Cultural democracy is key to audience engagement 

Coventry City of Culture Trust has put great emphasis on encouraging the many different communities that make up the city to play a central role in storytelling, shaping, making and co-creating a locally inspired and inclusive programme of arts and cultural activities. 

The Collaborative City team was tasked with building a programme with, and for, the people of the city, shaping it from the ground up, investing in our grass roots communities’ creativity, knowledge and ambitions. And we have had remarkable results.

As Jacqui Ibbotson, Programme Manager and Producer, says: “When we asked people to take part, or for their ideas, they came forward. The people of Coventry have been amazing. I have worked on similar projects elsewhere in the country and I have not witnessed a response like this.”

The success is in part down to the programme framework, put in place early, and the resounding belief that Coventry’s communities must be central to the creative process.  The Collaborative City team reach out to the community, ensuring that activity is focused across a wide geographical area, taking particular care to engage those who may have been marginalised, those who are seldom heard and those who risk isolation.

Our citizens are the stars of the programme, continually bringing fresh ideas to ensure that their stories and perspectives are central to their city’s year of culture.

Many local initiatives

Even with the challenges of Covid, communities were keen to take part in many local initiatives. For example, Radford Bubbles is a photographic exhibition of “support bubbles” that were photographed by a group of local photographers just after lockdown, capturing this defining moment in history. 

Window Wanderland sees residents continue to demonstrate their feeling of community by decorating their windows with artworks, and other creations, across the city for their neighbours to enjoy. More than 2,000 households took part in 2021.

Dr Nor Aziz came to Coventry from Malaysia as a student 26 years ago. She considers the Canley area of the city her home. She was keen to do something to put her neighbourhood on the map but wasn’t sure how. 

Coventry City of Culture Trust, she says, gave her the support and direction she needed to become a successful community activist. “When we got the news that we had won the City of Culture title, I wanted to be part of it. The Trust gave me a space to achieve what I wanted for my community. I wanted a way to make my voice heard.”

Abundance is one programme Nor has been involved in. It put South Asian cultures under the spotlight in a celebration of light, hope and freedom, created and led by local girls and women across the city. Nor is now looking beyond City of Culture 2021 with a spin-off called Youth Abundance, to attract 18 to 30-year-old members of her South Asian community.

Training for Community Leaders 

Building relationships with community centre networks across the city, we have enabled training for Community Leaders, who were keen to learn more about becoming local promoters.  Collaborating with the Albany Theatre and Black Country Touring, these leaders are now promoting professional activity in their centres as part of Theatre Next Door, a programme of professional shows with a relaxed pay-what-you-wish at the door policy. 

Try It! is an event that encourages residents to have a go at a range of new, and often quirky, social prescribing creative activities. It has enlisted a range of local artists and performers to lead the activities – giving a kick-start to projects which may have otherwise not been realised. 

We have also provided opportunities for freelance artists and performers, or those working full-time in another area, to get their ideas off the ground. “It can be overwhelming to start on your own project, more so in light of the pandemic. What we have been able to do is some handholding, financing and connecting people who otherwise might never had met”, Molly Adkins, Producer. 

Growing confidence and credibility

Sound of Cov connected the many hospital, community and local radio stations in the city, bringing them together to talk about radio and share content. The result was two days of radio content broadcast across local BBC stations. There was also an afternoon of music and live performance, entirely curated by local radio stations, at the Assembly Festival Garden, which it is hoped will continue as a legacy of the programme. 

Roze Navab moved from Iran to Coventry when she was two years old. A recent graduate of Coventry University, she was involved in Sound of Cov, coordinating a community radio conference and learning event management skills.  Through the Trust, Roze has been able to secure funding for her own Twin Studios project. 

“The best part of working with City of Culture is when you don’t know what you are doing, they support you with a producer to help guide your project. This has taught me so much; it’s given me confidence and credibility. Most importantly, it’s made me think I can do this.” Roze now has plans to extend Twin Studios to other cities.

Through working with our communities, we have piloted a model of co-creation and cultural democracy, which will leave a lasting legacy for the people of Coventry, inspire new ways of working across other sectors and empower citizens to continue to create and produce work that is meaningful to them. 

Kate Danielson is Senior Producer, Collaborative City for Coventry City of Culture 2021

 @Coventry2021

The Collaborative City Team are planning a co-creation conference at the end of May. Please email [email protected] for further information.

You can register with the Delegates office here or email [email protected].

This article, sponsored and contributed by Coventry City of Culture 2021, is part of a series inviting professionals from across the arts and the creative industries to experience the cultural programme as Delegates.