The Next Cultural Chapter
For so many of us, this crisis feels like it is unfolding in slow motion.
I am used to a world of major events where you make decisions quickly. You plan for everything in advance. You live off adrenaline and making choices based on trust in your team.
But this crisis is not like the opening ceremony of 2008 or the visits of Royal De Luxe. It is not something we can make some quick decisions about to fix the problem. This is something that is going to take time. Take resilience. Take huge reserves of energy, and crucially take a whole new level of creativity.
I have fiercely protected the budget to support our cultural sector over the last decade, as I know it is this sector that is best placed to tell the story of a resurgent city and its people on a global stage. I have watched my teenage daughter grow up in a very different Liverpool than the one I moved to 30years ago. One where tourists spill out of the bars, where the scouse accent mixes with those of visitors from across the world, all falling in love with this city we have the privilege to call home.
I have grown up here, I have worked with, and for, some of the best artists in the world in this job, and I really believe what we need now is imagination to see beyond the next few months. We need to put our best brains together — those of us new to this place and those of us linked to it with an umbilical cord.
Creative thinking is needed to find solutions, and we need to be ready to press the reset button when all this is over.
In Culture Liverpool we are working on what practical ideas and support we can offer the sector with in coming weeks and months, as well as starting to develop a framework for recovery. We will be sharing more on that in the coming weeks.
We need to be ready for when this is over to start writing the next chapter of Liverpool’s renaissance, So all of you with the brains and the ability to see round corners…. the writers, the dreamers and the poets, please get in touch with your ideas for what we could and should be doing.
Most of our team will be working now to support the most vulnerable residents of our city using their brilliant organisational skills and the passion they put into every event, film, cruiseliner arrival or campaign to fulfil a wider civic duty, so if we are a bit quiet for a while you will understand why.
Our social media channels however will be ramping up so keep an eye out for some changes.
Stay safe and stay happy
Claire McColgan MBE
Director of Culture Liverpool
Got an idea? Let the team know by emailing cultureliverpool@liverpool.gov.uk
