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Cultural Partnership 'Convention 2009 Report'
(Note: the above link will open an online copy of the report. You will
be
able to navigate and zoom in/out on any page, and you can email or print the
document once it opens).
*****
 WHEN
Leigh and Wigan's Cultural Partnership accepted an invitation from Leigh
Miners Rangers to hold their meeting at the Leigh Miners Welfare
Institute, the group's members got a fantastic insight into the
Institute's involvement in the Leigh community. The Partnership is a
group of volunteers representing various sectors of cultural activity
from across the Borough. Collectively, they have a shared passion for
leisure and culture, and how it can have a positive impact on the lives
of local people.
Steward Mark Wood welcomed members, and then wowed them with the details
of all the community events that take place at Leigh Miners Welfare
Institute on a regular basis.
As well as being a hub for the fantastically successful Leigh Miners
Rangers rugby league club, Leigh Miners’ community spirit embraces a
whole range of activities, with sessions ranging from Indoor Bowling to
Rosemary Conley slimming clubs to Bingo to Campers and Caravans, to RAF
Veterans and many more. Mark Ashley, Partnership Chair, congratulated
Mark Wood on the hard work that club officers undertake to provide such
a wide variety of resources and activities to the Leigh community:
"Leigh Miners excel both on and off the field - it's a cliché, but this
is a place with a real buzz about it and we are proud to have such a
forward thinking and committed club in the Borough."
The full Partnership meets four times a year at various leisure and
cultural bases across the Borough: for more information on Leigh Miners
Welfare Institute and the facilities it offers contact Mark Wood on
01942 672984 For more information on Cultural Partnership, and how you
can get involved to publicise and develop your organisation or activity,
please contact Lisa Beckett on 01942 486944.
*****
On
August 4th 2008, Mark Ashley (pictured), Managing Director of Standish
Media Services in Standish, publishers of the Wigan Courier, was
appointed Chair of the Cultural Partnership, taking over from highly
successful former Chair Trevor Barton.
Mark writes: "Welcome to the Cultural Partnership section of the
Trust's website.
Our job is to encourage , advise, question, communicate and celebrate
all aspects of our 'cultural' life in the Borough.
My colleagues on the Partnership, from all walks of life in the Borough,
give up their time and considerable organisational energies and skills
to improving the lives of our fellow citizens from Standish to Atherton,
from Atherleigh to Orrell.
 Our discussions, deliberations and decisions focus on making it as easy
as possible for local people to get involved in more life-enhancing
activities: whether it's sport, music, drama, dance, play, poetry, art,
crafts or heritage and history, we want to make participation and
enjoyment easy, rewarding and fun.
Members of the Partnership come from a wide variety of local backgrounds
and interests. They are ably supported by the officers of the Trust at
all levels.
If you have anything positive to say about the provision of cultural
activities in Wigan, want to make a contribution towards enhancing any
of the activities mentioned above, or want to know more about our work,
please e-mail me on
info@courier-online.net. Keep it brief and to the point, and don't
forget to let me have your full contact details.
I look forward to being of service to you in the future."
A short but successful history
Established in 1999, Wigan’s Cultural Partnership is made-up of
representatives from public and private organisations with strategic and
operational interests in the development of leisure and cultural
activity across the Borough, and voluntary organisations active in work
at a local level and in advocacy for the fields they represent.
In the year 2000 it consulted far and wide on local priorities relevant
to arts; heritage; libraries; parks, countryside and green spaces; play;
sports and tourism – and over the five years that followed it worked on
the development and progression of Northern Soul, the Borough’s
formative cultural strategy, and six key priorities embodied within:
• Getting more people involved in cultural activities in the area
• Improving access to information and improving communication
• Making the best use of existing facilities and developing new ones
• Developing the role of culture in the community
• Developing a positive and innovative image for the area
• Focusing on young people’s needs and hopes
The Partnership achieved a lot and learned a great a deal in the
process. Insight into its achievements over this period can be gained by
reading the annual reviews published on works in 2003/4 and 2004/5.
►
Download
the Review on 2003/4 (The review is in Adobe PDF format, and
therefore you will need a copy of Adobe Reader installed on your
machine. You can download a free copy from
Adobe's Website.) Please note: The file is quite large and may
take a few moments to open.
►
Download the Review on 2004/5 (Again, the review
is in Adobe PDF format, and therefore you will need a copy of Adobe
Reader installed on your machine. You can download a free copy from
Adobe's Website.) Please note: The file is quite large and may take a
few moments to open.
We hope that you’ll find them informative
summaries/illustrations of the difference cultural investment can make
and its importance in the wider regeneration context.
With the life of Northern Soul nearing its end in 2005 the Partnership
decided not to work-up and publish a new strategy largely because Wigan
Borough Partnership Board’s Community Plan for 2005-10 made provision
for development of the ‘cultural offer’ in Wigan and laid a basis for
collaborative work on project development and resource procurement with
local people’s leisure and culture-orientated needs and interests in
mind – but also on account of strong thematic strategies across the
cultural spectrum having been developed over the five years passed.
