Find out how your cultural organisation can help support the Citizens’ Assembly

‘Citizens for Culture’ is bringing together citizens – people living, working or staying across the West of England – to explore how creative opportunities can be inclusive and accessible for everyone in the region.

Taking place in 2025 this ambitious project aims to co-create a Cultural Plan for the three areas in the West of England Combined Authority.

As part of the successful delivery of the assembly, we are calling out for freelancers, artists, individuals, cultural workers and organisations to sign up to be ‘Assembly Associates’.

Associates will be advocates for citizens-led culture and will support the campaign by:

• Shaping the design of the assembly and associated activities
• Sharing Citizens for Culture opportunities within their networks and communication channels
• Submitting evidence to be presented to citizens in the assembly
• Publicly advocating for the outcomes of the assembly in their own practice, work or organisation

Why sign up?

Becoming an associate of Citizens for Culture offers an opportunity to actively shape the future of citizen-led culture for the region.

By joining Citizens for Culture, you can connect with audiences and others in the sector from across the region more directly. By signing up as an Associate you will have the opportunity to influence cultural policy, expand your networks and advocate for meaningful change in your own communities and sectors.

Find out more:

If you are interested in becoming an associate of Citizens for Culture and would like out find out more please get in touch with Citizens for Culture Producer Anjali at anjali@trinitybristol.org.uk

Find out more about Bradford’s approach to bid for city of culture 

Citizens for Culture is a partnership with Trinity Community Arts, St Pauls Carnival and David Jubb of Citizens In Power. Together we are exploring how we can co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding region.

During the research phase, funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), we invited a range of collaborators from the sector who place participation at the heart of their practice to hear from some of the best speakers working in democratic decision making right now.

Part 3: Becoming A City Of Culture

In our third blog we reflect on the thoughts and experiences of Bradford 2025 team members, May McQuade and Jack Lynch who used the Citizens’ Assembly model as part of Bradford’s successful UK City of Culture 2025 bid.

May McQuade was the Programme and Community Coordinator for Bradford 2025. It was her role to explore what they would do if they were to win, and what programming could happen during the bidding period. This involved lots of consultation work, spreading the word around the bidding and getting people on board. 

Jack Lynch worked on creating the campaign and brand for Bradford 2025. His role looked at how the City of Culture bid looked and felt, and the story they wanted it to tell. Jack spoke about being particularly keen to make something that felt truly original in Bradford, particularly with regards to how people normally spoke about the area.

The group were interested to explore what the catalyst was for this groundswell of positive engagement with the Bradford 2025 campaign. Jack shared that there was a focus on taking public opinion and universal truths about Bradford, and working them into the campaign. They found this was a way that everyone – from people in the arts sector to people in the street – could understand the aim of winning a City of Culture bid, and that this helped create a high level of engagement. The group discussed that ‘finding the city’s universal truths’ could be an important part of a City of Culture bid for Bristol.

Delving into the local authority’s involvement in Bradford 2025, May shared how the council had set up and invested in the trust then fully supported the bidding process. The decision for the bid to be separate from the council gave the team creative freedom.

There was a question posed from the group about the high number of people of Pakistani heritage living in Bradford, and how the bid was representative of this community. May spoke about several staff and steering group members being of South Asian heritage and the broad consultation events taking place in every ward of the district. May also shared that part of the bid’s focus was around improving representation in decision making roles within the arts, and supporting growth of the South Asian arts offer in Bradford. She went on to say that there are also many other Global Majority groups living in the area, and they wanted to make sure everyone was involved – which was admittedly difficult. The group spoke about Bristol’s arts sector not being fully representative of the diverse population of the city, and how there would need to be careful thought put into that during the bidding process. 

When asked what the biggest takeaways were from the process, Jack spoke about understanding that from a marketing perspective this is essentially a political campaign. May shared that, on a personal level, she felt it was important to start with a pace that makes sense with the communities you’re working with and not push too hard from the beginning – it’s a fast paced process and can easily become overwhelming.

David Jubb, Citizens for Culture project manager, discusses the project and plans for the 2025 Assembly

We are exploring how we can use a Citizens’ Assembly to co-create a cultural strategy for the city and surrounding region. Earlier this year, we recruited a producer to help with the successful delivery of the Assembly. We caught up with David Jubb, project manager, to find out more about the role and the Citizens for Culture project.

Hi David! Tell us more about the role of producer and what they’ll be working on.

This is a role that I wish had been around when I was developing my practice as a producer. I would have jumped at it. The role oversees the entire citizens’ assembly process over the coming 12 months. This will include all the current development stages, procuring key partners and laying the groundwork for the UK’s first citizens’ assembly to create a cultural plan for an entire region. The role will work closely with assembly members, supporting their needs and ensuring that each one has a positive and inspiring experience. They will also establish the framework for the assembly’s recommendations to be carried forward. I think one of the many exciting things about the role is that citizen-led decision-making, such as citizens’ juries, citizens’ assemblies and panels, are growing in the creative and cultural sector. So the producer will put themselves in an interesting position in terms of the future opportunities in the sector.

Who does the Citizens’ Assembly Producer get to work with?

They work closely with all the project partners: LaToyah McAllister-Jones, executive director of St Pauls Carnival; Emma Harvey, CEO of Trinity; Sarah James, creative and cultural programme lead at the West of England Combined Authority. Each partner brings different experiences to the project. LaToyah works with Involve to facilitate assemblies as well as her extensive professional experience in and out of the cultural sector. Emma has been a driving force for how cultural buildings can use creativity as a tool for civic participation. Sarah is leading Culture West, a regional programme which brings practitioners together to create a transformational shift to co-created models of practice. The producer would also work with me. My background is in the cultural sector. I was artistic director and CEO of Battersea Arts Centre from 2004-19, before becoming more interested in citizen-led decision-making. Last year I co-founded Citizens In Power as a not-for-profit organisation, with the purpose to co-design ways for citizens to lead decision-making.

In addition to the project partners, the producer works with the assembly’s Oversight Panel and Advisory Panel, independent groups who will advise on equity and inclusion, and select evidence for the assembly to consider. They will also collaborate with the Lead Facilitator, the Combined Authority and four Unitary Authorities, the assembly’s funding partners, Arts Council England and Gulbenkian Foundation, and everyone involved in the production and logistics of the assembly itself. It’s a big team!

What does success look like for you within this project?

By having a Citizens’ Assembly for creativity and culture, the project aims to democratise decision-making in the cultural sector. The assembly will empower citizens to co-create a vibrant, inclusive cultural delivery plan for the West of England. It’s important to know that when we say “citizens” we mean people who live, work or stay in a place – i.e. everyone! Success will be a project that constantly challenges itself on issues of equity and inclusion.

Essential success measures are inclusive participation, constructive deliberation and actionable recommendations. We are involving both citizens and practitioners from the sector in the design of the assembly to help us achieve this. Of course, the real test of success for Citizens for Culture will be the delivery of the assembly’s outcomes. This will require the collaboration of lots of different partners: from councils, sector organisations, communities, funders to individuals, all working together to make change happen. We need to grow many of these partnerships in advance of the assembly happening in 2025. We also hope Citizens For Culture provides inspiration for other councils and funders which are seeking to create future delivery plans by putting citizens at the heart of the process.