Sheffield creatives to shape new vision for culture in the city

Credit James Stanhope

Sheffield creatives, including makers, musicians, artists, and designers, are being invited to help shape a groundbreaking new culture strategy for the city.

The Sheffield Culture Strategy 2024 will provide a roadmap for the development of the city’s cultural sector, and address some of the long-standing obstacles faced by creatives living and working in the city.

Championed by the Culture Collective and Culture Consortium, and funded by Sheffield City Council, the University of Sheffield and Arts Council England.

This includes, helping organisations become more resilient and able to access the knowledge and resources they need grow, encourage more collaboration across the sector, and make culture an integral part of the city’s identity.

To help do this, creatives living and working in Sheffield are being invited to have their say on how the strategy should be shaped.

In the first phase of its development, the team, which is made up of individuals from Sheffield’s creative community as well as experienced cultural professionals, will launch a short survey, with the response influencing further engagement work in the new year. 

Cllr Martin Smith, Chair of the Economic Development and Skills Committee at Sheffield City Council, said: “This new strategy will not only shine a light on Sheffield’s diverse cultural offer, but will help us to bring more funding into the city for our cultural and arts sector. 

“We also want to make the sector more inclusive, connected and diverse, and by bringing the voices of those working in these industries – the artists, the musicians, the creatives – we should be able to develop something that that will truly benefit the people of Sheffield.”

Joe Kriss Director of Sheffield-based social enterprise, Opus Independents, who are part of the strategy team, added: “We know that Sheffield is a city of makers and doers – we’ve produced incredible artists whose names are known around the world. But there are still too many obstacles that get in the way of our culture sector reaching its full potential. That’s what we want to address with this new strategy.

“We’re keen to co-create this new Culture Strategy for Sheffield with the people who make it all happen, and who know the city like the back of their hand.

“If you’re a creative of any stripe and you live in Sheffield, we want your help to create a new vision for culture in this city.”

The development of the strategy will run until May 2024.

Visit the Opus Independents Twitter page to have your say.