International evidence has shown the benefits of arts, culture and heritage

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It supports our personal wellbeing and makes people feel more content.

It helps people feel part of their community, fosters a sense of collective identity, creates space for interaction and shared experience and contributes towards people having a stronger attachment to a place.

It increases satisfaction and plays an important role in attracting and retaining talent, in particular graduate companies in the digital and creative industries

It is important in putting places on the map and, where necessary, changing negative perceptions and media stereotypes of the attractiveness of areas as places to live, work and visit

There are also hard-nosed reasons why we need culture to be our plan. Arts, culture and heritage can be a big part of our recovery now and our long-term economic success in the future. 

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Prior to COVID-19, the UK’s cultural and creative industries – architecture, dance, music, theatre, cultural festivals, product and graphic design, fashion, film, TV, video, radio, photography, gaming and computer services, literature, poetry and publishing, museums, galleries and libraries, visual arts and crafts, advertising and marketing – have been an international success story. 

Our Challenge

We have historically underperformed in attracting national investment – something we are determined to reverse. Right now, we lag behind other places of similar size and that has led to stark inequalities in cultural access too.

These inequalities are reflected in other aspects of life. Our District has high levels of poverty, obesity and diabetes, low life expectancy and declining rates of mental wellbeing. Our city and town centres – like many across the north – are struggling in the face of the impact of austerity and the effects of COVID-19. We are ranked the fifth most income deprived local authority in England.

We have low levels of educational attainment and many lack the skills businesses seek. We are determined to use our resources to solve these problems and to work in partnership with national investors to level up the District.

We are proud to have our 11 National Portfolio Organisations, but they are all relatively small in scale compared with our peers. Our 11 NPO’s share £1.7m from Arts Council England. The 11 NPOs in Sheffield, meanwhile, are typically much larger companies with a share of £3.5m.

National Lottery Heritage Fund made two awards to Bradford District worth £16,800 in 2019. In the same 12 months Sheffield won eight awards worth £684,900, Liverpool 19 awards worth £893,000 and Leeds ten awards worth £341,100.

It is a similar story for our national partners at the British Film Institute.

We know these national partners are eager to support us to grow the level of investment in the District, but we need strong projects and a coherent plan to help them to back Bradford more.

Before COVID-19, there were 5,640 workers in the cultural and creative industries sector here compared with 8,000 in Newcastle and 10,445 in Sheffield. We need to level up with the rest of the north before we can start to catch up with the south!

These lower levels of investment mean less cultural opportunity too, so it’s no surprise we also have fewer people able to engage with art, culture and heritage. Arts Council England data suggests that 55% of Bradfordians have ‘low engagement’ with the arts compared with 35% for England. These areas of lower engagement precisely match our poorest communities – and this includes some of the most diverse communities in the UK.

Our Opportunity

By contrast, as we have created this plan, we have heard from many people about how central culture and creativity are to their lives.

There is a wealth of creative practice in our District, from filmmakers to poets, photographers to musicians, writers to online influencers, and music promoters to community events organisers. Much of this is happening under the radar, but it forms a rich network of creativity, knitting together generations, communities and artists.

We are beginning to win more national investment thanks to leadership and bold investments made by the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in 2019. And thanks to arts, culture and heritage organisations working together to make effective bids:

• The Leap, our Creative People and Places programme, has won £2m from Arts Council England

• Bradford Live has been supported by £4m from National Lottery Heritage Fund.

• Cultural regeneration projects in Keighley and Shipley will be supported by up to £25m each from the UK government’s Towns Fund.

• Bradford Producing Hub has won over £1m from Arts Council England.

• National Lottery Heritage Fund is investing more than £200,000 in development of an action plan for the district, inspired by the work of Culture Is Our Plan 

Although we have more diversity in our cultural sector than many parts of the UK, we don’t yet have a culture that properly represents the exciting diversity of our District. 

Jobs in the creative economy also tend to be higher value, better paid and more skilled than the average. The sector’s focus on digital technologies also means that jobs in creative industries can be greener, providing for a more sustainable District in the future.

Culture already plays a major role in Bradford District’s visitor economy. We have 12 million people visiting each year, which makes 14,000 jobs and an economic impact of £696m. 54% of these visitors already come for culture. But our visitor economy is static. With investment and better promotion arts, culture and heritage can drive growth.

Employment in cultural and creative industries had been growing at around 4% per year in the rest of Yorkshire and Humber region, but we have stood still. Meeting this regional growth rate could mean 3,000 new jobs by 2031.

Our Recovery

Culture is important in everyone’s lives. It has become even more so during COVID-19 and will be vital as we work to recover from the impact of the pandemic and look to the future. 

Along with the new devolved authority for West Yorkshire, Bradford Council has put culture and place at the heart of our economic recovery plan.

Ironically, the relatively small scale of many of Bradford’s cultural organisations has left them less exposed to the impact of COVID-19 on box office and other earned income. Even so, they, like many others, have been grateful for the support of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) through the Cultural Recovery Fund. 

Meanwhile, the majority of our creative community is freelance, a sector that has been severely affected. Bradford Council’s fast-thinking #Response funds have not only supported some of those artists but galvanised them to deliver life-enhancing projects with communities online and in person. 

As COVID hopefully recedes, it is critical that we don’t lose sight of the climate crisis. Our arts, culture and heritage sector must think about all of our actions, individually and collectively. We need to consider the example we might set and what we will do to make Bradford District more resilient in the future. This is why this plan endorses the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

These 17 goals go beyond the critical headlines of carbon reduction and challenge us also to consider our actions on equalities, decent jobs, education, wellbeing and poverty. We will use these global goals to shape our plans and measure our success.