Co-designing Birmingham's next ten year Arts & Culture strategy
Leading the consultation and strategy writing for Birmingham's Art & Culture strategy
Client
Birmingham City Council & Birmingham Cultural Compact
In 2024 our team was fortunate to be selected, alongside our analysis partners at Hatch, to launch a major programme of engagement for Birmingham’s new Cultural Compact to co-design the city’s new cultural strategy, which was also written by the Creative Concern team.
Within 4 months, with the support of the Council and Compact, we organised and delivered:
- A public survey
- One-to-one interviews with stakeholders
- Online workshops with your leaders,elected members and community leaders
- Three community co-design workshops
- Co-design meetings with the Cultural Compact
- Two face-to-face young people’s workshops
- A further face-to-face workshop with students at Birmingham City University
The resulting strategy was launched in September 2025 and puts the creative economy of the city centre stage, representing 20,000 jobs and £200 million in economic activity. The strategy has six pillars:
- The Creative City – Strengthening investment in Birmingham’s cultural economy;
- A Brand for Creativity – Understanding the role culture plays in the image of the city;
- Made in Birmingham – investing in talent development and workforce training ;
- The Placemakers – expanding and protecting cultural spaces across the city;
- Culture for the People – Diversity, equity, and inclusion in cultural programming; and
- Magnets & Moonshots – Birmingham as a global cultural destination for major events.
For more information about the strategy, how it was developed and the resulting framework visit the strategy website (which we also designed!).
