Could you help shape York’s creative future?
That’s the question being asked by Make It York, City of York Council and the Cultural Leaders Group as they launch their new Culture Forum.
It is open to anyone involved in the city’s creative and cultural sector, and will include individual artists, organisations and community groups.
This comes after the Culture Strategy was launched in 2020, a joint initiative by Make It York, City of York Council and the Cultural Leaders Group to map out the next five years of York’s Creative Future.
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The Culture Forum will be a space where people can learn about and contribute to the Culture Strategy’s future direction.
Helen Apsey, head of culture and wellbeing at Make It York and co-chair of York Culture Forum, said: “We’re looking forward to seeing how the Culture Forum develops and to meeting many more people working within the cultural and creative sector, to share knowledge, develop new partnerships and to support network building.”
The existing Cultural Leaders Group – which is made up of 40 leaders across the cultural creative sector in the city – will be replaced by an executive group elected by the new Culture Forum.
This will make York the first city with an elected cultural executive group in the UK.
To join the York Culture Forum, simply sign up via the Make It York website. There will also be two Zoom taster sessions tomorrow (Wednesday, 12 January) at 3pm and 17 January at 1:30pm to find out more, before the first official meeting later this month.
Councillor Darryl Smalley, executive member for culture, leisure and communities, said: “Inclusion, participation and representation is at the core of York’s Creative Future.
“Creating a more inclusive and open forum will ensure that we make culture even more relevant and accessible to everybody in York, regardless of age, background or postcode.”