In 2025, Trinity Community Arts, St Pauls Carnival CIC, Citizens in Power and the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority will collaborate to launch a regional Citizens’ Assembly for Culture.

This bold new approach to cultural engagement will bring together citizens – people living, working or staying across the West or England – to explore how creative opportunities can be inclusive and accessible for everyone in the region.

Guided by the four pillars of the West of England’s existing cultural plan – skills, the economy, placemaking and well-being – the Assembly will create a series of recommendations that will help to define priorities for regional cultural output; what takes place and where, who is involved and how our regional offer is shaped and defined.

We’re pleased to share this dedicated website for the Citizens for Culture project. This platform marks an exciting next step towards the planned Assembly this year and it is designed to share news and updates on the project, including the latest events, blog posts and ways to get involved.

We are collaborating with Wecil who are providing expertise on the sites features and accessibility, we know this is always a journey so if you have any feedback about the site please do get in contact with us.

THE PROJECT SO FAR:

The partnership secured further funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for the delivery of Citizens for Culture.  Citizens for Culture was announced as part of the delivery plans for West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Culture West programme.

The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority agreed to join the partnership and support the research phase. One of the objectives of this phase was to create a series of citizens’ panels with representative groups of citizens from across the region selected by the Sortition Foundation. These citizen panels created the design principles for the Citizens’ Assembly for Culture.

£10,000 of research and development funding was secured from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) which enabled the partners to begin the initial research phase. During this period, collaborators from the cultural sector helped explore how a Citizens’ Assembly for Culture could be used to co-create a cultural delivery plan During this phase, it was recommended that the plan should incorporate the wider region.

The project was initiated by St Pauls Carnival CEO, LaToyah McAllister-Jones, and Trinity‘s CEO, Emma Harvey, who, as community leaders, began to think about how people in Bristol – particularly those from under-represented groups – could help to inform cultural plans for the city. The pair began working with David Jubb from Citizens in Power to build democracy into cultural decision-making. programme.

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During the summer of 2024, we hosted a series of Citizens for Culture Online Information Sessions as part of our ongoing journey toward the South Wests first regional Citizens’ Assembly for culture, set to take place in 2025.

The sessions, held via Zoom, provided an opportunity to learn about the Citizens’ Assembly, ask questions, and share ideas that would ultimately shape the assembly itself. Hosted by key project partners, including LaToyah McAllister-Jones from St Paul’s Carnival, David Jubb of Citizens in Power and Emma Harvey from Trinity, the sessions provided an open space to discuss and understand how democratic tools can shape and impact the cultural sector, and how they might address challenges that the sector faces. 

Across three engaging sessions, participants explored the concept of Citizens’ Assemblies, the potential impact on cultural decision-making, and how individuals and organisations in the West of England can get involved. 

Each session covered a different topic. LaToyah McAllister-Jones offered an in-depth look at the assembly’s design, addressing questions about its structure and objectives. David Jubb highlighted the strategic potential of the assembly to impact the region’s cultural ecosystem, emphasising the roles of key stakeholders. Emma Harvey led a discussion on potential questions the assembly might tackle. These discussions sparked conversations and provided a space to reflect on how different people can play a part in this project.

We want to extend a thank you to everyone who joined us for these sessions. Your contributions have shaped the next steps of Citizens for Culture. 

We’re now looking for more individuals and organisations in the West of England to become associates with Citizens for Culture. Associates will play a key role in guiding the Assembly, ensuring it reflects the region’s diverse voices and that its outcomes shape the cultural sector for the better.

We’re also excited to announce the launch of our new Citizens for Culture website, where you’ll find more ways to get involved, including opportunities to submit evidence, participate in workshops, and stay updated on our progress.

Interested in finding out more?

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.