...is vibrant and culturally rich 
CITY VISION 2050

The '...is vibrant and culturally rich' workshop took place on Tuesday 27th May hosted by the Museum of London. This was attended by around 30 people, representing different sectors such as business, retail, education and culture. The workshop created space and opportunity for discussion to be had around how participants would like to see culture, heritage and the arts to look like in 2050. 

The session started with a couple of small presentations, the first by the Futurologist, Richard Watson, and the second from two of the Content Creators at the Museum of London. The group discussion revolved around the following questions:

Knowing what we know now and looking ahead… 

1. Barriers: What are the barriers for culture and leisure in the City? How do we break them down?

2. Thinking Differently: What do we need to do to free up thinking and do things differently to allow vibrancy and richness to flourish?

3. Relevance & Resilience: How do we meet the challenges of relevance, resilience and sustainability across the cultural offer?

The Content Creators’ presentation attempted to illustrate how culture, heritage and the arts are a depository of past futures and that the future cannot be predicted too precisely. This idea was conveyed with the stories associated with a couple of exhibits - a Roman axe head from 47AD – this dated back to when Iceni Queen Boudicca destroyed the City of London, a brick from Pudding Lane where the Great Fire of London started and a Toshiba laptop from 1995. Each exhibit demonstrated how when they existed the future could not be visioned too clearly, for example, who would have know that the City of London would have been engulfed by the Great Fire of London on 2nd September 1666?

These 'artefacts' were also to remind participants that what people want to see in museums is changing; culture, heritage and the arts are not only about the past, but the present and the future too.

Lots of interesting discussion was had, again, linking to previous workshops. The need for youth involvement and embrace a technological reform - the way in which people 'do' culture is changing, whether it be through the digital medium or paying for 'exclusive' events.

Watch the YouTube clip from the session to see a snippet from the session and hear some of the participants' views.

This was workshop number five of five for the City Vision 2050 project, so we are now going to get cracking with pulling it all together. Simon Barnes, the Chairman of the Transport and Sustainability Forum, will present the conclusions of the workshops at the City Resident's Meeting on Monday 23rd June.

Please post a comment or email if you have any suggestions for the project or anything to add or would like to attend the City Resident's Meeting at the Guildhall in June!