Citizens' Assembly for creativity and culture - West of England
The idea of this project is for a DESCRIPTIVELY representative group of citizens from across the west of England to shape a cultural DELIVERY PLAN for the region.
A cultural delivery plan would answer a series of questions. How do people from across the region express their creativity? What are some of the best ways to celebrate the region’s culture and how can they best be supported? How can investment be developed and prioritised?
This project was initiated by LaToyah McAllister-Jones of St Pauls Carnival and Emma Harvey of Trinity Bristol. As part of Bristol’s One City Culture Board, LaToyah and Emma questioned the conventional model of creating strategy and began to consider ways in which citizens could be engaged and involved in the creation of a cultural strategy for the wider region.
LaToyah and Emma approached Citizens In Power to explore a variety of options. A working group was formed made up of freelancers and organisations to explore the idea of citizen-led culture. The group engaged in a period of research and development supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation. Research included meeting citizens who have taken part in deliberative processes as well as discussions with experts in democratic participation. The group also met with representatives of the West of England’s Cultural Compact.
The project is now being overseen by a formal partnership between the West of England Combined Authority, Trinity Bristol, St Pauls Carnival and Citizens In Power.
In 2023, a draft plan for a Citizens’ Assembly for Culture is being developed and designed by citizens from across the region and also explored with cultural organisations. The plan is for the Citizens’ Assembly to be launched in 2024 and to take place in 2025.
We want our work to be transparent so that anyone can see what we do and how we do it. The West of England citizens’ assembly for culture has an open googledrive that anyone anywhere can access and which traces the project right from the outset in 2021/22. You can access this here. (Please note that documents with sensitive information (e.g. contact details) are protected and not accessible.)
Above and below are some of the visuals that we are using to work with citizens in this design stage. These are created by west of England based artist Camille Aubry whose website can be found here.
