By LaToyah McAllister-Jones-Citizens for Culture / Co-Lead Facilitator
A month has passed since we launched the Citizens for Culture report the story of the UK’s first Citizens’ Assembly for Culture in the West of England.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. People are excited. Curious. Energised. The sector is leaning in.
And that matters.
But if I’m honest, the real story isn’t the report.
It’s what the process is asking of us and whether we’re truly ready to respond.
Because citizen-led work doesn’t just produce plans.
It exposes power.
And it raises a difficult question for our sector:
Do we really want to share decision-making or do we just want better engagement?
Let’s talk about pace and control
Citizen-led processes are slow.
They take time to listen properly. Time to deliberate. Time to sit with divergence. Time to build shared understanding. Understanding the trade-offs (there are always trade-offs).
They move at the speed of trust, not the speed of delivery targets, funding deadlines or institutional pressure.
Over the past four years, this work has unfolded through testing, learning and adaptation. Nothing was rushed. Nothing was fixed too early. Each stage shaped the next.
But here’s the tension: our ecosystems are not designed for this kind of work. They are designed to demand the full picture before the journey is even started.
They reward speed.
They reward certainty.
They reward control.
Citizen-led practice challenges all three.
If we genuinely want decisions shaped by lived experience, we must accept the time, complexity and uncertainty that comes with that. We cannot ask citizens for their voice and then contain it within existing structures that remain unchanged.
Deliberation is not delay.
It is democratic practice.
From consultation to redistribution
The cultural sector has become highly skilled at consultation.
Less skilled at redistributing power.
Too often, participation happens at the edges of decision-making rather than at its centre. Citizens are invited to contribute, but rarely to shape the terms.
What has been different here is the coalition that has formed around a shared direction across the West of England; local authorities, cultural organisations, funders and community partners choosing to move together.
But coalition is only the beginning.
The real question is whether institutions are prepared to let citizen priorities influence resource allocation, strategic direction and organisational behaviour. Whether we are prepared to change not just what we say, but what we do.
That is where citizen-led work becomes structural rather than symbolic.
Sharing power means letting go
Citizen-led work asks something very different from institutions and leaders.
It asks us to listen before acting.
It asks us to question our assumptions.
It asks expertise to sit alongside lived experience, not above it.
This is not simply a new methodology. It is a shift in mindset.
And it requires letting go: of certainty, of control, of the comfort of familiar decision-making structures.
That can feel destabilising. It challenges professional identity. It disrupts long-established ways of working. It asks organisations to operate with more openness and less authority.
We need to be honest about that.
But if we want cultural policy that reflects the lives of the people it serves, this shift is not optional. It is necessary. My question is how can we lean into that discomfort?
Discomfort is not a barrier to change.
It is evidence of it.
This brings up the question, ‘how can we lean into that discomfort?’
Institutional partnership and institutional responsibility
Partnership with Arts Council England and the West of England Combined Authority has been crucial. Their involvement gives this work weight, legitimacy and regional reach.
But institutional support must also mean institutional change.
If citizen voice is to be central rather than symbolic, systems of funding, governance and decision-making must evolve to reflect it. Otherwise participation risks becoming performative.
The opportunity now is to embed this work, not just endorse it.
What this has taught me
On a personal level, this work has deepened my belief that people are ready to shape the systems that shape their lives.
What has often been missing is not capacity, but access.
Not interest, but invitation.
Not ideas, but influence.
Citizen assemblies create space for genuine dialogue. They reconnect policy with lived experience. They begin to rebuild trust between people and institutions.
At a time when trust is fragile, that matters profoundly.
What happens next is the real test
We now move into the Citizens for Culture roadshow across the region.
This phase is not about presenting a finished plan. It is about testing what shared responsibility actually looks like. It is about asking difficult questions together:
What are we prepared to change?
What are we prepared to share?
What are we prepared to give up?
The work will be incremental. It will be messy. It will require courage.
But it offers the possibility of something different; cultural policy shaped with citizens, grounded in lived experience, and shared across the region.
That is the opportunity.
It is also the challenge.
Come into the conversation
If you’re part of an organisation, network, community group or partnership across the West of England and want to explore what this could mean for your work, invite us in.
The roadshow is about meeting people where they are, listening, challenging, learning together and working out what delivery really looks like.
If this approach resonates with you, or even if it makes you uncomfortable, we want to hear from you.
Because sharing power only works when more of us are willing to try.
The shift has begun; now we do the work together.”
Read this news blog, to find out how to get involved in the roadshow or email David Jubb, Citizens for Culture Project Manager at david@citizensinpower.com
