Visioning a Creative and Cultural County (VCCC) Research-Policy Impact Project: A Blueprint for Developing Leicestershire County Council's Cultural Strategy

Mutibwa, Daniel H.; Rogers, Cat; Wills, Franne; Hanton, Amanda; Frost, Sophie; Berry, Sam; Harris, Helen

Abstract

Amid austerity and a challenging political climate within which local authorities are being compelled to operate, it seems paradoxical that these are exciting times at, and for, Leicestershire County Council (LCC). LCC has just recorded two recent remarkable successes: (1) receipt of £1.2 million from the Create Growth Programme (CGP) as part of the East Midlands Creative Consortium (including Leicester, Derby, Derbyshire, Rutland and Greater Lincolnshire Councils) and associated Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), and (2) award of more than £750,000 from the Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) scheme for the period 2023-2026. Against this backdrop, it would be tempting for LCC to sit back and rest on its laurels. But it is not. Instead, it is going full steam ahead by joining up culture, heritage and creative practice through development of a Cultural Strategy. Building on its existing, strong co-production ethos, LCC has partnered with the University of Nottingham since January 2023 to undertake consultation and engagement exercises with a wide range of stakeholders within and outside the county council. The overarching goal has been to co-produce a framework that LCC could adopt to facilitate development of an inclusive and shared vision of creative and cultural engagement with differently situated stakeholders across Leicestershire, the East Midlands and beyond. The idea is then to develop the framework into a Cultural Strategy following extensive consultation. The University of Nottingham is committed to supporting this work throughout

Citation

Mutibwa, D. H., Rogers, C., Wills, F., Hanton, A., Frost, S., Berry, S., & Harris, H. (2024). Visioning a Creative and Cultural County (VCCC) Research-Policy Impact Project: A Blueprint for Developing Leicestershire County Council's Cultural Strategy. UKRI Research England

• Report Type: Policy Document
• Publication Date: Feb 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2025
• Pages: 1-30
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/45408232
• Publisher URL: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/clas/documents/visioning-and-creative-and-cultural-county/resources/blueprint-cult-strat-devt-vccc-project-team-2024-f.pdf