A 100 Year Cultural Strategy in Action
What if… Dudley had a cultural strategy that considered future generations?
Dudley Creates starts from a different place than most cultural strategies. Let us explain why ...
We start from a place of long-term thinking. This is because short-term strategy reduces collective imagination, restricts who co-creates culture, and limits cultural potential. Most cultural strategies outline plans for audience development, aligning with the dominant cultural policy focus on greater participation in state endorsed cultural activity. There continue to be relatively low levels of investment in everyday existing and potential creativity, non-arts creative spaces, or locally grown alternatives. (The Creative People and Places programme is an exception to this.) Underinvestment in and under appreciation of this aspect of cultural life and creativity fails to to address an ongoing absence of cultural democracy in England (Tiller, 2017; Voluntary Arts, 2020). This undermines the cultural value potential of places by failing to nurture the cultural capabilities of everyone in that community. A cultural democracy deficit impoverishes our futures by limiting the plurality of our collective imagination. It keeps us bound to the single story of ‘forward’ (Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, Hospicing Modernity, 2021) which has led us to climate, ecological and social breakdown.
We think this should change.
Our conversations, research and practical creative experiments with communities, artists, freelancers, policy and decision-makers and organisations in Dudley Borough, tell us that there needs to be a different approach. One that will give back power to those that are in a position to make, participate and receive culture that is meaningful to them. Culture that is co-designed and co-created with the very people who it is for. And that addresses the crises that we all face.
Five key ideas in our cultural strategy
These five ideas offer powerful practices, tools and tactics which can be used to overcome barriers experienced by local people and communities who would like thriving cultural lives. They will help us to create the conditions that enable people to take cultural and creative action which contributes to regenerative futures and restoring our relationship with nature.
“‘Culture’ as [John] Holden suggests, can no longer be ‘something that is ‘given’, ‘offered’ or ‘delivered’ by one section of ‘us’ to another.’ It needs to be something, ‘that we all own and make:’ by encompassing ‘power with’ as well as ‘within.’”
— (Tiller, 2017).
A timeline to illustrate Dudley Creates
Why does Dudley need a Cultural Strategy?
Without a guide or a map it is difficult to know where you are heading. It helps to have an idea of where you have started and where you want to go with routes and plans of how to travel there. For the last decade Dudley Borough hasn’t had a Cultural Strategy to stimulate co-ordinated action. With continuing budget cuts, a significant lack of investment in creativity, the climate emergency, and cost of living crisis to contend with, culture is more important now than ever.
Who decides what goes into the strategy?
You do! Everyone does. If you have an interest in arts, culture and creativity in Dudley then, like hundreds of other people in the area that already have, you can help inform what goes into the strategy. We’re taking a ‘ground up’ approach and listening/talking to people and organisations who actively want to take part/make culture happen.
We’re doing it this way because there has been a significant decline in funding for arts and culture across Dudley Borough; you’ll notice we don’t have a statutory funded art gallery or arts space, no regular local authority funded arts provision and little creative/arts sector support from the council. Due to this we understand that we can’t rely on someone else to make culture happen.
Who is this work funded by?
The research, Dudley Creates strategy and cultural collaborator events are funded by the Arts Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as part of their ‘Cultural Compact’ programme which supports towns and cities to develop partnerships to make more culture happen in the places they live.
Strategy in action - what is it?
Strategy in action practice is honest about not knowing all the answers, and instead seeks to create the conditions where we are free to creatively explore questions together that might help us imagine futures into being.
To create these conditions we are starting our collective strategy by using five key ideas which have come out of several years of research. We hope that these ideas will guide the strategy over the next century.
Why do you use What If… questions?
We use "What if...?" questions to help spark imagination and find solutions to the cultural emergency. They are inspired by the work of Rob Hopkins and his book ‘From What Is to What If’ as well as his Podcast. What if questions help us imagine new futures. What would be your What If question?
Where do the themes for this strategy come from?
Through creative animation and engaged research, we have spent hundreds of hours working with local people gaining valuable insights that have helped us identify recurring themes informing Dudley Creates. We continually share and reflect when we invite people to collaborate, commission projects with partners, and experiment with new ideas. By doing this we are able to see what patterns emerge. The evidence shaping Dudley Creates is drawn together in a document: Making the Case
Starting from a different place
We want to help replace negative cultural narratives with positive ones that promote creativity, collaboration, and curiosity. We're committed to equity and transformative potential, and we want to show that there are alternatives to the dominant cultural narratives that prioritise the wellbeing of people and the planet. We invite cultural collaborators to join us in this desire to create a thriving cultural community in Dudley Borough.
Why do you use ‘navigation tools’ and how are they helpful?
Navigation tools help us talk, design and plan together. They help us think about other people, consider future generations and look after the planet. They make us aware of things around us and will indicate to us if we are being mindful of wider considerations other than our own. See tools we are currently using in our Navigation Guide.
Who can get involved in Dudley Creates?
Everyone is welcome to get involved and we welcome you to do so. We consider that there are roles that people can and do play within a thriving cultural ecosystem and invite you to choose where you feel you might be most comfortable. The easiest way to engage with the strategy is to join our mailing list and come to the events, workshops and pop-ups that Cultural Collaborators will be hosting. Events are always free and welcoming and will take place across the borough. By coming to these events and chatting, engaging, doing, trying, having a go and getting involved, you will be helping to shape the strategy in action.