Agenda item

Report of the Director of Economy, Regeneration and Investment.

This report summarises the vision and ambitions for the culture service and the development and delivery of the cultural programme for the communities of Camden.

The Culture Service has been created to reposition the council’s unique role as connectors and enablers of culture between cultural organisations, communities, and neighbourhoods to realise opportunities, animate the public realm and uncover Camden creatives and the everyday creativity of Camden people.

The Culture Service brings together the existing arts and events team who are responsible for event management of community festivals and civic events, managing the film office and generating income through venue hire and public realm activations as well as strategically growing and supporting arts and culture in the borough and leading the Cultural Partnership –Cultural Camden, who help deliver and champion the cultural framework’s vision.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Economy, Regeneration and Investment.

Members made the following comments:

·       Thank you for setting up the Culture, Education, Learning and Support Fund, it was welcomed and clearly focussed in the right place for cash scrapped organisations. Outreach was loss making and without the grants supporting this it was likely to go.

·       Thank you for the report, Camden was a cultural powerhouse and the report indicated that events in the borough this year had been nonstop with celebration and recognising the heritage of its diverse population, which was really needed at this moment, particularly at a time when cultures were being marginalised and denigrated. Could the Council have more events in the Northwest of the borough similar to little Amar which was outstanding emotional and thought provoking.

·       The Windrush 75 homecoming event was amazing and it was good to see Camden leading on that which was really positive and hopefully could be an annual event. It was also really positive to see that Camden had an artist network which Camden artists could tap into.

·       There was lots of derelict space in South Hampstead which hopefully could be turned into space that could be used by artists.

·       It would also be good if Camden could have more interfaith celebrations like little Amar.

In response to questions, Zerritha Brown (Head of Culture) and Councillor Sabrina Francis (Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture) made the following points:

·       In relation to complaints from Grime artists that they were being prevented by the Police from performing at venues in Camden, the Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture indicated that as part of her role, she regularly met with Camden Police to discuss youth safety and would take this away and raise the issues relating to Grime artists with the Police.

ACTION BY: Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture

·       The Camden Fringe was run by Camden Cultural organisations such as the People’s Theatre, the Council did however promote the event through its various channels but did not deliver it.

·       With regards to closing off the borough’s high streets to stage events, the Council trialled the Camden Music Festival event on Camden High Road at the weekend which included pop music and a walk of fame. Part of the high road was closed off and was a test to see how the Council could have more of such events, shut off some of the high roads and include other venues and spaces for such events next year.

·       In relation to evening and night-time entertainment, there was an Evening and Night-time Entertainment Strategy that was being worked on that would be presented to Cabinet and Council later in the year and was also scheduled to be presented to this Committee. There was a lot of consultation going on incorporating the views of all stakeholders, balancing the various issues to look at how to get the best for Camden’s night-time economy.

·       The Culture Team did have discussions with the Planning team and developers to ensure that new developments in the borough had sufficient space for the performance arts and culture.

·       With regards to use of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money to support Arts and Cultural Organisations, it was down to the various ward councillors how they choose to spend this money bearing in mind the various competing interests and competing priorities. The Council should be minded however not to get into a position where it was funding one big organisation every year, however using the CIL money at this particular time to support organisations that were finding it really hard due to the huge cuts to their funding would be really helpful to them.

·       The Council had been in discussion with some of the art and culture groups who had been talking about working together to save money, by sharing staff, changing how their budget worked and working out new business plans.

·       In relation to creating space and support for the art and culture organisations, the Council was connecting up the different conversations to speak with one voice to see how it could provide further support to these organisations.

·       There were some new art and cultural organisations in the borough that did get some money for the first time, it was hoped that they would be able to flourish in the borough.

·       The Cultural Programme was about reflecting people’s culture in unusual places for them to understand that they were cared about recognised and seen. This was why the Wind Rush events were important and taking events to the north of the borough was also important to include everyone in the culture of the borough.

·       In relation to encouraging Camden schools to tap into the Culture programme, every time the Council did a big cultural programme it looked at how it could tap into schools and include this as part of the school’s seasonal programme of work. There were opportunities for workshops and activities to take place in some of Camden schools as well as the Council inviting some of these schools to some of these events and activities the Council was doing. A powerful example was the response received from the 4 high schools invited to the Windrush pit lecture event. They all requested to be invited to more of such events.

·       The Council was also a partner with Camden Start which was the borough’s local education partnership and functioned as a broker between cultural organisations and schools to ensure that young people were getting access to higher quality corporate experience within a school setting.

·       The other half of the Cabinet Member’s remit was young people, not all of whom were in school. The remit being both young people and culture meant that thought was always being put into how the two sides could be brought together. Camden was also lucky to have Creative House Studios based in Kentish Town and offered podcast and space for dance, music and disc jockeying. This was space which young people could use for free, it was also available to access mental health facilities which was an additional benefit with all this being available in one place.

·       Residents had requested more of these cultural type events and the Council was looking at how it could create more cultural type events for all the community.

The Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture commented that culture was really important as a means of understanding people and their culture and aiding in community cohesion. Remarking that the next step in taking this forward and delivering the Culture Programme was getting the assistance and support of ward councillors who could articulate the value of culture to communities and explain why certain events were being held in their areas.

She noted that local ward Councillors could also provide intelligence around support from local businesses and any other assistance that could be provided to extend the programme.

The Cabinet Member for Young People and Culture and the Head of Culture were thanked for their work, time taken to attend the meeting and their responses.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.