I WRITE regarding the Coventry City of Culture report.
What was the ‘culture’ this was aimed at? I know so many artists, musicians etc who were snubbed by the organisers.
I’m a professional violinist and I was told I could become a visitor volunteer and that’s just me – there were others.
And we did not feel the year had anything to offer us in terms of culture, aside from the poor advertising.
It seems to me that nobody did a scoping exercise to see what was here and what we wanted – nobody looked at the talent and expertise within the city, and statistics will say whatever you want them to.
Cut the spin and let’s see where the finances went and call the so-called organisers to account for their so-called success.
Debbie Lynne
IT WAS clear to me that Coventry Kids – ie people born and raised in the city – were not in positions of responsibility when it came to Coventry City Of Culture Trust.
There were people who have long and illustrious careers in the arts who were ignored and insulted Coventry’s history and heritage were downplayed and it turned into an opportunity for external people to exploit the city, rather than a chance to build civic pride and engagement.
As for the ‘legacy’ – investment that was already lined up is being claimed as caused by City Of Culture when that clearly isn’t the case – not that there is enough of that.
Faith Lehane
MY COMMENT on the City of Culture report would be how can an event that caused bankruptcy, misery and lack of unity be considered a success?
How does this look to those who have never been paid for their work or contribution?
Is it now okay, even ‘a success’ to cause companies anguish and probable demise?
Our children are taught to be honest and believe in justice, I often wonder at what point do these values become unnecessary? The summary seems to minimise the failures and further hide those failures in jargon.
A more accurate assessment should ‘at the very least’ read ‘could have done better.’
Diane Faulkner
THE WILLFUL way Coventry’s City of Culture year ignored local orchestras like the Coventry Youth Orchestra which actually celebrated its 60th anniversary during that year was unforgivable.
Also not sending publicity to CV7 postcodes just because they are outside the city boundary was poor.
The best/ worst thing was the sending out of glossy brochures when 95 per cent of the events had already happened, this was alarming incompetence.
Paul Marzetti-Godman
I LOST the thought that Coventry’s City of Culture might be of interest to me when I saw what it was doing to the organisations that were already in place, not even recognising innovative work done by them, in favour of ‘co-creation’.
From what I saw, the lasting co-creation work came about in spite of Coventry City of Culture’s involvement, not because of it, such as the LTB showrooms.
Also speaking as a disabled person, I felt excluded by a lot of events because I wanted to avoid crowds at the time, having a business to try and keep going I didn’t want to lose more money due to illness than I had to date.
Just postponing the start to January 2022 would have helped enormously with that situation.
A local resident
NATIVE Coventry culture was ignored or patronised.
While the impact of arts from outside of the city can not be denied, the efforts of the City of Culture seemed a bit imposed upon the city, as though Coventry’s citizens needed education on what culture is.
In this way, the City of Culture acted like a colonial power dismissing the creative community of the city.
The events were almost exclusively staged within the ring road.
The most frustrating aspect of the year was the imposition of ticket-only events.
Many events were free or low-cost, but too many were far too expensive.
People who would casually go to events were excluded for not pre-booking, or downloading tickets after giving one’s personal information to a data farming company.
Thank goodness for the LTB showrooms, Sitting Rooms of Culture, Artspace, Arcadia and the many pre-existing bodies.
Joe Rice
THERE ARE some good stats in the Coventry City of Culture report but when less than 50 per cent of the residents participate you may question why that’s the case when culture is on your doorstep.
It’s great that 36 per cent of least engaged communities became regular engagers but it doesn’t state what percentage of overall attendees were from least engagement communities.
The pandemic shouldn’t be used as an excuse when the team has a captive audience to engage with. The ideas and communications during the pandemic were just poor value money in terms of reach and depth of engagement.
Kirsty Hillyer
YOU report that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has opened a new test site for Electric Vehicles (EV) in Coventry creating many jobs.
You show West Midlands Mayor Andy Street celebrating the good news.
The Mayor is right.
EV will, I understand, over time replace petrol and diesel-powered vehicles, thus helping to reduce air pollution.
It is important for Coventry to be at the forefront of such developments. I wish JLR every success.
Honorary Alderman David Skinner MBE
THE U-TURN on the proposals to close railway ticket offices is unexpected but great news and what a climbdown.
It was so obvious these proposals were ill-thought and would never work but it took a determined campaign particularly from disability groups and individuals to highlight the massive impact these proposals would have had on that particular group.
