‘Culture Makes: the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation’ announces a major UK-wide campaign to celebrate the impact of culture and make the case for investment.
image for illustration: Open Government Licence v3.0
… organisations have long wrestled with how to communicate the value and impact of their work…
[Summarised] – for more information see culture belongs to everyone (culturalphilanthropyfoundation.co.uk)
Culture and heritage organisations nationwide to come together to celebrate the impact they make within their communities – advocating to government and audiences for support.
The Cultural Philanthropy Foundation invites every culture and heritage organisation in the UK to join the campaign as first raft of partners is confirmed
The Cultural Philanthropy Foundation is delighted to announce Culture Makes…, a major UK-wide campaign that will celebrate the wide-ranging impact culture and heritage organisations make within their communities in the run-up to the next general election.
Culture Makes… sets out a bold new vision for the value and impact of culture and heritage in society and as a human right which urgently needs investment, employing the… Impact that culture makes within its communities across the nation as a unified voice for the sector to build understanding.
The… announcement is an invitation to every culture and heritage organisation in the UK to join this major, free to join campaign which will launch in May and run throughout 2024.
[amongst the] first raft of partners….:
20 Stories High; A & B Cymru; Access All Areas; An Tobar and Mull Theatre; The Art House, Wakefield; Arts & Business Northern Ireland; Bristol Old Vic; Cardboard Citizens; Crafts Council; Dundee Contemporary Arts; Edinburgh International Festival; Hastings Contemporary; Hilanderas Plataforma Cultural; Javaad Alipoor Company; Litfest – Lancaster Festival of Literature; Lyric Theatre Belfast; Midlands Arts Centre; National Centre for Writing; National Museums Liverpool; National Youth Orchestra Scotland; Northern Ballet; Northern Ireland Opera; One Dance UK; Mostyn Gallery; Picturehouse Cinemas; Pleasance; Puppet Place, Bristol; Roundhouse; Royal Shakespeare Company; Scottish Ballet; Shakespeare’s Globe; Shubbak Festival; Southbank Centre; Stage Beyond Theatre Company, Derry; Talawa Theatre Company; Theatr Clwyd; The Forum, Norwich; The Women’s Prize Trust; and Worthing Theatres and Museum – and the Foundation warmly invites organisations across all cultural and heritage forms, scales and locations to join in celebrating the impact of the work they make and that of the sector as a whole.
Caroline McCormick, Chair of the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, said: ‘Cultural and heritage organisations have long wrestled with how to communicate the value and impact of their work. ‘Culture Makes…’ comes at a critical time enabling us to come together through a clear and simple set of linguistic tools which will allow us to celebrate and raise awareness of the impact of the sector as a whole and the individual contributions each organisation makes with government and policy makers, funders, and our audiences. Our aim is to build an overwhelmingly powerful sector voice that cannot be ignored. We need the partnership of every cultural organisation across the UK to achieve this. Please join us and raise your voice for culture.’
Sandeep Mahal & Vicky Cheetham, Interim Co-Executive Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said: ‘The arts and culture have immense power to transform the lives of all who encounter it. In a period of growing economic uncertainty and funding cuts which will impact the wellbeing of people and communities around the country, the RSC is proud to be part of ‘Culture Makes…’. This campaign will help to build our collective understanding of the economic, creative, social and physical power that exists within the culture sector in the UK and support the case for growing critical public and private funds to ensure we have a thriving arts and culture sector that is a beacon to the world.’
Laura Pye, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said: ‘Collectively the cultural sector makes a real impact to our communities and is vital to so many parts of our society but we haven’t been great at communicating that. ‘Culture Makes…’ marks an unprecedented opportunity for organisations across culture and heritage to come together and make the much-needed case for support in these challenging times. We’re pleased to be part of the announcement today to encourage others from across the heritage sector to join us for this important campaign’.
Culture Makes… is announced at a time of existential crisis for culture in the UK with the compounded impact of years of standstill government funding, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the cost of living crisis. Councils – the biggest funders of arts and culture in England – have reduced spending to culture and tourism by almost £500 million since the onset of austerity (County Councils Network) with nearly one in 10 English councils warning that they will go bankrupt in the next 12 months. The outlook is worse still for charities – it is anticipated that 20% of all UK charities will go bankrupt this year. Giving to culture has declined to less than 1% of all charitable giving in the UK, its lowest level in more than a decade, as revealed in the UK Giving Report 2023. The Culture Makes… campaign aims to grow governmental and public understanding of cultural organisations as charities that make real impact, need support and encourage the democratisation of cultural philanthropy as a result.
Culture Makes… is informed by a piece of research undertaken by Achates, the cultural sector consultancy company founded by Caroline McCormick in 2014, as part of its long-standing support of the Achates Philanthropy Prize. In 2020, the team reviewed 120 case studies submitted to the Prize by cultural organisations working across artforms in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales demonstrating how they were supporting their communities and how their communities were responding. Achates evaluated each of the case studies and from this developed The 8 Types of Impact of Culture and Heritage©, a tool to express the breadth of impact of the cultural sector. Developed over the following two years by the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation as part of its Celebrate | Grow | Inspire strategy, a range of initiatives to promote the democratisation of culture, this tool now forms the basis of the Culture Makes… campaign which will showcase and celebrate the 8 Types of Impact that culture makes within its communities across the nation.
The 8 Types of Impact are:
- Creative – the intrinsic value of the experience created by engaging with culture and heritage
- Economic – the value of culture to the wider economy
- Physical Health – improvements to physical health through culture
- Mental Health and Wellbeing – improvements to mental health and well-being through culture
- Education – programmes that enhance learning experience in formal education settings
- Social Benefit – the impact on wider society via the engagement of the individual
- Community Building – communities of geography or interest developed or supported through culture
- Innovation – technological innovation that drives creative value
Alongside sponsorship from Achates, Culture Makes… is generously supported by Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, and partner organisations will receive a toolkit of specifically designed campaign assets to use in venue and online throughout the campaign year in a way that resonates with the work they deliver and the impact it makes. By placing communities at the centre of the stories shared the campaign will showcase the different kinds of impact cultural organisations across the UK are driving through their work. A series of online workshops led by the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation will run across the campaign year, with the first session on Tuesday 9 April at 2pm for cultural organisations who are interested to find out more. Culture Makes… will also be inviting the public to share testimonials as part of a digital campaign running across summer 2024.
We’re inviting every cultural and heritage organisation in the UK to join the Culture Makes… campaign
