Last updated at 13:13, Friday, 21 August 2009

The European Union has been doing it for 24 years – and now Britain is preparing to follow suit. Each year since 1985 the EU has designated one European city as Capital of Culture.

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The place chosen has to prepare a year-long programme of events showing what it has to offer in terms of music, art, film, theatre, museums, and other cultural highlights.

Those that are chosen benefit enormously – not only culturally but economically.

Last year it was Liverpool’s turn to wear the crown. Around 3.5 million people who had never been there before came to visit and an estimated £800 million was brought in.

Now the Government has decided that Britain should hold its own city of culture event, starting in 2013. It hopes the new lease of life that Liverpool received last year is something that could be replicated elsewhere in the UK.

Could Carlisle be the first UK City of Culture just over three years from now?

Bryan Gray certainly thinks so.

Mr Gray is chairman of Carlisle Renaissance, the body leading the city’s bid for UK City of Culture status. It is an area in which he has experience. One of his previous jobs was chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, set up to make sure Liverpool delivered its cultural programme in 2008.

Cities, he believes, are the natural homes for culture.

“It is people who make a city, not the buildings. Everywhere they gather, people engage in cultural pursuits.

“It can be sport, performance art, a classical concert, a museum or a small event in a community centre. They are the things that bring a city alive and enrich people’s lives.”

It was after the success of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture that Mr Gray and his deputy chairman, TV producer Phil Redmond, put forward the idea of a UK City of Culture event on the model of the EU one.

They took the idea to former Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, who supported it.

Now Mr Gray wants Carlisle to be the first place to win the title. And he believes it stands a realistic chance.

“I’ve got a lot of knowledge about the Liverpool bid, how it succeeded and how it delivered its programme,” he said. “My view is that Carlisle is a prime city to make a bid. It has a lot going for it.”

So if Carlisle is to be in the running, what lessons can be learned from Liverpool’s success? The first is to ensure that the public back it.

“The reason Liverpool won its bid was that the people of Liverpool supported it,” he said. “Carlisle will only win if the people of Carlisle understand and support our bid.”

To win that broad base of support, the culture cannot be exclusive or confined to the city centre. Different audiences need to be catered for and creativity in the suburbs needs to be encouraged.

“In Liverpool there were dance lessons taking place in small community halls all over the city. Then a ‘Viennnese weekend’ was held where the dancers came together in the city hall for a weekend of waltz. It was something everybody could be part of.”

The second lesson to learn from Liverpool is to have confidence in the city’s assets.

Such confidence might come more easily in the city that was the birthplace of the Beatles and has a Tate Gallery, several museums and its own symphony orchestra. But people living in a place don’t always recognise its advantages – and Mr Gray thinks that is the case with Carlisle.

He is originally from Rotherham and says it takes an incomer like him to notice Carlisle’s good points.

“We need to hold up a mirror and say: ‘Actually we are pretty impressive and we’ve got a lot going for us.’ People don’t always appreciate what we’ve got. They need to stop and think about what’s good about Carlisle.

“How many cities are building a university in the centre? How many cities have the historic connections Carlisle has got? How many have got Hadrian’s Wall running through them? How many have got a railway station in the centre and a motorway with three junctions?

“You can’t invent those things and you can’t take them away. What we have got to do is polish those jewels.”

Yet confidence and civic pride won’t make up for the lack of a concert hall, a professional theatre or an arts cinema. He admits we will need new facilities.

“We’ve got to set high standards so we need to look at all the options.” The Save our Lonsdale group want to see the old art deco cinema on Warwick Road transformed into an arts centre, and Mr Gray accepts this is one of those options. He adds: “There is the university development. Could we put a performance space there?”

And Carlisle’s historic quarter – Tullie House, Hadrian’s Wall, the cathedral and castle – can also be exploited, again drawing on Liverpool’s example.

“In Liverpool the Anglican cathedral was used as a performance space for some unusual theatre,” Mr Gray said.

“We’ve got some wonderful backdrops against which culture can be played out. Let’s be creative about how we can use the castle or cathedral.”

Whatever Carlisle’s chances of winning City of Culture status are, however, there are bound to be doubts about whether Carlisle Renaissance can deliver it.

The organisation was set up in 2005 by the city and county councils and the North West Development Agency, and charged with regenerating the city after that year’s devastating floods. But many ask what it has actually done.

Mr Gray and the new board only took over in April of last year and he admits: “It didn’t get off to a good start. But in less than 18 months we can’t be responsible for the slow start before the current board’s time.”

People are impatient to see results but he argued that a lot of preparation work has to be done before regeneration can begin.

He said culture was an important dimension in all the regeneration work but he added: “We don’t have magic dust. You can’t get investment until you have a clear plan about where you’re going and the old board did some good background work on that.

“We’ve got to stop pulling the plant out of the pot and asking: ‘Is it growing yet?’”

Mr Gray has stressed the importance of involving as many Carlisle people as possible in the bid. And plenty of them have ideas.

World-renowned Cumbrian artist Margaret Harrison believes culture is important in regenerating Carlisle and so is backing the bid.

“They need to be talking to artists and writers in the area,” she said. “If they hold a series of open discussions, we would come up with a whole host of ideas.”

In particular, she believes the city needs more public art – and a dedicated space for new artists to show their work, meet and discuss their subject.

“It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, it could be a series of pieces or something for a limited time.

“Even if you don’t get the nomination, it is worth going for it to raise the profile of the city.”

For three years the Save Our Lonsdale campaign has been calling for the old cinema on Warwick Road to be turned into a theatre, arts cinema and exhibition venue and campaign chairman Edna Croft felt the building’s restoration would have to form part of the bid.

“If they start thinking about restoring the Lonsdale then we can start thinking about bidding for City of Culture,” she said.

“For once Carlisle Renaissance would have something popular on their hands.

“The Lonsdale was built as a cinema and venue for live theatre. The feasibility study is done, the business plan is almost done – so we are handing them this on a plate.”

Installation artist Hannah Stewart, who runs Freerange Artists, agreed that even if Carlisle did not win it would still be worthwhile bidding and boosting the city’s cultural scene in the process.

But she argued support should be given to the existing venues before any new ones are built or funded.

“We can get very hung up on the need for a new theatre, but supporting the grassroots and giving them a little bit more money and support would make a bigger difference.”

Last year the city council’s post of arts development officer was scrapped, which she said made it harder for those on the arts scene to keep in touch and share ideas.

“We need one person just one day a week to keep up the network between artists and creative businesses.”

The first UK City of Culture event may still be three years away but the selection process is moving ahead quickly.

All the cities interested in bidding are being invited to a special seminar in Liverpool next month. The following month outline bids will have to be submitted and in December more detailed bids will have to follow.

A shortlist is to be drawn up early in the new year and by May the complete, final bids will have to be sent in. The winner should be announced about a month later.

Many cities will be in the running. Birmingham, Hull, Leicester, Oxford and Plymouth have been named as possible contenders and Durham is mounting a strong challenge. A logo has already been designed for its bid and it has won the backing of author Bill Bryson.

But even if Carlisle’s bid is turned down, the work that will be done to boost the city’s cultural life will still be valuable.

“Whether we succeed or fail, it fits precisely with the strategy for regenerating Carlisle that we have been following in Carlisle Renaissance,” said Mr Gray.

And Hannah Stewart added: “If it means that for the next three years people work together to get the infrastructure for culture, and the money where it’s needed, then that will be excellent.

“It doesn’t matter if we win.”

First published at 05:14, Friday, 21 August 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk