Create Gloucestershire is a network of people and organisations from across the arts and cultural sector. They work with a range of strategic partners from across different sectors (including GPs, job centres, local authorities and the criminal justice and voluntary sectors) to research, test and share ideas to encourage arts to become “everyday” in Gloucestershire.
Create Gloucestershire connects artists, arts organisations, funders and audiences/participants together in new ways, encouraging dialogue and incubating the ideas that emerge. It aims to unlock resources, confidence and skills, building place-based cultural alliances which provide evidence to access funding and create a shift in attitudes to community-based creativity. It also looks to share learning and maximise return on investment to drive innovation across the county. Esmee Fairbairn’s funding towards the Create Local has provided us with learning about the impact of local networks and how innovation can come from local people working together.
Connection to Esmée's strategy
- Priorities
- Long-term outcomes
- A collaborative approach to creativity and culture enables people to work together to strengthen their community.
From Alison Holdom, Funding Manager, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation:
Create Gloucestershire's model is agile and flexible, sharing resources and testing practice for the sector regionally and nationally. It has developed long-term embedded partnership work, leveraging support from multiple sources and providing learning across the various sectors involved in its activities. The innovation involved in Create Gloucestershire’s work and the strength of its partnerships and collaborations has given Esmee Fairbairn an insight into how creativity can strengthen communities.
From Pippa Jones, Director, Create Gloucestershire:
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation takes a trust-based approach to funding which supports Create Gloucestershire's fundamental belief that building trust and relationships is a vital precursor to community-wide collective action. The consistent support they have offered Create Gloucestershire over several years has allowed us to get beyond “sticking plasters” to solutions that are sustainable and impactful.
Culture Matson for example has been meeting for 5 years every 6 weeks for 2 hours - an anchor that has enabled new partnerships and programmes to embed in the community. It's also levered resources from others into the Culture Matson Community Chest - a piggy bank available to all but owned by no-one.
Esmée has a strong learning culture which has been motivating - there is nothing more demoralising than providing lots of data to funders and never receiving any feedback. Our Funding Manager, Alison, has always taken the time to have face-to-face meetings with us to find out what we have done, how it went and what was the unexpected learning. In these meetings, our ideas and insights are cross pollinated with those from the other people and projects funded by the Creative, Confident Communities Team which always stretches and extends our thinking.
This mutual and two-way learning relationship fosters innovation. It feels safe to try something new because you know that as it unfolds, Esmée will support you to manage the opportunity and/or risk. It gave me the confidence to prototype a new leadership programme for the many hidden/silent leaders in communities who are not currently offered professional development opportunities and being valued in our system. We were able to achieve proof of concept for the Catalyst programme which is now being funded by other investors.
