Culture Strategy Delivery Update

The Culture Strategy delivery is well under way and in the spirit of clear communication, here’s an update of what’s been happening!

Accessibility

Accessibility has been a key initiative in Strategy activation, and in light of this we have commissioned an Easy Read version of the document. This simplifies the information from the original, making it more understandable for a wider audience.

This includes people for whom English is not their first language, as well as neurodiverse people and those who have trouble with reading comprehension. The Easy Read has also been commissioned as a web-accessible PDF that is compatible with screen-readers, which will aid the visually impaired.

“By making information accessible, Easy Reads help individuals make informed decisions, participate more fully in society, and engage with their communities.”

The document is available for download here. Feel free to share with your circles.

Sheffield Heritage and Cultural Assets Pipeline Report

One important part of activating the Culture Strategy was for us to understand the buildings and facilities that have/could have creative uses in the city. We have completed the first piece of work around this, building a draft asset pipeline containing information about key cultural and heritage assets in Sheffield. This project was co-funded by the University of Sheffield.

A report summarising the key findings from this first stage has been drafted and is available to download.

The survey will remain open on HaveYourSay to allow people to continue to reach out about their spatial needs.

The Sheffield Culture Bulletin and LinkedIn

You are all familiar with the nature of the bulletin by now, but we thought we’d share some stats to show how fantastic the engagement has been from the sector.

This indicates how well valued the bulletin is in the sector, and we really appreciate all the engagement and submissions. Having said that, we are always looking to improve, so if you have time then please feel free to fill out our evaluations form.

As for the LinkedIn, we’re way past 500 followers, and it keeps growing. We’ve had a great range of paid opportunities and chances for professional development submitted to us, and we’ve been sharing other sector-related news more regularly. This way, you don’t have to wait for the next bulletin!

Please keep submitting to our channels and subscribe if you haven’t already.

Activation Events

Working with cultural organisations in the city, we delivered a Culture Strategy Activation series. All the events were supported by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and were facilitated by talented creatives and influential cultural organisations in the city.

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to these sessions, the activation event schedule is now finished! There is just one workshop left in the RivelinCo freelancers skills series which will round off soon.

For a quick recap of what's gone on, one of our events began the establishment of a new grassroots music venues network in the city, with venue owners from across Sheffield in attendance. We also had an insightful funding support session with speakers from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Furthermore, with visions of establishing a new leadership structure in the sector, SCC delivered a co-creation session where we brought together individuals and organisations from across the city to start working on the Hub and Spoke Model.

To revisit the line up, click this link. Rest assured, the activation series will not be the last of these sorts of events. We're just getting started!

The Hub and Spoke Model

Throughout the Culture Strategy engagement process, there emerged a clear need for better communication and a model of co-delivery within Culture that engaged with and connected the sector as a whole – this became known as the “Hub and Spoke” model.

On 12th March we held a co-creation session to invite feedback on a pilot of this new model of communication and collaboration that will advance the successful delivery of culture in Sheffield. Thank you to everybody who took part and engaged in discussion. There was a lot of useful and insightful input during the session.

Information on the hub and spoke model can be found here, but please be advised that this is not the final version. This was sent round to attendees before the event and some changes are likely to be made over the coming weeks based on the discussions held on the 12th.

Keep an eye on our comms channels in the coming weeks for more details about the feedback and the next steps of this process.

FAQs

We've encountered some questions over the past few months and thought this would be a good place to address a few of them.

What is Culture Sheffield, and how are you going to support sector?

Culture Sheffield is a team at Sheffield City Council. We work with organisations, freelancers and the public to empower businesses and facilitate the creative journeys of people in the region.

In practice, we are supporting the sector by co-delivering an extensive Culture Strategy activation event series with organisations from across the sector. We are aiming to improve connectivity in the sector through our comms channels such as the bulletin and LinkedIn, both of which are well valued by the sector and came from a clear need within the Strategy consultation.

We are at the feasibility stage of looking into establishing a directory of cultural organisations in the city and are working on the creation of the Hub and Spoke model. We hope this will become a reliable and accountable leadership structure to help culture thrive in Sheffield. As mentioned in the above article, we are doing this through consultation, ensuring that the outcome benefits the people in the sector to result in better communication and connection between everyone.

How are you intending to include freelancers in Strategy delivery? And how are organisations supported and funded to help freelancers?

There are 16,000 creative and cultural freelancers in the city, and we understand how valuable they are in the sector. This is why it was important for us to include a Freelancer Skills Workshop series as part of our activation schedule. RivelinCo delivered this series, and sessions included fundraising support, money management, sustainability, creative facilitation and more. These sessions were based on themes that emerged in the feedback during the strategy engagement work.

Additionally, we supplied £14,000 as a freelancer budget for the activation events, enabling organisations to commission freelancers for their event delivery. We will ensure that freelancers are represented and involved in our work going forwards.

How are you supporting young people?

We knew young people had to be a key focus in our activation series, and one of the events was delivered by Create Sheffield, an organisation that seeks to engage and connect people who share a passion for supporting the city's young residents. The event was open to anyone who works with children and young people in Sheffield and is interested in the benefits of culture and creativity. An incredible 130 people were in attendance.

We have also encouraged cultural organisations to engage with the See It Be It campaign, which works with educational institutions, employers and businesses to give young people meaningful encounters in the working world. You can get involved with this campaign here.

Furthermore, there will likely be a spoke dedicated to supporting young people in the Hub and Spoke model, with the aim of increasing children’s accessibility to culture, from casual participation to employment.

How are we building on the MOBOs? 

In quite a few ways!

Read more about the city’s expansion on the MOBOs in this article, and you can now sign up to the upcoming Music City event. This event has been inspired by the MOBOs, the exciting plans for Harmony Works and Sheffield’s music heritage, and it will bring people together to explore how music can be celebrated and supported as an essential component in the fabric of the city.

The subsequent fringe event will have music, food, products and performances that showcase Sheffield’s Music of Black Origin talent. *Tickets now available!*

Will it be possible to meet someone from Culture Sheffield to discuss how to plug into the Culture Strategy?

The best way to plug into the Strategy at the moment is by coming to our events and getting involved in the discussion. The attendees of the grassroots music venues event are already in the process of establishing the network and planning their next meeting, which goes to show that action is being taken as a result of these events and is testament to the passion of people in this sector.

We will soon be releasing the next social to take place in May where you can hear more about how to plug in, and we’re doing our best to ensure that your voices are heard through events such as the Hub and Spoke co-creation, enlisting the opinions of people involved in culture in the city. We are keen for everyone to feel like they can use the Culture Strategy to help them with their aims and ambitions.

When we are clearer about the direction of this leadership model, organisations will have the opportunity to be a part of the central hub or get involved as spokes, and we will be able to track and celebrate Strategy delivery work across the city.

We know that everyone is already delivering many of the aims of the Culture Strategy in different ways, so we are focussing on helping to improve connection and communication, monitoring progress and tracking outcomes.

We also appreciate the longstanding critique of SCC communications being driven by feedback forms, but in a team with limited capacity, these really are a useful way for us to hear your voice and act accordingly, so please keep engaging with us and sharing your thoughts in this way.

Final Note

Thank you for reading, and a huge thanks to everyone who has made the Strategy happen so far. It’s early days and yet so much has already been achieved thanks to the drive of people in this sector. There’s a lot on the horizon and we’re just getting started.

With best wishes,

The SCC Culture Team