TOURISM, EQUALITIES, COMMUNITIES & CULTURE COMMITTEE

Agenda Item 6(d) Brighton & Hove City Council

NOTICE OF MOTION

GREEN GROUP

SUPPORT FOR THE CITY’S CREATIVE AND CULTURAL SECTOR

This committee requests:

1. that a report is brought to a future meeting of this committee exploring how the creative sector including artists, designers, performers, musicians, music venues, cinemas, theatres, museums, galleries, community projects and other creative organisations and individuals in the city are responding to the Covid-19 crisis; and how they can best be supported in the long term.

2. Such a report should include:

- details of how to effectively co-ordinate a collective, sector-led response to relaunching cultural activity during and after the Covid-19 crisis, such as through greater publicity and signposting to available funding opportunities, and pooling of resources, taking into account that lockdown and alert phases may alter;

- details of possible direct council support, given relevant funding pressures, such as supporting existing collectives, signposting to assistance with funding and grant applications, and prioritisation of use of the city’s outdoor spaces for local grassroots cultural events;

- exploring the possibility of enabling the creative sector to collaborate with other sectors in the city, for example through facilitating offers of pro-bono legal and human resources assistance, training and recovery planning, and building on existing collaboration.

3. That the committee also requests that officers and councillors explore how Brighton and Hove can work with, and benefit from, the new national ‘Cultural Renewal Taskforce’.

Proposed by Cllr Rainey                    Seconded by Cllr Ebel

Organisations and individuals working in the creative sector in the city need a long term support strategy if they are to remain viable and continue to contribute to the city after the current crisis. Examples are available eg in the West Midlands, where a West Midlands Culture Response Unit has been created to ensure the visibility, viability and recovery of the cultural sector there. In Brighton and Hove organisations such as ACIC, Culture in our City, What Next and Brighton & Hove’s Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation are already working with the council to support the cultural sector during the current crisis. While there has been a great response to the crisis so far, this work needs to be developed further and to continue into the long term, as well as being more widely publicised to reach everyone affected and more strongly supported by the council.