In the last in our series profiling the shortlisted candidates for City of Culture 2025, Claire Whitaker says Southampton has been connecting the UK with people across the globe for thousands of years.
Southampton is the nation’s front door to the world. It is a place of departures and arrivals, of migration, trade and industry. It is where Gandhi, along with millions of others, first set foot on British soil and from where the Mayflower and Titanic set sail.
This has shaped our communities, our built environment, our economy, history, heritage and day-to-day life. Our city is diverse, home to people from more than 50 countries speaking over 150 languages.
We are a city of creativity and innovation; from the technologies that power the internet, autonomous boats and robots exploring our oceans, to culture rooted in our communities, a magnificent collection of 20th century British art and a thriving music scene.
We are not natural talkers and have been shy about telling our story ’till now. But Southampton may well be the greatest place you don’t know about – even if you come from Southampton.
Co-creating the bid
That’s why our bid to become UK City of Culture 2025 began with getting everyone talking, to recognise our strengths and our challenges – to collectively imagine what we could be. For all our cultural depth and achievements, we are a city which faces significant challenges: from high levels of deprivation and health inequalities to problems with crime and educational attainment.
The image of the South of England is often one of undifferentiated wealth and opportunity, but that masks a more complicated reality. Our city is fragmented, divided by rivers, roads and assumptions. This impacts on our day-to-day lives, shaping how we live, what we aspire to and what we achieve.
It was via a great tapestry of discussions and re-imaginings that we built our bid. Through sixteen community-led working groups, online questionnaires, social media engagements and community chats, and a consultation clocking up more than 150 hours, we shaped our theory of change. From that, we built our programme.
When people talk about co-creation, the picture is often of a smooth and simple path to consensus. Some of our happiest moments, however, were when the discussion showed how passionate we all were, in our myriad ways, about what this bid meant. That made us dig deeper, think wider.
A child friendly city
We learned together and grew in confidence as we went. The plans we finally devised truly embody the city: our communities, our strengths, the changes we want to make and our aspirations to reach out and make connections, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Harsh realities hovered around all our discussions. Poverty and inequality undermine lives and quash potential but, for children, deprivation really does damage the future, and that means the future of Southampton, too.
Southampton has a relatively young population, and our journey to become a UNICEF Child Friendly City by 2025 is a key thread running through our ambitions for UK City of Culture 2025, with our children and young people at the very core or our bid.
They are closely involved in shaping and creating the opportunities it will bring, and the collaborative, skilled network of organisations working to improve their lives and opportunities have been integral to our process.
In truth, we cannot see how the difficulties that our next generations of adults will face can adequately be solved without our bid succeeding. Our desire, and Southampton’s need, are that great.
SO much more…
If becoming UK City of Culture 2025 would help us reverse our most testing challenges, it would also allow our strengths to come to the fore, our assets to shine. The great network of collaboration that the bid process has spurred has involved not just the entire city, but the wider region, which has come together in this way for the first time ever.
All that energy can deliver lasting and sustained change. We have amazing things to offer culturally – a win would bring us due recognition as a centre for the culture and creativity.
Our creative sector, which is already doing brilliant work, would have the opportunity to fly. Our achievements in enterprise and learning would become better known. More skilled, creative people would be attracted to us. We would be discovered as a fascinating, unique tourist destination.
A win for Southampton would even rebalance the nation, geographically. The city would become a healthier and happier place to live.
Our legacy ambitions
There is SO much we want to do – including planning, designing and building for our cultural future. This bid has been galvanising and energising in a way we could not have imagined. It has been a wonderful journey that has unlocked an unprecedented level of ambition.
If we win, our fantastic core team will ensure that our plans and dreams become a reality, maximising the knowledge, experience, understanding and relationships which have been nurtured over the last three years.
We are joined up and ready to go. Southampton has the will, the means and the commitment to make it happen here.
Claire Whitaker OBE is Bid Director for Southampton UK City of Culture Bid 2025.
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