Culture West

• Setting up a brand new arts membership model with North Somerset Council which will enable artists and creatives to access a range of maker spaces across B&NES and North Somerset, including the Bath Spa Locksbrook Campus
• The BSU School of Art Film and Media will be working with freelancers to develop a series of Learning Resources for schools to showcase routes into the Visual Arts
• Acting as convener and coordinating lead for the Creative Careers / Skills development theme working with the Creative Agency partnership, MUTI Immersive, Noods Levels & Boomsatsuma.

boomsatsuma is a specialist training provider offering further and higher education programmes focused on the creative industries. Our core contribution to Culture West is through the Pathways theme where we are designing and delivering pre-engagement activities to stimulate interest in pursuing learning and eventually employment. Our programme will draw on our experience across film, photography, creative technology, games design and sports media. Our geographical focus will be Weston-super-Mare.

Black South West Network (BSWN) is leading an initiative to support, showcase, and retain diverse talent in the region. We're partnering with Diverse Artists Network, Creative Powertown CIC, and WECIL to deliver this work. Our enterprise programmes offer dynamic, research-led business support, designed to nurture the talent of diverse artists, cultural and creative producers, and freelancers.

We aim to help you develop sustainable business models, scale your creative output, and connect to new enterprise development opportunities to help you thrive in the creative sector. You'll have access to bespoke business support, enterprise incubation, sector expertise, workshops, networking events, coaching, mentoring, and grant funding opportunities.

Citizens In Power is a partner with Trinity Community Arts, St Pauls Carnival and the West of England Combined Authority for Citizens for Culture. Our role is to support the design and delivery of a citizens’ assembly for culture; as a representative model of citizen-led decision-making for the West of England. Our aim is to achieve this by building capacity and capability across the region and to encourage the adoption and embedding of citizen-led models for the future.

Facilitating support and delivery within Culture West, our focus lies in establishing a platform for emerging artists. Concurrently, we are committed to cultivating an ecosystem that enables the generation of proprietary resources, thereby enhancing accessibility for artist development and the creation of diverse opportunities

Creative Youth Network are proud to be partnering with Super Culture, Boomsatsuma, Bath Spa University and North Somerset Council to create the Creative Agency to provide access and opportunities for young creatives. Creative Youth Network will be providing micro-commissions, studio space, industry professional mentoring, masterclasses in professional development, and events including peer led opportunities to share new work and ideas, and networking events with guest speakers. ‘Creative Futures’ these opportunities will be for those aged 16 – 25 year olds and based at the Courts, Bristol’s newest Creative Enterprise hub for and by young people.

creativeShift is a team of dedicated arts on referral practitioners committed to supporting people experiencing social isolation and mental or physical health challenges across Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. With over 15 years in the industry our role in the Culture West programme is to devise, recruit and deliver training to emerging artists who want to work in the sector, but lack the skills and understanding that sets it apart from community practice.

Within Culture West, our support and delivery focus on enhancing the visibility and career opportunities for diverse creative talent. We collaborate with BSWN to identify and tackle inclusion barriers, using a three-pronged approach: launching Diaspora!, a festival celebrating cultural diversity; creating an agency for diverse artists; and organising network meetings across the region to foster community, share resources.

To build and fully understand the impact of the Culture West programme, Free Ice Cream are supporting the project with dynamic, community-led network mapping of the key delivery partners and grantees. Regular mapping and analysis of the community will enable the delivery teams to understand and maximise their impact as they go.

Latent Pictures involvement within Culture West is to authentically document the journey of the many projects that are being developed/practiced by the partners over the next two years. By the end of the two years, there will be a series of impactful films which will be viewable online. Alongside this, Latent Pictures is committed to hiring, paying and training underrepresented filmmakers, giving them opportunities they otherwise would struggle to get.

MUTI Live is a Bristol based independent training provider delivering apprenticeships and skills bootcamps for the Live Arts & Events industries. Drawing on over 20 years experience in-sector, our leadership and delivery teams have first hand experience of the challenges around talent pipeline and diversity of workforce in offstage and production roles. We are proud to be contributing towards a long-term and sustainable solution as part of Culture West.

The project aims to make workspace and equipment available to creatives wishing to develop their career or start up in business.

North Somerset Council will initially conduct a needs analysis across North Somerset with a focus on Weston-super-Mare to identify the demand for space and equipment. The council will then establish agreements with holders of premises to make workspace and equipment available to use financed through an affordable membership fee.

NOODS LEVELS CIC is an extension of Noods Radio LTD, a youth-led radio station based in Bristol.

We’re working to empower young talent by creating new opportunities through collaboration. Building a creative community is at the heart of everything we do: we’re creating a culture that fosters encouragement, growth and openness.

By offering workshops, talks, and online resources, NOODS LEVELS CIC breaks down professional and social barriers, equipping young creatives with the skills they need to succeed.

Sirona Care and Health are leading a programme to test and showcase therapeutic arts and cultural programmes and their ability to deliver improve health outcomes. We are piloting work in a range of settings including the community, primary care and hospital settings. The aim of this work is to both improve individual health outcomes but also make the business case for more investment in cultural programmes from the health and social care sector.

West of England Centre for Inclusive Living (WECIL) will provide 6 full day CPD accredited Disability Equality Training sessions and 200 hours of access support and consultancy support. This will include:

• Physical audits of a venue or partner premises.
• Review and guidance on communications including digital communications.
• Advice and guidance on access for events, workshops etc.
• Advice on recruiting and developing a diverse representation on governance boards. Plus advice and guidance on partners recruitment processes.

Through the Cultural Education Hub we will:

• engage with schools to expand the cultural offer, upskilling the workforce to offer high quality, inspiring cultural curriculum
• support cultural practitioners to develop the skills and networks to thrive in education settings
• foster relationships between schools and the cultural workforce, inspiring vibrant, sustainable, creative partnerships.

The Cultural Education Hub will deliver strategic oversight, a wide-ranging workforce development plan, grant funding and network building, to ensure that every child in the West of England has the opportunity to access a cultural activity every year.

Super Culture's vision is for North Somerset to be an area known for its distinctive culture – a place for outstanding arts and cultural experiences that excite and inspire, where community is at the heart of the cultural offer, and creativity is an embedded part of everyday life. Our mission is to drive an ambitious, outward looking and collaborative approach to arts and culture that enables more people to experience and get involved in culture and creativity as audiences, participants, artists, makers and creatives – boosting wellbeing and bringing positive social change.

As part of the Culture West programme, Super Culture has partnered with Creative Youth Network, Bath Spa University, Boomsatsuma and MUTI to create a new joined up creative talent development programme for young people in the West of England. This new creative talent development programme will offer commissions for creatives to make new work, training, mentoring, networking opportunities and paid work placements.