In November, the Centre for Cultural Value, led by Leeds University, launched its first – and hopefully not last – ‘Festival of Ideas’ over almost two weeks about 1000 people from the cultural and creative industries, community groups, and academia engaged in fascinating discussions on a variety of topics centered around the theme: Whose Culture? Topics ranged from: what culture will look like post-CV19, participation and collaboration, the thorny issue of evaluation, young people and mental health, how to use research to influence policy, and failure. A reflection on the event by the Centre’s Director Ben Walmsley can be found here and, importantly, some sign-posting on what’s next. You can catch up on, or revisit, some of the panel presentations and discussions on the CCV’s YouTube stream – well worth a listen.

Ben’s blog picks up on many of the points that struck me from the sessions: a sense amongst many for the pressing need for change, radical change, in the cultural sector; concerns around power and where power lies within existing structures but also where it could lie were things to be disrupted. There was a recognition that we don’t know a lot of the things we need to know, that there’s a need for embracing failure and adopting risk, and a need to look beyond the data (without disregarding it entirely).

Many discussions were fuelled equally by frustration, imagination and a sense of possibility which, in what were generally 90minute sessions on zoom was quite a point to reach. The sessions I attended were generally comprised of a series of short panel presentations and discussion, breakout rooms with about three people for ten minutes tasked with responding to particular questions, these were then relayed in the chat, and the Chairs did an impressive juggling act of drawing questions from the chat, their own expertise and experience, and from those attending to draw out a closing discussion.

What struck me most, however, was how, in the events I attended, there was a real sense of a cultural community with a range of expertise coming together around shared points of interest and concern. There was no sense of ‘knowledge exchange’ which sometimes plagues events, but much more a sense of collective thinking and a community of practice and purpose – much like we’ve tried to generate through Wor Culture. What was impressive here was that this was global – the 1000 attendees came not only from across sectors (academic, cultural, community and many others) but also from across the world. I don’t think it can be underestimated what an achievement that was and I look forward to doing what we can to support the CCV team as they take their work forward. Do sign up to their newsletter to keep in the loop.