Glasgow launches six-year cultural strategy

Glasgow Council’s City Administration Committee has approved a new cultural strategy, setting out plans until 2030 to support, develop, and promote the city's cultural profile while boosting prosperity and improving arts access for its residents.

Co-created by Glasgow Life and Glasgow’s Culture Forum through engagement and consultation with the city’s cultural sector, the strategy has four priorities: Glasgow’s cultural profile, cultural participation, creative skills, and sustainability.

An action plan created for the first two years of the programme sets out its objectives, including ensuring that all nursery and primary school children can access professional artists in their education setting and integrating culture into other city plans and strategies.

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Anita Clark, Director of The Work Room and a member of the culture forum, said: “It is extremely welcome that at this challenging time, Glasgow City Council has taken the courageous step of endorsing a new cultural strategy for the city, embedding culture at the heart of Glasgow's future plans and ambitions.”

Clark said that despite culture playing a significant part in Glasgow’s civic story, recent years had been “extremely tough,” leaving many of the city's artists and artists' organisations “in a very precarious position”. 

“The strategy is a starting point to galvanise deep commitment and collaborative working with artists and independent creative organisations, in partnership with the city council and Glasgow Life to secure cultural access for all of Glasgow's people,” she said.

According to Creative Scotland, Glasgow is home to 41% of the country's actors, dancers and broadcasters, 38% of its musicians and 29% of its artists and graphic designers also stay in the city. With almost 90% of Glaswegians participating in some type of cultural activity each year, the funding body says that more people visit the city’s museums annually than any other UK city outside of London.

“Glasgow’s incredible reputation for culture and creativity has been built by generations of artists and creative workers," said Moira Jeffrey, Director of the Scottish Contemporary Art Network and culture forum member.

"We want our communities to be places where artists can live and make work and where new generations can learn and participate to experience the best of the benefits of culture. Glasgow’s new cultural strategy recognises the contributions of its artists and arts organisations and the steps we need to take to nurture and support them.”