Sefton Council is keen to develop a new Cultural Strategy to showcase the area as a “cultural leader” within the Liverpool City Region.
The strategy aims to build on the momentum of last year’s Sefton Borough Of Culture year, which staged a series of high-profile events. They included A Nightingale’s Song, Constellations and a four-storey Red Rum mural despite most of the year being impacted by the Covid pandemic.
In a report to Sefton Council’s Cabinet this Thursday (4 February), Executive Director Stephen Watson writes: “A Culture Strategy is proposed for progression in collaboration with stakeholders across the borough, in order to sustain momentum built by the (Sefton Borough of Culture) programme and by other organisations working effectively in this area across Sefton.
“This will also help to maximise the impact of current cultural activity across the borough, add value to existing cultural organisations and their activity, alongside showcasing Sefton as a cultural leader within the Liverpool City Region.
“The Strategy would create an agreed 5-year action plan taking Sefton through to the Borough Of Culture year 2025.
“It would improve communication and awareness across the borough in the realm of creative / digital / cultural activity and create an inclusive Sefton-wide infrastructure for our cultural ambitions.
“A strategy is required:
To attract inward investment and support economic growth – many strands of external funding require us to have a Cultural Strategy
As an advocacy tool for the role of culture in the borough demonstrating the positive impact of cultural engagement on health and wellbeing, tourism and the development of resilient communities
To attract and retain creative industries in Sefton
“Our Cultural Strategy will involve an extensive consultation exercise with as wide a range of partners as possible, building on the relationships developed during our Borough of Culture year and helping us to align Sefton’s cultural ambitions with the Liverpool City Region.”
Sefton began 2020 with big plans and high hopes for events taking place in Southport, Formby, Crosby, Bootle and elsewhere in Sefton throughout the year. They were quickly amended when Coronavirus arrived in the UK in March, with a series of online exhibitions and events being organised online.
Stephen Watson wrote: “Sefton was delighted to be named as the Liverpool City Region’s Borough of Culture for 2020, with the focus for the Borough of Culture (BoC) programme being on Sefton people and stories – stories about us, stories by us, and stories for us – all of us.
“This was intended to be broad enough to support a wider range of ideas and opportunities, and align with the prioritisation of Sefton’s communities in the development of ideas, initiatives and events. It also resonated with communities and partners in engagement on the BoC opportunity. “Sefton identified what would be additional Core Principles for Sefton’s Borough of Culture 2020 programme, using “four Ps” which were to support discussion and prioritisation regarding opportunities for the BoC programme:
Participation – initiatives that maximise opportunity for participation; not just event attendance, but in the cultural activities themselves (arts, music, writing, etc); and ensuring inclusivity – reflective of a borough for everyone (irrespective of gender, age, ethnicity, geography, ability, demography, etc).
Partnerships – working with partners to deliver 2020 and beyond together; this is the borough’s year of culture, not the council’s.
Permanence – ideas, installations, events and relationships that will remain in place beyond 2020.
Pride – opportunities that help engender pride in our community and the communities within Sefton
“The theme of the year was proposed to be stories, using the tagline “Myths and Realities” to support this. The shape of the year was to be focused on much of the storytelling across the earlier parts of the year – relating to local heritage, and recognising the nature of history and stories and how myth, memory, perspective and subjectivity influence such stories over time.
“The programme was to become increasingly focused on the environmental theme over the second half of the year, culminating in the notable events and initiatives to be developed for November 2020, hopefully to coincide with the UN Climate Change Summit (which London was scheduled to host).
“Whereas a story such as Napoleon III in Southport could border on “myth”, the climate change emergency would be the “reality”.
“Local History was consistently identified as a key area of opportunity, with the stories people want to tell, or that people want to celebrate, being identified through the engagement with stakeholders.
“Environmental sustainability was the other key theme identified by partners and communities. It was therefore intended that the shape of the year reflect these focus areas and demonstrate that the council has listened to communities and partners in maximising the BoC opportunity. “The above identifies the basis for the stories to be told across the year (the “what”), and there were a range of means through which these stories could be told (the “how”). By way of example, the story of Isaac Roberts is one that resonates with communities in Maghull, and this could have been progressed through such means as blue plaques, events, performances, creative writing and photography.
“While there were to be some major new events across the borough, across the year, the foundation of Sefton’s programme for BoC 2020 was a large number of community-led initiatives and events, in all areas of the borough, celebrating stories of our people and our place.”
The Coronavirus crisis unfortunately put paid to some of the plans, as well as opportunities for funding.
The Council’s Cabinet on 8 April recommended a scaled back Borough of Culture programme that delivered as many of the projects as Sefton could do in a safe manner, within the budgetary constraints provided by the loss of private sector sponsorship and funding routes such as Arts Council England.
Plans will now be progressed to develop a Cultural Strategy for Sefton, and build on many of the ideas developed during 2020.
The Borough of Culture (BoC) title is awarded by the Liverpool City Region’s Combined Authority to one of its six local authorities (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) on a rotating, annual basis.
Sefton had the prestigious honour for 2020 and staged a series of eye-catching events such as Constellations, A Nightingale’s Song and LEGO Brick Wonders, as well as staging a series of online events for people to enjoy during lockdown including Comedy Bingo via Zoom and the Origami Red Squirrel Project.
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