The report – to go before the Combined Authority tomorrow – also reveals 24,000 people, nearly double the number estimated by the Office for National Statistics, worked in the city region’s creative sector before the pandemic.

The new plan – known as the Liverpool City Region Cultural Compact Strategic Action Plan – recognises the key role that arts and culture play in the city region’s economy and in supporting health and wellbeing as the City Region emerges from the pandemic.

It also praises the commitment of arts and cultural organisations to focus on communities and renewal during the Covid-19 pandemic and the sector’s agile and innovative response.

The Cultural Compact identifies three key strategic priorities for the sector’s recovery:

• Creative Communities will champion community-led transformation and develop assets within communities across the Liverpool City Region.
• Creative People will support and facilitate artist, practitioner and community led cultural/creative interventions within city region cultural programmes.
• Creative Places will prioritise the influence and role of arts and culture in the regeneration and recovery of the city region

According to the report, “Arts, culture and creative industries are amongst the sectors hit hardest by measures to mitigate the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence of the impact of the crisis can be observed across the hospitality sector and visitor economy, hit by the closure of venues and 3,500 redundancies in the first six months of the crisis.”

The report adds: “Closure of music, entertainment and performing arts venues had a catastrophic effect on other parts of the supply chain, including production services, catering and travel companies, whose social and economic impact is immense.”

The report recognises that: “Liverpool City Region’s decision, uniquely, to feature culture in its devolution deal, continues to drive ambition and opportunity for the arts, culture and creative industries across the city region.”

It adds: “Culture has contributed massively to the wellbeing of the city region and its people – if it is to remain the critical and vital part of the city region’s economic and social infrastructure that it has become, the sector will need re-invention and reinvestment.”

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said:

“Culture is in our DNA as a City Region. It’s part of what defines us and plays a key role in all of our lives, not to mention our economy. We have done all we can to support the sector during the pandemic and through our Culture and Creativity Awards we recently celebrated the resilience and ingenuity of our cultural community, who have continued to create and entertain us through these most difficult times.

 “We are going to need our cultural and creative sector more than ever, as we start to emerge from lockdown. It has a key role to play in boosting our health and wellbeing as we deal with what we have been through over the last year, and the Cultural Compact Action Plan provides an invaluable blueprint for the sector’s ongoing recovery.”

The funding from Arts Council England was awarded to Culture Liverpool to support the work of/development of the Compact which has been facilitated by the LCR Cultural Partnership.

The Cultural Compact Action Plan builds on an ongoing commitment to the sector, including the 1% For Culture pledge, which commits 1% of the Combined Authority’s annual £30 million budget to the cultural sector, and the successful Borough of Culture programme, as well as the LCR Music Support Fund and LCR Film Development Fund, launched during the pandemic.

The £2m Liverpool City Region Film Production Fund, launched in 2019 with funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, has directly supported five productions in the last year, including Jimmy McGovern’s ‘Time’ starring Sean Bean and ‘Help’ with local actors Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer.  The fund is managed by Liverpool Film Office (part of Culture Liverpool).

The Fund has helped to ensure the involvement of local crew and facilities in the productions, building the expertise, reputation and capacity of the local sector. Its linked training has helped to support the next generation of diverse local crew with 40 LCR trainees supported in 2020.

Phil Redmond, Co-Chair of the Cultural Partnership, said:

“As we look to a post-pandemic future and reboot our culture, there will inevitably be challenges ahead, just as there always has been, but there is also a new horizon in an accelerating, digital, post-Covid world.

 “This plan lays down a new road map for the next stage of cultural development as we remind people that Liverpool City Region has been, is and will continue to provide the UK’s second city of culture.”

Maggie O’Carroll, Co-Chair of the Cultural Partnership, said:

“The Arts, Culture and Creative sector is integral to the local, national and international identity of Liverpool City Region. No stranger to the world stage, it illuminates and enriches our lives in so many ways, impacting on our sense of being, place, history, and our future. It is a foundation stone to our social wellbeing and cohesion, our physical and mental health, our education system, our national status, and our economy.

“The sector confers such enormous benefits and therefore it is incumbent upon to us to recognise it, celebrate it, support it and invest in it – and that is why we have developed this strategy and action plan in conjunction with the sector to ensure that it prospers and grows.”

Deputy Portfolio Holder for Culture, Tourism and Visitor Economy and Knowsley Councillor Shelley Powell said:

“The pandemic has demonstrated how innovative and resilient our creative and cultural sector is, as they have continued to create and entertain in new ways in really challenging circumstances.  The pent-up appetite to enjoy live, cultural events together is huge and this plan will help to ensure that the sector is still there for us when we can get out there again.”

Liverpool’s Acting Mayor, Councillor Wendy Simon said:

“Without doubt, the cultural sector has been hit incredibly hard by the pandemic – seemingly shutting down overnight.

 “As we are looking ahead to brighter days, this plan puts culture firmly in the spotlight and shows the confidence in the resilience of the sector and its ability to come back fighting.

“There will be a focus on using culture to not only tell the stories of those who live in our communities in a beautiful, Covid-safe way, but to also send out a real placemaking statement that across Liverpool City Region, culture isn’t just a nice to have – it’s an essential.”  

The next Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meeting takes place tomorrow, 19 March 2021 at 1pm.