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Dateline: 17th July, 2009
"City of Culture" Bids Invited The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is inviting bids for local authorities throughout the UK to become the first "City of Culture" in 2013. Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said that the idea is to celebrate and boost the profile of the arts outside London. "Excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25," he said, "and I believe we have been too London-centric for too long in our cultural life. So this competition aims to find a city or area outside London that has the wow factor, with exciting and credible plans to make a step change in its cultural life and engage the whole country. "Liverpool’s success last year (as European Capital of Culture) brought pride, confidence and real economic regeneration to the area. Their triumphant year shows that the title of City of Culture will be a prize very much worth having, with a huge amount to play for." It is not just cities which can apply. Bids will also be welcome from closely linked urban areas, or cities with their surrounding areas. The important thing is that there must be a clear central focus to the area. There will not, however, be any extra funding from the DCMS, although certain major cultural events, such as the Turner Prize, the Stirling Prize and, possibly, the Brits and the Bafta TV Awards will be relocated to the winning area. The DCMS expects that the title will enable the winner to attract sponsotship and private funding. Both the BBC and Channel 4 will provide full coverage of the year-long celebration. Bidders will have until 16th October this year to submit an outline application, with a deadline of 11th December for initial bids. Expert assessors will then look at bids received and an independent advisory panel will recommend a short list to be announced early in 2010. Finally, those bids that are short listed have until 28th May to submit their full and final bids. Once these have been assessed and a recommendation made by the independent advisory panel, the final winner will be announced by the Culture Secretary later that year. Bids will be assessed in terms of the ability of the proposed City of Culture programme to make a step change in that city. Culture will not be narrowly defined but bidding cities will be asked to spell out their own vision for City of Culture and how they will use that in making a step change. Bidders will need to demonstrate:
The City of Durham has already announced its intention to bid.
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