Gulbenkian Inquiry Location Studies

Basingstoke
Members of the Basingstoke What Next? Chapter have been working closely with Basingstoke and Deane on developing a new Arts Strategy for the Borough, this process represents the first time Arts and Culture organisations have been invited to lead on this process. Our project will be to finish the consultative process with innovative and artist led public consultation to inform the final strategy.

About the WN? Basingstoke Chapter
Basingstoke What Next? is a geographically diverse chapter with members from across the region including Slough, Reading, Salisbury, Portsmouth and Winchester. We have a mixed membership from number one venues to individual artists, regular attendance from Local Authority Councillors and Basingstoke MP Maria Miller. We meet on the last Friday of each month at the Proteus Creation Space in Basingstoke from 9am – 10am.

Yarmouth and Lowestoft
The aim of the Yarmouth and Lowestoft WN? Location Study will be to identify and map existing and potential participants in an emergent local cultural economy. We will seek out both usual and unusual suspects, whilst exploring new ways to collaborate, trade or commission new work and to establish potential links and partnerships. This will be done through a mixture of existing ‘cultural connectors’ and through traditional methods of data collection.

About the WN? Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Chapter
Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft What Next? Chapter formed in early 2015 to address a lack of co-ordinated planning in arts and cultural policy and in the area and to enhance the role of local arts practitioners.

Nottingham
Nottingham is currently in the process of developing a Cultural Framework & Investment Strategy for the next ten years and we feel that this research can feed into this process as well as draw from it. The Location Study will be done in partnership with NTU as our local research partner, with What Next?, the Gulbenkian Foundation and Liverpool’s Institute for Cultural Capital as our national research partners. It will take place over a month period and will respond to the following questions:

  • What role do you think arts and cultural organisations are playing in Nottingham as places of learning, democratic debate and community-building?
  • What do you think arts organisations in the city are not doing or should be doing to support learning, democratic debate and community-building?
  • What organisations in the city are you aware of who are already delivering work which is facilitating learning, democratic debate and community-building? Tell us more about what they are doing and why they are making an impact

To explore these questions, we will deliver a programme of desk research, commission a small number of key case studies, hold three public debates, carry out interviews with key thought-leaders in the city, commission our own local literature review, and hold a number of conversations through social media to understand the thoughts of people in the city. We also intend to engage with the many networks which exist in the city to support participation and democracy, including the voluntary sector, neighbourhood informal networks, online communities and social enterprises.

About the WN? Nottingham Chapter
The Nottingham city chapter welcomes all of the city’s arts, cultural and heritage organisations as well as those who are delivering cultural projects as part of their work.

Sunderland
Proceeding through both interaction with existing forums and the convening of a number of standalone meetings, the study will focus on both the current role of arts organisations within the city as well as their future responsibilities. It will seek to explore the different roles which arts organisations can fulfil, and the ways in which they can enhance activity by partners from outside of the cultural sector. The discussions will focus on how arts organisations can influence, participate in and shape Sunderland’s civic agendas on issues such as health, education, inclusion and diversity. The study will be conducted by the Sunderland What Next? Chapter, in partnership with the Sunderland MAC Trust and the Cultural Spring.

About the WN? Sunderland Chapter
Since its foundation earlier this year, Sunderland’s What Next? Chapter has garnered a strong group of diverse and individual participants, establishing itself as a key and developing forum for artists and arts organisations within the city. The Chapter’s Chairs, Iain Rowan, Marie Nixon and Ross Millard have links throughout both Sunderland’s civic and arts institutions, as well as strong individual track records of artistic achievement in literature and the performing arts.

 

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