed there was an opportunity. Councillor Hoy stressed that she did not feel Fenland District Council were helping Wisbech Town Council enough with its Arts and culture. Carol Pilson stated that the application has gone into the arts Council and her understanding is that it is not so rigid that it identifies fixed amount of events or participants, so when the Council knows if the Culture Partnership has been successful there will be a lot more work to be undertaken which will lead to more details of what specific projects will be led on by which partners and a further call to arms to ask people again what specifically they can offer in terms of those thematic groups.

·       Councillor Sennitt Clough asked Jamie-Lea Taylor to give more detail of how this project would look if the funding was successful? Jamie-Lea Taylor stated that the project consists of two sides; the first being based around improving what cultural leaders there are in the District now and for the future but upskilling and empowering them and giving them all the support they need within that three year period and there is also a 6 weeks culmination at the end, which is about festival programming because the Council know that is already successful with everything that already happens in the District. The first year will be based around cultural leadership and identifying who would like to go on that programme, who would benefit from that programme and who might be an emerging artist that the Council would like to take through that programme with the objective of having someone really strong who could continue on within the Fenland area after 2028. In year two of the project in 2026 the Council would look at spending some of that budget through five strands which consist of, Community, Heritage, Visual Arts, Literary and Performance and there will be organisations or project partners that can come on board and lead on those strands with the aid of a commission budget, with this will come shared learning for the cultural sector with increased confidence and ambition plus for audiences and residents to enjoy some different items on offer ready for year three and by that point when the project comes to an end that cohort of cultural leaders who have gone all the way along would have had some strong experiences and practices to be taken forward and continue so the project does not stop after three years.

·       Councillor Hicks asked if the changes to Local Government will affect this project, and how proactive is the Council going to be contacting other local councils physically and not relying on the social media sites? Jamie-Lea Taylor responded the project will be running right up to the last official Council Day. She continued if the project is successful her role will change as more of her time will be spent on this project which means in terms of her officer role that will still be continuing alongside those five strands that were mentioned earlier and if she has time, she would be happy to make calls to the local councils.

·        Members noted for information the Creativity and Culture Development Officers update report.