Congratulations to the team who took on the huge undertaking of delivering the All Party Parliamentary Group report ‘The Case for Culture:What Northern Culture Needs to Rebuild, Rebalance and Recover’.

CTConsults is proud to have supported this crucial, laudable and urgent work. The publishing of this report is a significant step towards positioning culture as the fastest way to achieve the Levelling Up ambitions for our region. The cross-party support for the report demonstrates the shared understanding that culture is a vital tool for regeneration and recovery.

In particular, we are pleased to see the prioritisation of improving digital infrastructure  – we are passionate that digital transformation within the cultural and tourism sectors is essential to drive sector growth and innovation.

Collaboration talks to heart of our core values. This is the first time the North has come together as a region to champion and create a pan-Northern vision for the cultural sector, and we are hopeful it will bring together many of the initiatives and programmes we have been involved with and advised on over the last 10 years to support destination marketing, in relation to cultural assets.

Many of our current and former clients are featured case-studies  in the report – both urban and rural – such as York where we delivered a place brand, and Cumbria where we are currently developing a cultural strategy.

How will CTConsults implement the recommendations of this report? We will continue to commit to working with our clients to ensure culture is ingrained in all sectors. We care deeply about cultural- and place-based collaboration, and will continue to help places prominently position culture, heritage and tourism within their investment principals as tool for Levelling Up across all our work, whether cultural strategy, placemaking, digital transformation or place brand.

Once again, thanks and applause to the Northern Culture Club on this achievement, and we look forward to working with partners to realise its aims.

Before Christmas, Amy, Alex & Andrew visited West Cumbria to conduct a stakeholder workshop, with our associate John Knell of The Intelligence Agency. CTConsults has been commissioned to develop a Cultural Strategy for the area, a vast and rugged region which encompasses industrial and maritime heritage, futuristic technologies, sandy coast and the quieter areas of the Lake District National Park. 

The workshop was held at the Florence Arts Centre, located at a former haematite mine just outside of Egremont. When the mine opened in the late 19th century, it was the deepest in Europe; at its closure in 2008, it was the last working deep mine on the continent. Since then, the site has been home to an active artist community and arts centre, comprising studios, theatre & events space, gallery, café and shop.  The arts centre is one of the partners on the recently announced Creative People & Places project for West Cumbria.

The former mining infrastructure looms over the arts centre, and iron ore dust coats everything with a striking, rich red pigment. It is an atmospheric location which speaks to both the industrial and agricultural heritage of the area. On the rainy day we visited, even the puddles were bright red. Pigment from the mine has been used for centuries by local farmers, who use it to mark the fleeces of the famous Cumbrian Herdwick sheep. 

Now, the artists working at Florence use this pigment to create their own paints, inks and pencils. The Florence Paintmakers use locally-sourced materials and traditional techniques to manufacture the products by hand. This range of high-quality art materials can be purchased here and provides a sustainable source of income for the Centre. More information and images can be found here.

This is a brilliant example of creative placemaking, where the very ground itself is used to create art which is distinctly and uniquely of this place. The CTConsults team looks forward to exploring more of West Cumbria on further visits, as the project progresses.

As 2022 arrives, CTConsults is delighted to welcome some new and old faces to the team.

Starting with creativetourist.com, where we cover events, activities and places across the North of England, we are thrilled that Johnny James and Emily Waller have made the transition from freelancers to staff members. Johnny becomes Managing Editor and Music Editor, in between performing with his band The Blinders. Emily is looking after sales and campaigns for our valued clients and partners.

Sophie Young has started as Digital Data Analyst to support our expanding digital team. Sophie will be preparing insight reports, analysis and findings for our clients, such as for West Midlands Growth Company in their readiness to host the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this year.

Finally, we are joined by new Place Consultant and former client, Amy Lewis. Amy will be helping meet the demands of our growing place-branding, masterplanning and cultural strategy projects, and is already enjoying building relationships with clients up and down the country.

Welcome, everyone.

Have a look at our Team page for more details about all our team members.