Well, it is finally in!
On Friday 28th April, we submitted Sunderland’s bid to be UK City of Culture in 2021 to the Department of Culture Media and Sport.
The news of Sunderland’s submission was greeted with an astonishing response. The Sunderland2021 hashtag exploded across social media and by lunchtime we were trending across the UK with 2.3 million impressions. The wide-ranging and passionate support for Sunderland’s ambition to win the UK City of Culture title is irrefutable – and hopefully unmissable to those in Westminster. Thank you to everyone who helped spread the word.
Ours is a bid built on conversations with thousands of people across the city and beyond. It is jam-packed with ideas and plans which would transform the city over the next decade.
We believe it will be a catalyst for a great new creative era in the city and the evidence for this belief is strong. Between 2017 and 2021, there will be over £30 million invested in our cultural infrastructure with the opening of the Fire Station in 2017, Hylton Castle in 2018, and the MACQ New Auditorium and the Canny Space in 2019, all strengthening our offer and getting us ready to be UK City of Culture in 2021.
Our programme will be built around three themes: Light, Inventiveness and Friendship. These themes connect our past and future and will provide the stimulus for 365 days of world-class arts and culture, right across the city from Hendon to Hetton, Red House to Ryhope.
To ensure this is a programme that everyone will enjoy, it will be curated, developed and produced by a wide range of people from Sunderland and beyond. Team 21 will ensure young people are at the heart of the programme; community commissioning panels will pick and choose the best ideas for their local areas and Sunderland based artists and organisations will work alongside international colleagues to make sure we get to see the best work from right across the world.
And to make sure everything runs smoothly we have a new city-wide culture company – Sunderland Culture – which will be up and running our major cultural venues from 2018.
All this adds up to an £100 million project for Sunderland. But most importantly, it is a project that will have a profound impact on the profile and reputation of the city, the opportunities available to young people, the health and wellbeing of communities and on our economy. In short we believe being UK City of Culture would have more impact in Sunderland than anywhere else in the country.
So what happens next? Well, the fate of our bid is now in the hands of the judges. In early July we will hear if we have been invited alongside three other cities to take part in the second stage of the competition. Second stage bids will be due in on the 29th September with the winner announced at the end of November.
But whatever happens this work will not be derailed. Team 21 will keep meeting and planning for the future, building work on our new cultural quarter is well underway, and we will continue to attract new investment for arts and culture in the city. Exciting times whatever happens but when you think about how sensational it would be if we win, it certainly takes your breath away.
So please do keep shouting about Sunderland’s cultural regeneration and what this title could mean for the city. Ha’ way Sunderland 2021!
Rebecca Ball
Bid Director, Sunderland 2021
The bid team: Rachel Hamer, Richard Callaghan, Helen Connify, Rebecca Ball, Hannah Matterson, Kristian Foreman & Keith Merrin
