Local cultural strategy in focus at symposium
How to effectively celebrate the culture of the Kirklees district by engaging with people from all sectors and the public was at the heart of the University’s contribution to the recent Culture Is Ordinary symposium.
Featuring talks from the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, Kirklees Council leader Shabir Pandor, Arts Council England CEO Darren Henley and people from across business, the arts, education and leisure, the symposium saw discussions and breakout meetings take place on campus and in the nearby Temporary Contemporary spaces up at The Piazza in central Huddersfield.
The symposium’s title derives from the work of cultural theorist Raymond Williams, who advocated that culture should be part of our everyday lives. To that end, staff from the university contributed to discussions including how heritage and sport engage with the cultural life of Kirklees, as well as the role of universities in cultures of place alongside counterparts from other universities in the region.
The symposium is a collaboration between Kirklees Council and the School of Arts and Humanities. The ambition is to work with creative and cultural communities towards the future development of a Place-based Cultural Strategy for Kirklees.
A clip from the Culture Is Ordinary symposium
“Taking influence from the recent festival Cultures of Place, produced by staff in the School of Arts and Humanities, the symposium emphasised the importance of developing a place-based cultural strategy that is about people, artists, musicians, designers, makers, creatives, thinkers and innovators who work across all sectors,” said Dr Rowan Bailey, Director of Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange.
"The contributions made by the School of Arts and Humanities shows how working in collaboration can help to achieve district wide goals and ambitions.”
“The ‘Culture is Ordinary’ symposium highlighted the strategic importance of cultural thinking that exists in the School of Arts and Humanities through practices that are rooted in the locality, and very specifically the town of Huddersfield itself, while engaging with ideas and activities that are of national and international significance," says Professor Nic Clear, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities. "This outward facing approach is at the heart of Art & Humanities’ ethos and this type of engagement forms a vital armature that extends across our research and enterprise, teaching and learning, and international activities.”
The symposium also saw the launch of the Cultures of Place catalogue, which features documentation and reflection on projects with contextual essays from the curators.
Visit the Kirklees Council website for further information about Kirklees' place-based Cultural Strategy.