Q. What do you do?
A. The Exeter Culture programme facilitates a series of short-term projects overseen by our team. This includes supporting partnership programmes, such as Creative Arc, and leading on major funding bids and applications for the city, such as the bid for UNESCO City of Literature designation and the Torbay-Exeter combined bid for a Cultural Cities designation. The team also frequently collaborates with various partners, practitioners and stakeholders in the cultural and creative industries nationally and internationally, such as Creative Bureaucracy, eUniverCities, Institute of Place-Management, and Creative UK, to ensure they are up-to-date with the latest best practise and innovation in the sector.
Q. What are you currently working on?
A. We are in the midst of focusing on Literary Industry development in the city through some internal scoping at the University. We are also developing a South West Creative Ecosystem (SWCE) in partnership with the Universities of Plymouth, Falmouth, and Plymouth Arts, and Creative UK and Real Ideas.
Our Creative Arc programme is in its second round of commissions via Shared Prosperity Funding.
Exeter Heritage Volunteers, in partnership with Exeter Historic Buildings Trust, have put in a bid for further funding.
For a small team, we certainly have our hands full!
Q. How are you structured?
A. Exeter Culture is a programme led by a small team of industry experts from the University of Exeter’s business engagement division, Exeter Innovation. We have a designated Director of Exeter Culture, currently Dom Jinks, and an external Advisory Group which currently chaired by Oli Raud.
Q. Are you a funding body?
A. No, we do not accept funding applications and do not have funds to share with other organisations or practitioners. However, we do sometimes have time-limited projects where funds are available by commission, for which we put out public calls for interest. We also share opportunities for free training and skills workshops were possible.
Q. How are you funded? Where do you get your money from?
A. We are funded by the University of Exeter. Until June 2024, we also received further funding through close-working with Exeter City Council and the Art Council England’s Cultural Compact fund for a programme of work with a particular focus on strategic alignment, place-shaping, and cultural development.
Q. Who decides how to spend your funding?
A. The University of Exeter, where the post of Exeter Culture Director is hosted, audits and holds the budget for Exeter Culture. We are given strategic steer on spending by our Advisory Group members and representatives from our funders.
Q. Where did you get your name?
A. Previously we were known as Exeter Cultural Partnership, but we rebranded to better align ourselves with our brilliant colleagues at Plymouth Culture and Torbay Culture.