(a)

following the city’s unsuccessful bid for the UK City of Culture for 2017, Plymouth Culture Board had appointed Dominic Jinks as its Executive Director;

(b)

the Plymouth Culture Board was being re-energised, and a recruitment drive for new board members had recently been held; 25 applications had been received for these posts;

(c)

two major projects were being developed; the Plymouth History Centre and Mayflower 2020.  The History Centre would open in late 2019 in time to take a pivotal role in the Mayflower400 cultural programme;

(d)

the Plymouth History Centre was a priority as it would be a major capital development and it was important that the city supported this; there was cross-party support for this important cultural scheme with over £5 million committed from the Council’s capital programme;

(e)

Plymouth City Council were working in partnership with Cornwall County Council to transform Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park;

(f)

it was hoped that a strong cultural programme would increase visitors to the city, boost the visitor economy and create a better place to live for its residents;

(g)

it was hoped that different cultures would be represented on the Plymouth Culture Board (eg Sport, the Arts etc);

(h)

it was important to communicate locally, nationally and internationally to ensure that events in the city were well advertised;

(i)

Dominic Jinks had recently visited Liverpool, Bristol and Limerick in order to understand their processes when submitting a bid and had also discussed their cultural programmes.  All three cities had sent their bids and cultural plans for reference and had stated that they would support and collaborate with Plymouth on future cultural plans;

(j)

an annual festival of sculpture and public art was planned that would animate Plymouth and showcase regional, national and international artists;

(k)

it was proposed to develop a programme of progression and opportunity built on the Arts Council’s Escalator programme, which would provide continuous support for new and emerging talent across all artforms disciplines, to enable graduates to stay in the city and develop their practice;

(l)

the proposed date for the next UK City of Culture was 2021 (with a possible deadline of 2017).  This was not confirmed and a decision would be made after the General Election in 2015.  2023 was the proposed date for the UK for the European of Capital of Culture, but this was still unconfirmed;

(m)

Plymouth had the people and infrastructure to host a variety of events such as MTV Crashes, Transat, Olympic diving etc.

In response to members’ questions it was reported that –

(n)

corporate sponsorship of events was important to enable culture to evolve in the city;

(o)

a national company who were experienced at marketing had been appointed to promote future major events in the city;

(p)

Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park had a wide-ranging programme of events and had hosted more events this year than in previous years, which had resulted in both increased footfall and income.  It was acknowledged that transport to these events was an issue and alternative provision was being investigated;

(q)

it was important that events at Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park were widely advertised to both residents and visitors alike.  The panel were advised that the ‘Visit Plymouth’ website listed details of city-wide events;

(r)

it was acknowledged that the Plymouth International Book Festival needed to be more widely advertised, and it was hoped to raise its profile to match that of other high profile literary festivals;

(s)

it was hoped to expand the ‘Vital Sparks’ project, which was a city-wide initiative to inspire arts, culture and creativity in Plymouth, and grants were available to community, youth and residents groups who wanted to make a creative difference in their neighbourhood.