How culture can drive levelling up and ‘brand North’ – Katy Shaw

The new Case of Culture report, published All Party Parliamentary Group for Northern Culture, looks at how this sector can play a key role in delivering post-Covid priorities as an enabler to levelling up.

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The report argues that now is the ideal time for a new place-based recovery strategy – one that mobilises culture, co-creation and collaboration to reframe the North as a site of creative production fit for the 21st century.

Our culture and creative industries make a greater contribution to the UK economy than to that of any comparable nation, and the creative industries sector is larger (in terms of GVA) than the life sciences, automotive, aerospace and oil and gas sectors combined.

During the pandemic, Covid recovery funding ensured that many cultural organisations survived the pandemic, 
and are now stable and able to think about how they can thrive in the years ahead.

A dramatic shift in thinking is required if we are to rebuild, rebalance and recover the North’s rich cultural capital.

This change has been needed for a long time, but the pandemic has heightened that need and provides a catalyst for re-thinking the way we approach our cultural future to boost and create diverse and dynamic regions across the UK. Northern culture is well-placed to deliver a future skills agenda creating capacity to train, retain and retrain creatives in the North.

It identifies the need for a great north skills survey to highlight skills gaps and areas of strength, and for a new creative curriculum to be designed that will 
join up – from early years to post-compulsory – the skills needed to make our creative workforce resilient for the new normal.

With a view to net zero, the North is home to many of the assets that are needed in order to transition to a greener future, and we need to rethink how we can green our existing heritage and cultural sites – many of which are in older buildings – and also harness culture to further enhance understanding and to articulate community creative responses to the climate crisis.

In terms of wellbeing and health, we need to better understand the well-
being value of culture and this means capturing impacts on economic performance, social cohesion and mental health so we can deliver public health targets.

In regards to recovering our high streets, culture can harness dormant sites to regenerate civic pride, identity and opportunities for productivity, employment, investment and tourism. And in relation to tourism, the report captures a cross sector desire for a New Northern Narrative: one that articulates ‘‘brand North’’ as a dynamic and creative site and creates a paradigm shift in profile and identity.

But the real power of this report is that it has achieved cross party consensus and that our recommendations have been forged from the wealth of evidence we heard and received from all parts of the North’s cultural sector.

Culture cannot just be a ‘‘hanging basket’’ element of the levelling up agenda – there to make a place look nice, but without substance or strategy.

Government needs to act on this inquiry evidence right now because quite simply they do not have any more time to lose. If levelling up is to move away from a mixed metaphor into something meaningful, then action is needed on the ground.

The Government has lost three years in cycle on their commitment to levelling up, and now they have a short time between now and the next election to generate point-to projects and vote-winning policies that demonstrate how and where have tangibly improved lives, enhanced opportunities and shared prosperity in communities across the North.

The one thing that could super-charge the findings of our report is simple: more devolution. This would meaningfully benefit arts, culture and heritage in a post-Covid context. The mayoral model is an effective way to deliver funding, advocacy and connectivity for the cultural sector.

Mayors are punching above their weight in terms of the limited resources and powers currently afforded to them by central government. By giving mayors more power and broadening devolution we can catalyse the progress that has been made to date.

Inquiry evidence suggests that devolving funding power and decision making to the North will increase engagement and ownership of culture by the people, for the people to ensure that culture is by all for all going forwards.

Katy Shaw is Professor of Contemporary Writings and Director of Cultural Partnerships 
at Northumbria University.

The Case for Culture report can be found here.

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