Joint bid for City of Culture launched in Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk
The area is hoping to get City of Culture 2025.
Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk have teamed up to launch a joint bid for the City of Culture 2025.
The two councils say their bid aims to "showcase the region's rich and multi-layered culture, its diversity, its people and their creativity, experiences, buildings, and landscapes".
It's also hoped that the bid will play a key role in the efforts of both communities to overcome the challenges of low social mobility and disadvantage in the area, helping it to recover from the effects of the pandemic and forge new opportunities for young people.
The bid mainly focuses on Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Lowestoft, which are large seaside towns which play an integral part in the UK's renewable energy industry, and have a rich heritage and cultural distinctiveness.
The bid also extends down the coast to Aldeburgh and the Suffolk coast, and northwards towards Winterton-on-Sea, coastal resorts and inland market towns, the Norfolk Broads and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
UK City of Culture 2025 is the first time a collection of linked or neighbouring towns have been eligible to apply together, and the joint bid has won the support of the New Anglia LEP, Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils, Norfolk Community Foundation, Norfolk and Suffolk Chambers of Commerce, the area’s three local MPs and many other major regional public sector stakeholders, arts and community organisations.
The two councils will file an expression of interest by next Monday, July 19.
The decision on whether their bid has made it onto the long list will be announced in early September 2021, with the UK City of Culture 2025 winner being announced in May next year.
A successful bid will see the coastal region and its hinterland host a year-long programme of creative events and activities in 2025 to showcase its cultural offers to the world and bring people together with wider benefits felt across Norfolk & Suffolk in relation to the visitor economy.
This year’s UK City of Culture 2021 host, Coventry, is anticipated to enjoy an economic boost of around £211 million, with an additional 2.5 million visitors to its region.
Both Great Yarmouth and East Suffolk councils say they are already committed to comprehensive programmes to attract unprecedented levels of investment into their area’s infrastructure and cultural sectors.
Recently, the Government has awarded a total of more than £63m across the two areas by way of the Towns Deal, Heritage Action Zones and Future High Streets Programme funding in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston & Lowestoft.
The programme planned for a UK City of Culture 2025 will include everything from visual arts, literature, music, theatre, dance, combined arts, architecture, crafts, design, heritage and the historic and natural environment, to museums, galleries, libraries, the spoken word, film, broadcasting and media, video games, animation, visual and special effects, photography and publishing.
Both communities already have a host of cultural experiences to bring to the mix, from live entertainment, music, circus, maritime and arts festivals and a newly-created summer solstice ‘First Light’ event, to historic sites and buildings, globally-important wildlife areas and inspiring landscapes which are increasingly attracting the attention of the film industry.
Leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Cllr Carl Smith said: “Our borough and the district of East Suffolk share a very special sense of place and a local distinctiveness which sets us apart as truly unique. We have a connection to the sea and are also both going through a period of considerable change and regeneration as we work towards securing a better future for our communities, with a firm belief in the wealth of benefits that can come from putting culture at the heart of everything we do.
“Our bid will provide ambition for our residents, inspire people and steer them towards engaging with others and creating positive pathways, and this will be more crucial than ever in the challenges ahead for our communities as we work to recover from the effects of the pandemic and forge new opportunities for our young people. We are thrilled to be joining with our close neighbours in bidding to become the UK City of Culture 2025 and look forward to the journey ahead.”
Cllr Steve Gallant, Leader of East Suffolk Council, said: “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for East Suffolk and Great Yarmouth and will reflect our continuing hard work to ensure the highest quality of life possible for everyone living, working and visiting our part of the East of England.
“We are fortunate to have a rich tapestry of cultural diversity right across East Suffolk and we are delighted to join forces with our friends at Great Yarmouth in this bid. Becoming City of Culture 2025 will bring real change, huge opportunities and significant benefits to our communities and will enable us to showcase all that we have to offer.”