Instead with the growth of long-term goals and engagement of new
partners two distinct objectives the Partnership started work towards a
manifesto and film – two strategic tools that would be used to:
• grow awareness and understanding of the Borough’s unique cultural
characteristics and the value placed in them by local people
• lay-out a locally grown vision for cultural development through 2012
• evidence culture’s capacity to positively impact on educational
aspiration and achievement, health and well-being, community safety, the
economy, environment, and social inclusion
• provide bases for dialogue with prospective partners about
opportunities to add value to the Borough’s ‘cultural offer’ and realise
their own positive outcomes in the process
Extensive consultation and filming work finished late last year and at
the Cultural Partnership Convention on 19th May 2007 the public
manifesto document and film were formally launched.
Cultural Manifesto
The
manifesto defines ‘Wiganicity’ – characteristics that make our Borough
unique in leisure and cultural terms. It recognises that local people
hold leisure and culture in high importance, understanding its capacity
to impact economically, educationally, in an environmental sense and
through the generation of highly valuable social capital. It conveys a
vision for cultural development through 2012 – reflecting local people’s
aspirations and committing the Partnership to work towards its
realisation, also noting the support available to community groups and
voluntary organisations interested in involvement.
Simply, Wigan Borough’s Cultural Manifesto will be the key strategic
reference document for current cultural players and prospective partners
over the next five years in driving forward with work to increase
recreational opportunity, improve accessibility, grow participation and
enhance quality of life experience for all locally.
Produced by Mirabilis Media of Liverpool and narrated by Stuart Maconie,
BBC Broadcaster, independent writer and proud Wiganer, the Partnership’s
new DVD features short and longer versions of the Cultural Vibrancy
film.
The short version offers a quick visual profile of the Borough in
cultural terms featuring community groups, voluntary organisations and
public sector service providers, local people’s participation and
achievement, and the impact of cultural activity on learning,
motivation, health and well-being, neighbourhoods’ mobilisation through
active citizenship and voluntary work, communities’ economic and social
regeneration. This will be aimed at community groups (through Cultural
Partnership networks primarily) and used to encourage thinking as to
their capacity to contribute to/deliver on a part of the new,
over-arching vision independently or with partner support.
►
View Short
Version (Running Time 3:59)
The longer version offers a more in-depth look at our changing Borough
and the central importance of culture to the bright, colourful and
dynamic place it is becoming; a celebration of Wigan’s heritage, its
green spaces, the role of arts, libraries, sport and so forth in
improving quality of life for all, and the commitment and enthusiasm of
so many towards cultural activity. Its use will be more focused in
support of efforts to broker new strategic alliances with cultural
development over the next 5 years in sharp focus – through the
initiation of exploratory work, presentation of carefully prepared cases
for engagement by target partners and leadership of formative
discussion.
►
View Long
Version (Running Time 13:19)
Image Bank
To complement the manifesto document and film the Partnership will
shortly start work with Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust’s Heritage
Services Section towards an Image Bank. This will be an online resource
that offers local school pupils, College students and adult learners
access to:
• a catalogued collection of archive images featuring buildings of local
importance, significant people and events from the Borough’s past – also
cultural activity across the spectrum and in a variety of settings
during years gone by
• a contemporary collection of photographs capturing the diversity of
Wigan’s cultural offer
• a range of learning materials relevant to the national history
curriculum, A-Level syllabuses and adult learning courses – to help
enrich learning experiences
The Image Bank will also offer those with responsibility for the
Borough’s marketing (eg Tourism colleagues, those working towards the
attraction of commercial investment, personnel staff overseeing
recruitment) to draw on a high quality collection of new pictures that
positively reflect the Borough’s heritage, current colour and diversity.
Watch this space!
For
more information
- Refer to the
Partnership Induction Pack.
Please note: The Induction Pack is a large PDF document which may
take a few moments to open. Although this is mainly
aimed at new Partnership members seeking clarity on their role, associated
responsibilities and the context in which they will be working it may be of
wider interest, seeking as it does to:
- set the scene - offering an introduction to the Cultural Partnership, its
composition and purposes, priorities and strategic fit; a profile on members
through a short series of pen pictures covering colleagues’ experience and
professional interest in the Partnership; a summary of Northern Soul, the
Cultural Strategy; a copy of the Cultural Review on 2003/4 and an Annual Report
on the work of Wigan Borough Partnership in the last year
- help members get to grips with their role (and give readers of this web
page an insight into Partnership working) – through the provision of minutes
from full Partnership and Executive Group meetings in 2004; a member job
description, useful contacts and glossary of terms
-
offer a summary of what to expect at forthcoming Partnership meetings (full and Executive) and the
information that will be posted out beforehand
- And/or contact:
John Hill
Business and Service Development Support Officer
Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust
The Stables Block
Haigh Hall
School Lane
Haigh
Wigan WN2 1PE
Tel.
01942 828258
E-mail:
j.hill@wlct.org
The Cultural
Partnership is supported by Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust.
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