What’s so special about Northern culture? What about Manchester in particular? Moreover, why should the private sector care?
Law firm Slater Heelis and PR firm Galibier, co-hosts of this event, are both based here. Neither business depends on the arts and culture sector for revenue, but both agreed that our need for culture goes far deeper than that. Why do the best people come to this city to live and work in businesses like ours? Because Manchester is bursting with creativity. From the Hacienda to HOME, Lemn Sissay to L.S. Lowry, Warehouse Project to the Whitworth, Manchester is known nationally and globally for its rich arts and culture scene. The same goes for Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield… cities that would not contribute to the UK economy anywhere near as much if they weren’t so culturally diverse and vivacious. And yet, when Covid entered our lives, the flourishing of Northern culture was suddenly plunged into jeopardy. We gathered a panel of the city’s arts and culture experts to explore what Covid recovery looks like for the sector, and if there is an ethical and economic imperative for the private sector to step up and support this. Taking the NCAPPG’s “Northern Case for Culture” as a starter for ten, policymakers, practitioners and business and community leaders chewed over questions such as, “How can culture carve a place for itself within policy agendas?” and “How could private-public sector collaboration work in this space?”. In the process, they advocated for greater, more long-term investment in Northern cultural infrastructure, as well as for a more complex kind of private sector involvement beyond “business-as-cash cow”.
Not My Business?
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