Cultural Strategy

 

Cultural activities are an important part of people’s lives, providing opportunities for personal fulfilment and a healthy lifestyle while promoting social cohesion and community identity. While Dudley is an area already rich in cultural resources and creative potential it is our belief that the true value and importance of culture and all that it embraces in our community is not properly understood or recognised. To that end we created a cultural strategy for the borough and launched a consultation to find out what borough residents think of the area’s culture.

 

Culture means different things to different people and a lot of people who participate in cultural activities don’t even know that they’re doing so. Culture’s not just about opera and art but sport, films, events and heritage.

 

In September 2005 we launched the what’s your culture? survey to find out the cultural interests  of borough residents and to promote the council’s detailed cultural strategy.

 

A preliminary cultural strategy was prepared in November 2005 following targeted internal consultation with council officers. This far reaching strategy cannot be delivered by the council on its own and the final version of the document includes input from key partners and agencies throughout the borough.  A  wider consultation process from 1 February to 28 April 2006 was undertaken with a variety of organisations and individuals.  The final document was published in winter 2006.

 

Dudley Council is proud to have cultural strategy which reflects the needs, and perhaps more significantly, the cultural strengths of the borough, which is why in September 2007 we launched the what’s your culture survey in conjunction with our search for our cultural ambassador. We wanted to find someone, a king or queen of culture to be our cultural ambassador and shout about all the things Dudley borough is proud of.

 

More than 25 people put themselves forward to be our King or Queen and it was really difficult to pick our monarch. Some fascinating local people including an independent film maker, a mural artist, a voluntary walk leader and a young person representing a park group were also considered to become the cultural ambassador. However we chose Quarry Bank complementary therapist, grandmother, belly dancer and Age Concern volunteer Pat Wakelam to reign as Dudley’s Queen.

You can find out more about Pat and submit a request for Pat to visit your school, talk to your group or drop by at one of your events.

 

To find out more about what leisure and culture facilities Dudley has to offer click on the main leisure and culture side tab.

 

To download a copy of the strategy or the summary version click on the link below.

 

To comment please use the online form below.

 

The Cultural Strategy is also underpinned by the following key documents: