Reflections on an unusual year.
‘We are thankful to the Culture Recovery Fund for
supporting us by committing funding to our work. As a social enterprise we
strive to add value to the sector; our plans for the Culture Recovery Fund aim
to do just that. This funding will enable us to develop our Workforce Futures
stream of work, a development project that we began prior to COVID-19. We have
modelled a new approach to workforce development that would offer more value to
the sector.’
We wrote these words at the end of 2020 and as the year ends,
we have managed to achieve all the targets that we set out for ourselves using
the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) so gratefully received from the National
Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). We have used the funding to employ an admin to
help the Head of Projects to deliver on training our heritage assistants and
ensure that we are digitally ready for the next year ahead.
It has been a challenging year, but our team has been able
to support each other and create a future for Culture Syndicates that now sees
us working with many partnerships and advisors.
January - March we researched working digitally and created
our digital tool kit. Feixue Huangdu joined us working
in partnership with the Heritage Trust Network to build opportunities for
British heritage sites to communicate digitally with international audiences. We
also contracted Ruth Gray to support Natasha Clegg head of Projects with her
work as heritage admin assistant. With the support of Neville Stankley heading
us up as Acting Chief Executive Officer.
February – April we took part in Equality, Diversity, and
Inclusion training to help us to ensure our company reflects the values set out
in our mission statement. Our conversations on the above topics have been
divergent, bold, and thought-provoking. Our workshops and meetings with Lara
Ratnaraja and Helga Henry catalysed our thinking and sparked exciting ideas
about how our work supports individuals and organisations within the cultural
sector. Projects included working with City Arts and St Peters Church.
May- June We worked on our website content making sure that
it will be a hub for sector entrants to gather useful knowledge and support
about the sector. Neville joined us as a permanent member of staff as the Chief
Operating Officer. We also formed strategic partnerships internationally
working with Yanqiu Autumn Dai, our new strategic advisor to the Culture
Syndicates board. Projects included Wordsworth Trust and the Barbican.
July - August we used the CRF2 funding to train our heritage
assistants and bring them back into the team after the long lockdown period.
This also became the final fully working from home months as we now have new
offices at the National Justice Museum. Projects happened in person for the
first time in 18 months taking our heritage assistants to Mrs Smiths Cottage
the National Football Museum and Museum of Cambridge.
September – December saw the fruits of all our rebuilding
come to fruition as now we welcome onboard Elizabeth Neathley as our Head of
Workforce Inclusion. and we can finally start developing further the core of
our work to reflect our mission which is to help sector entrants gain key
sector employability skills. Feixue Huangdu made new cultural connections for
us in Beijing.
October- Elizabeth Neathley engaged with a range of
universities regarding placements and internships including Oxford, Nottingham,
Nottingham Trent University and Derby. This
will focus on inclusive routes for young people and their families or carers to
enable them to gain meaningful first-hand information and experience to inform
them of cultural careers.
Changes are part of any business and this year as for many
companies around the country we have all had to spend time focusing on new ways
of working and for Culture Syndicates we have spent a good year looking at our
business plans we have had a governance review and shifted the structure of the
company to properly focus on our mission.
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