Agenda item

The Chair welcomed Cllr Tudor Evans, OBE, Leader of Plymouth City Council, and invited him to address the Board. Cllr Evans warmly welcomed the Board to Plymouth, and provided an insight into all that Plymouth, and indeed Plymouth City Council, had to offer, which included:

·       Plymouth’s cross-party cultural agenda.

·       The Royal William Yard – once a Royal Navy victualing yard, now an award-winning waterside destination.

·       Barbican Theatre’s ‘Macbeth’ Open Air performance in Residence One Garden at Royal William Yard (from 31 July to 11 August).

·       Firestone Bay’s local musical talent.

·       The British Art Show – a landmark touring exhibition which celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain.

·       The need to unlock talent, and for the children to have aspirations and positive role models.

·       ‘Create Plymouth’ Building on the Theatre Royal was started in 2005, which focused on creating a liveable city and place making.

·       The need for desire and bravery in cultural investment, to build audiences and make cultural consumption normal and everyday for everyone.

·       Plymouth had applied to be ‘City of Culture’ in 2018.

·       The Box would host a major new exhibition for summer 2023 which celebrates the 300^th anniversary of the birth of famous portrait painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds.

·       The need to invest in quality (Examples provided: The Box, Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard & Mayflower 400)

·       Plymouth City Council’s strategic relationship with Arts Council England (ACE) and The National Lottery Heritage Fund over ten years had been pivotal, investing £50m in the city.

·       Plymouth City Council had worked in partnership with the wider cultural sector for ten years setting up Plymouth Culture, a model, which had been adopted by ACE as best practice through the cultural compact.

·       Plymouth’s investment in culture:

-        Now worth £98m

-        365 enterprises supporting 2,200 jobs

-        £50m external cultural investment in five years

-        40% uplift in NPO funding

-        Visitors spend £34m on cultural tourism

-        Cultural infrastructure: Ocean Studios, Market Hall, Karst, The Box, Theatre Royal

-        Hosted the British Art Show twice

-        Hosted the only UK showing of ‘Songlines’ with the National Museum of Australia

-        8,000 students studying arts and humanities

-        A new Arts University

-        A combined cultural audience of 850,000 in the past 12 months.

The Chair thanked Cllr Evans for his update and welcomed Cllr Jemima Lang, Deputy Leader, and invited her to address the Board. Cllr Lang provided an update, setting out the following points:

·       Plymouth City Council’s headline missions are to continue its journey of cultural place shaping and put culture at the heart of the city’s ongoing renaissance and transformation, and to ensure all communities could access and benefit from brilliant cultural experiences.

·       As Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications, Cllr Lang would focus heavily on championing cultural experiences for young people, working closely with schools, college’s communities, and children in care.

·       ‘The Box’ had recently welcomed over 500,000 visitors, hosted 10,500 school children from schools across the city and beyond, continued to be a fantastic, free learning resource for everyone to make use of, and had established formal partnerships with the RIBA, V&A, National Portrait Gallery, University of the Arts, National Gallery and many more.

·       There was much more work to be done, particularly related to deprivation in Plymouth and the significant need to increase accessibility and expand opportunities for everyone, especially young people.

·       Tomorrow’s Warriors, Join the Movement - led by the jazz musician, Gary Crosby, who visited Plymouth to inspire teachers and young people to play jazz. After a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) session with teachers from Devon and Cornwall, musicians from Tomorrow’s Warriors performed at The Box.

·       Priorities for 2023 included focusing on working directly with local communities, removing the barriers, and providing co-curation opportunities, enhancing cultural infrastructure in the North of the city in least-privileged communities, and begin the process to decolonise collections and drive inclusion and access for all communities.

The Chair welcomed Lindsey Hall, CEO of Real Ideas, and James McKenzie-Blackman, CEO of Plymouth Theatre Royal, to the meeting and invited them to address the Board. Lindsey and James provided an update which related to engagement activities, positive social impact, core values, upcoming events and experiences, and next steps.

The Chair, on behalf of the Board, thanked Cllr Evans, Cllr Lang, Lindsey and James for hosting a wonderful day in Plymouth for Board Members and officers.

Decision:

That Members note the report.