Cultural strategy

On 21 March 2017 Cabinet ratified Southwark’s new cultural strategy (PDF, 3mb).

This strategy sets out our vision until 2022. It continues to place culture and creative industries at the heart of our priorities, shaping the context and delivering a range of programmes that support our long term ambition of Southwark being the first choice for people to live, work, study and visit.

The strategy provides a framework for cross-council work in events, arts, heritage, libraries, regeneration, licensing, public health, education, planning and other partners. The focus is on brokering partnerships to achieve Southwark’s enormous potential and securing our cultural and creative landscape for generations to come.

The aims of the strategy

  1. Ensure that Southwark continues to be a borough for cultural excellence
  2. Access and harness the benefits of regeneration for the cultural sector
  3. Embed a cross-council and partner approach to culture
  4. Ensure that cultural priorities are reflected in emerging plans and strategies, including the new Southwark Council Plan
  5. Further align the strategy to the Fairer Future promises
  6. Protect, preserve and grow our cultural venues, spaces and provision
  7. Ensure our cultural sector is resilient in the changing financial and political climate
  8. Support the economic prosperity of the borough, including the night time economy
  9. Enable our diverse community to have access to cultural opportunities
  10. Collect, conserve and celebrate our local heritage for future generations

Strategy Overview

Through our research and consultation we have developed a strategy consisting of three themes and a series of commitments, underpinned by an action plan, which will be collaboratively delivered with partners. The themes are:

Creative Economy

Ensuring that Southwark continues to provide the right environment for the creative economy and enabling our residents to access opportunities for sustainable employment to support a strong, highly skilled local economy.

Creative Growth

Ensuring that the cultural needs of existing and new communities are met, by retaining viable cultural organisations, and strategically developing cultural venues and creative workspaces.

Creative People

Ensuring that everyone has access to a high quality cultural offer regardless of their background, knowledge, skills, needs or experience. We need to work with partners in an unprecedented co-operative approach to address both real and perceived barriers to participation to drive higher engagement.

Please follow this link to download the full cultural strategy (PDF, 3mb).

Page last updated: 28 October 2019

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