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A culture of commitment
Culture will be high on everyone’s agenda in the North West over 2008 and businesses form one of the most vocal groups when it comes to demanding a strong cultural and media offering for the region.
Businesses regularly put forward financial backing for art installations, performances and even individuals in the creative industries. The support of the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007 by big corporate names like property developer Bruntwood, United Utilities and City Inn is testament to the ongoing affiliation between business and culture.
The festival was a storming success, despite the persistent Manchester drizzle, and the ball has already been set rolling for the next event in 2009.
At the eastern end of the M62, Liverpool is enjoying the same corporate largesse with United Utilities again lining up, alongside law firm Hill Dickinson, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, Enterprise and more, this time to support the city’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008.
Liverpool’s preparations to celebrate its year in the cultural spotlight have been mired in the familiar wrangling and disappointments of many a civically-organised major event.
Devotees of annual Beatles jamboree the Mathew Street Festival - which in recent years has seen the likes of The Stranglers rocking the crowds at the Pier Head – were distraught in 2007 when last-minute health and safety fears led to the cancellation of all outdoor events. The Liverpool Culture Company, tasked with leading the build-up and 2008 celebrations, has seen the departure of its artistic director and its events manager and at the time of writing was the subject of an internal enquiry by the city council.
However, in the great tradition of all things Scouse, the show will go on. And its success will undoubtedly be down to the commitment of businesses and the creative industries across the city region. Many of the new and exciting events planned to entertain millions of visitors in 2008 will be run not by the Culture Company but by Liverpool’s arts organisations.
From the fifth international Biennial of contemporary art to the return of conductor Sir Simon Rattle with his Berlin Philharmonic, the city will be alive with culture and the corporate sponsors will ultimately not be disappointed.
Accompanying the lively cultural agenda are breathtaking regeneration efforts that will place Liverpool centre stage. The ACC Liverpool, a dynamic arena and convention centre on the waterfront, will be open in time to launch Capital of Culture in January 2008, while Liverpool One, the £1bn retail and leisure development from Grosvenor, will be opening its flagship stores in the spring.
The redevelopment of the Paradise Street area of the city centre by the Duke of Westminster’s developer, Grosvenor, occupies a 42-acre site. In 2007 it emerged that Europe’s biggest retail development under construction was set to suffer a loss of £140m in the race to open in time for 2008. Grosvenor is swallowing that deficit, safe in the knowledge that it has made the right decision by investing so heavily in Liverpool city centre.
With the experience and knowledge of Liverpool One chief executive Joanne Jennings in place, the scheme’s success seems assured. The former chief executive of Belfast City Centre Management Company with responsibility for 1.5 million sq ft of retail space, she won a special award at the latest Sceptre Awards for her contribution to the regeneration of Belfast. Before joining the company she had built up her experience of all aspects of urban regeneration while working at Deloitte but was eager to get involved in the delivery of regeneration.
Over in Salford Quays the biggest regeneration story surrounds the arrival of the BBC and a longed-for cluster of creative industries at Media:City, a 200-acre site that is predicted to deliver £1.5bn to the regional economy and 15,500 jobs.
It is envisaged that a major BBC presence in the north will attract other producers and will stimulate and attract a wide range of media-related activity from advertising to design, video games to music and new media. Cynics question whether this creative army will ever really head for the dim and distant north, but with Peel’s insistent commitment to the project we can only watch in wonder as the creative industries are given a world-beating new home in the North West.
Businesses, arts organisations and creatives across the region are committed to engendering and maintaining a rich and diverse cultural base. Enjoy the party.
Lisa Miles is deputy editor of
North West Business Insider magazine