Plymouth Culture

Culture Plan

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In 2020 we decided to take on the challenge of writing a 10-year Culture Plan for the city, responding to a moment of global shock which provided a sobering moment of deep reflection and required careful navigation from all people involved in the cultural, creative and arts sector.

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After extensive consultation with businesses, stakeholders, city leaders, artists, creatives and performers, we published an ambitious vision and plan.

We believe that a thriving arts and culture scene makes for a thriving city, creatively, economically, and socially, and our plan supports this, advocating for a culture-led approach to city development, placing culture at the heart of Plymouth’s future.

The plan outlines a headline need to leverage Plymouth’s existing cultural assets and infrastructure and to embed culture in every sector and city agenda, and sets out a holistic view of the role of culture within our city.

The plan identifies three key drivers - our community, our environment, and inclusive economy - as well as three strategic priorities - Place: our spaces, Sector: our creatives and People: our communities.

We are committed to being both the custodians of the culture plan and to creating a culture of shared ownership and accountability for its delivery, working with all our partners and stakeholders towards our common goal.

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Action plans

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We’ve developed more detailed action plans for certain art forms and priority areas of work to support the successful delivery of the overall cultural plan.

These are complimentary to the overarching culture plan and can be accessed below.

  • Music Action Plan

    This action plan is the culmination of months of research, conversations, consultations and testing.

    Using Sound Diplomacy – The Music Cities Manual as our guiding framework, the action plan seeks to set out our ambitions as a city and to identify the annual priorities that will help realise this ambition.

    READ ACTION PLAN IN FULL

  • Creative Industries Plan

    Plymouth’s first ever Creative Industries Plan sets out a plan for the growth of the sector. The research highlights the strengths of the sector and the scale of the opportunity in Plymouth.

    Click Here
“The Culture Plan will help instil a sense of place and civic pride that will contribute significantly to the city’s growth at this critical time.”
— Stuart Efford / Devon & Plymouth Chamber of Commerce
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“Integrating culture into making places, bringing joy, and tackling local and global issues in creative ways is the way forward.”
— Hannah Sloggett / Nudge Community Builders
People sitting at a table engaged in an art or craft activity, surrounded by supplies like pencils, brushes, and paper. The room is decorated with string lights and a laptop can be seen in the background.

Sector Evidence

In the development of the Culture Plan, we undertook, commissioned and collated a great amount of sector data and research, to help provide evidence to back the Culture Plan, and to make the case for the value of culture more widely.