PROTECT. RESTORE. HEAL. GROW.

Councillor Jane Black – Cabinet Member For Cultural Economy, Bury CouncilMarie-Claire Daly – Principal, Culture and Creative Policy Greater Manchester Combined AuthorityMarch, 2021

Head For The Hills VS United We StreamRamsbottom Cricket Club, December 2020© Chris Payne

CULTURE IN GM PRE-PANDEMIC

3rd most visited international destination in UK after London and Edinburgh, with 1.4m international visitors

The Visitor Economy in GM is worth £2.6bn per year and supports 105,000 jobs

The Digital and Creative Industries in GM are worth £4.4bn per year and support 78,500 jobs per year

More than 500 creative organisations across the conurbation.

Individual district support for culture, plus a long history of co-investment across GM. 10 districts support GM-wide investment in culture through the GM Culture fund, currently £4.4m p/a

‘Culture brings life to GM and GM to life’

GREATER MANCHESTER STRATEGY 2021

GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL

BODIESGMCA BURY COUNCIL

ANCHOR INSTITUTIONS

COMMUNITY GROUPS

ARTISTS RESIDENTS

INTERCONNECTED DELIVERY

SPOTLIGHT ON BURY

BURY – INAUGRAL GM TOWN OF CULTURE

• Culture at heart of Bury Covid Recovery and central to ‘Strengths’ component of our Bury 2030 strategy - Let’s Do It!

• Celebrating culture through• Happy : the life and inspiration of Victoria Wood and becoming thought leaders in happiness• Strong Arts Offer: The Met as principal host of United We Stream; Bury Art Museum, Fusiliers Museum and

East Lancashire Railway• Culture in our communities – we are towns of cultures - first Bury Macfest in 2021

• New Cultural Strategy for the Borough to build on legacy of Town of Culture – culture at the heart of• Place including regeneration of town centres such as Radcliffe • Wellbeing• Economy

• Bury Futures lectures and discussions with Philip Collins on the role of culture, education and health in thriving local places

DURING THE PANDEMIC

GMCA front-loaded payments to the 35 cultural organisations within the GM Culture Portfolio, giving six months payment upfront.

In March 2020, GMCA launched GM Covid Commissions – 60 individual grants of £500, providing musicians, poets, illustrators, artists, writers and designers with vital funds and creating an archive of work that documents the first few months of lockdown.

From its first show on April 3rd, 2020 to the final show of the year on New

Years’ Eve, 2020, United We Stream produced 308 hours of live content,

amassed more than 20 million views, provided a platform for more than

448 artists and cultural organisations and raised £583,300 for 130

cultural organisations and individuals affected by the pandemic and

supported 30 charities including Nordoff Robbins and Manchester Mind.

Working with cultural organisations from across GM we developed and

delivered Creative Care Packs, distributing almost 40,000 Creative Care

kits to young people and to isolated older residents across GM.

RECOVERY OF OUR ECONOMY

• The pandemic has exacerbated some of the issues that were present pre-crisis.

• The so called ‘death of the high street’ - a pre-pandemic trend towards lower occupancy rates of retail and leisure spaces evident in many towns and cities across the country - has intensified as a result of the government-mandated closure of these businesses and the resulting increase in reliance on internet shopping.

• Local authorities are hence ever more receptive to ideas which have the ability to maintain and increase growth and employment whilst breathing life into neglected looking high streets.

• The cultural and night time economies play a central role in developing distinctive and valuable place brands that, in turn, sell places to multiple stakeholder audiences: residents, tourists, investors and government funders.

• Greater Manchester is a global exporter of talent. In 2019, music alone contributed £169m to our local economy

RECOVERY IN OUR COMMUNITES

• Throughout 2020, the priority for national and local government, public services and all our residents, was dealing with the immediate impact of the pandemic, whether that was the implementation of measures designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19 or dealing with the personal impact of the Pandemic; be that personal loss, illness or poor mental health or trying to manage competing priorities of working from home while caring for or educating loved ones.

• As we start to emerge from this immediate crisis management, we are able to start to think about what we lost while we were living through lockdown; one of the key areas being the enjoyment of enjoyable collective experiences.

• We will need to find ways to make sense of the unprecedented events of 2020 and start to heal, individually and collectively, from what has been a terrible year. We will develop and deliver schemes and programmes that support the physical and mental health of our residents and that start the healing process, that will last for many years to come.

• We will work with cultural organisations in GM, with GMHSCP and leading practitioners and academics, to provide opportunities for our residents, including social prescribing and other creative health opportunities across the life course and across both the health and care sectors.

HOW WILL WE DO IT?

GREATER MANCHESTER

• Creative Improvement Districts – working with pilot places to develop and deliver culture-led regen • Creative Connections website – connecting artists and organisations with opportunity across GM• United We Stream – providing a global platform for local talent• Town of Culture – shining a spotlight on the very best culture in our towns• Investment in arts, health and wellbeing activities

BURY

• Develop community champions for inclusive conversations with local communities and amplify seldom heard voices in culture

• Commission Cultural Strategy to further develop cultural partnerships, identifying and acting on levers for recovery including within our Town Centres

• Celebrate local creativity through micro-commission opportunities and provide platforms and spaces to showcase talent.• Use culture to drive delivery of the Bury 2030 Strategy and the Let’s Do It principles of local, enterprise, togetherness and

strengths.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Greater Manchester Strategy

Bury 2030 Strategy

Let’s Create

Levelling Up Funds

Towns/High Streets Fund