Our plan

Making the case for culture

Create. Empower. Thrive.

Our vision

The BCP Cultural Compact will work in partnership with our creative communities to bring people and spaces together to unlock investment, broker new alliances and start useful conversations to empower those who deliver and develop quality, accessible and inclusive cultural activity.

Thanks to seed funding from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, we are currently enacting our 2024-27 Action Plan, centring on actions identified in the 2023-32 Cultural Strategy adopted by BCP Council in 2022. The Strategy drew on an evidence base of extensive consultations with local participants and stakeholders across the culture and creative sector, principally the Cultural Enquiry commissioned in 2020 during which over 1,000 people participated across a programme of events, workshops and interviews.

Our mission

The Actions the Cultural Compact Task Group has chosen to prioritise will deliver on the Compact’s commitment to supporting BCP’s creative communities through its role as:

Broker and Connector: We will build connections and partnerships, leveraging the power of culture for improved wellbeing and quality of life. We will also strengthen the connective tissue between talent, investment and audiences, to nurture a shared commitment and spirit of generosity to build a better sector for us all.
Champion: We will advocate for our creative communities and partners, seeking to unlock resources to enable the full diversity of our creative communities to make, shape and create great cultural experiences.

Our action plan

Strengthen partnerships between the creative and cultural sectors and NHS, health and care sectors (Autumn 2024)
Establish a Culture Network (Spring 2025)
Establish a compelling place-based narrative (Summer 2025)
Unlock and enable additional cultural and creative spaces (Autumn 2025)
Advocate improved accessibility to venues, sites and activities (Autumn 2025)
Establish a cultural evidence base to support investment (Early 2026)
Boost the pipeline of rewarding creative career pathways (Summer 2026)
Strengthen environmental awareness and collaborations to reduce carbon footprint of cultural activity across BCP (Autumn 2026)
Awareness-raising of a series of linked arts and heritage wayfinding trails (Early 2027)

By the culmination of our plan in early 2027, we will have run a series of Creative Health Facilitated Conversations, set up and run regular gatherings around specific topics of interest, drafted strategic documents in dialogue with BCP Council, secured funding for a Bournemouth Town Centre pilot project, ran a series of workshops for the creative sector by accession and inclusion and environmental sustainability experts, created and delivered an Economic Impact Report, connected education settings and cultural networks, and connected heritage assets to tourism and visitor organisations and networks.

We aim to help Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole become a place where talent flourishes, creative spaces thrive, and everyone has access to meaningful and beneficial cultural experiences.