Ian Oakley
I BELIEVE some well-established Coventry-based arts organisations did benefit from the City of Culture year, the Biennial, Imagineer, Talking Birds, Ludic Rooms, HAG, Coventry Historic Trust, and Artspace to name a few.
But this was sort of undermined by the amount of City of Culture commissioning from outside the City.
The best event ever was the final carnival which definitely celebrated our homegrown culture and must have taken months to plan and rehearse.
The evaluation report zones in on the City of Culture social change experiment and getting communities with little exposure to pre-defined culture participating.
The carnival did this and so did many hyper-local events that went under the radar.
Whether anything changed as a result of being the City of Culture is a difficult one, strip away all the claims of massive economic investment in Coventry and huge numbers of visitors and you’re left with a bit of a black hole.
If the city had benefited so hugely then where is the evidence over one year on?
There is clear evidence as well of major overspending within budget parameters by the Trust.
But in the final analysis, who knows what really happened? It just seems like there was a lot of juggling of finances all the way through, the first declared difficulties were in May 2021. And this was a clear signal of poor leadership and questions regarding governance.
I believe there is more to be discovered and hopefully, we will get some semblance of truth in years to come, but the evaluation report does us no favours. It is an embarrassment of riches telling us how wonderful the cultural experience was for all, but not at any time checking the reality on the ground.
Heather S Davison
THE CITY of Culture website was poor and not up-to-date.
The blue ribbons on places of worship were a lovely idea, but few people knew about it or what it symbolised, so it fell flat.
BBC Midlands Today became a ‘what you have missed’ service.
There we no banners or indications of any sort along the roads between M6 Junction 2 and the city centre, although I saw a few on A45 when it was nearly over.
A friend drove into Coventry during that time and said ‘Wasn’t Coventry City of Culture last year?’.
Sadly, so many missed opportunities and so many organisations are out of pocket. Such a shame.
Jayne Stafford
WE WILL all reflect on City of Culture from our own perspective.
I knew that, inevitably, there would be elements of the City of Culture project that I would appreciate and elements that I wouldn’t, but I have been left totally deflated by a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to which I feel I might, perhaps, have contributed or at least attended and enjoyed.
Among the statistics that have now been revealed, I can be counted among those who felt completely disenfranchised by the whole affair.
I consider it a huge missed opportunity, not just for me but for the city of Coventry.
Yes, there were benefits, particularly to the public realm, and there is now pressure on the local authority, in tandem with its commercial and retail partners, to turn that to best advantage in a significantly difficult economic environment.
Hopefully, that won’t be allowed to slip away, but for now, I look for those responsible for the failures of City of Culture to be held to account, sooner rather than later.
Stuart Linnell
COVID was a huge problem for Coventry City of Culture and guaranteed it was never going to be like Liverpool, Glasgow etc. However, there were still lots of positives about the event and I enjoyed much of it.
It’s easy to focus on the ‘should / would/ could’ negatives but there were lots of great events and it created a buzz around the city that was a real bonus.
It wasn’t perfect for many reasons but still really glad we had the opportunity.
Maggie Edwards
THE CITY of Culture programme ignored the people and artists of Coventry to have a London-centric event team foisted upon us.
We became the Cul-de-sac of Culture with the main road being anything and anywhere that was not Coventry.
Keith Highham
FIASCO sums the City of Culture year up for me – as a retired art educator and practising artist I saw no benefits for local artists or schools and colleges.
The appalling lack of advertising along with the exorbitant cost of some events meant that many Coventrians I spoke to felt totally excluded, the report does nothing to reassure anyone that their voices have been heard.
Jan Mcgranaghan
THE PROCESS of evaluation begs the question of the need for autonomy.
Here we need to consider conflicts of interest, in terms of partners and evaluation.
Additionally, the structure of feelings in the city towards the City of Culture does not seem to be fully reflected in this report.
Is evaluation a listening exercise in the city or a PR exercise?
Nirmal Puwar
EDITORS COMMENT
THIS WEEKEND, with Armistice Day tomorrow and Remembrance Sunday the following day, gives us all the opportunity to pay tribute to all those who have lost their lives through war and conflict.
This year’s parades and services will be particularly poignant as they will be held amidst the seemingly never-ending fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Please attend one of our many local events and give generously to the Poppy Appeal to help the Royal British Legion support our former servicemen and women.
WE WELCOME YOUR LETTERS- Email [email protected] with your views.
