Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Town Clerk and Cultural Hub Director.

Governors considered a report of the Assistant Town Clerk and Cultural Hub Director on the City of London Corporation’s Cultural Strategy and the Chairman said that high level comments on the strategy itself were being looked for at this stage. The following matters were then raised.

·         Governors asked that ‘our’ be inserted before ‘cultural organisations’ in the first priority action on page 41 of the agenda pack and that ‘and globally’ be inserted at the end of point 9 on page 36.

·         Concern was then raised by a Governor that elements of the draft showed that the City was ‘punching below its weight’ at present and that further work is required to capitalise on the unique location offer and better engage the important cultural ‘players’ to enable them to feel more a part of the City. The Governor offered her input to help improve the draft in this regard and said that she would discuss the issues further with City officers.

·         A Governor put forward the view that section 9 (pages 44 to 45) was mainly related to promotion rather than potential to engage. It was noted that engagement is already extensive but that a further co-ordinated effort would be useful and projects like the Culture Mile would enable further scope to do this by education and outreach.            

·         A Governor then raised the question of whether the nomination of ‘a senior officer’ (first priority action at bottom of page 45) provided sufficient resource to lead on the Strategy’s implementation and also how the outcomes would be measured. A Governor also drew attention to previous issues arising from the running of the City of London Festival which he thought should be taken account of in the light of experience.

Sheriff and Alderman William Russell entered at this point of the meeting (2.30pm).

·         Discussion continued and The Deputy Chairman agreed that suitable promotion for the Strategy was required. The Town Clerk confirmed that this would take place and that an action plan and full evaluation would be an essential part of the Strategy. 

RECEIVED