Transcript: Cultural Engagement Strategy
Transcript for the video embedded on the Cultural Engagement Strategy page.
Jeff: The cultural engagement strategy is fundamental to the university strategy and to our ambitions as a great university. Great universities take culture seriously.
(Various shots of the University of Leeds campus.)
Wieke: The Culture Institute is just one of the engines underneath this strategy. The University of Leeds has a really vast set of cultural assets, a gallery, a special collections, a music concert hall, several theatres, and the Institute is a cohering force.
Ben: The Cultural Engagement Strategy aims to cohere what arts and culture and creative activity can do across a university and out into the city and the wider region.
(Performance from Northern Ballet shows various forms of dancing, alongside medical equipment and creative lighting effects.)
Ben: There are four main aims of the strategy. We're hoping it will really foster impactful research, that it will support a pioneering student education, that it will enhance the staff and student experience across campus and out into the city, and it will help us realise the University's ambitions in terms of civic and community engagement.
(Still images of performances on campus, featuring music performances and a sandcastle sculpture.)
Louise: The University places a great deal of emphasis on success and that taking place in an equitable way. So it's incredibly important that it's embedded in the curriculum.
(Video shows people of varying ages creating artwork in a workshop environment.)
Nuri: Students having more access to art would increase imagination. The ideas that come from just looking at something and thinking: “Oh, that's amazing. How did they do that?” would be the best mix of trying to solve the problems that we face today, especially with climate change and sustainability issues.
Karen: Culture and creativity are the absolute backbones to our lives and the ways in which we interact with other people. And that's why this strategy is so important for the ways in which we teach our students.
Jeff: Cultural events and cultural programming help us become healthier, more full as human beings, and add remarkable value to the quality of the student and staff experience.
Karen: As a student, this is such an exciting opportunity to feel like you're integrating within the university community, which has all the ambition to really lead the way in how creativity and cultural engagement can really help tackle some of the world's biggest problems.
Pam: The research partnership between Leeds City Council and the University helps us develop impactful and effective policy. Our relationship with the University of Leeds expands beyond research as well. One example of that is our collaboration in realising the ambition to establish a National Poetry Centre in Leeds.
Pam: And so it's really exciting to work with the University to realise the future strategy for culture in the city.
(Video shows a range of live performances.)
Hannah: Yorkshire Dance has had a really long relationship with the University of Leeds. We've been working on a research project looking at the health and wellbeing benefits of dance on older adults.
(Still images show older adults learning and performing dance routines.)
Ben: This is a really exciting time to be delivering a strategy dedicated to cultural engagement. In a time of greater devolution of cultural policy, for example, where we're seeing a lot more power and decision making coming through the Metro Mayors to the cities. We're seeing cities of culture across our region in particular.
Ben: We're having five years of culture between Mayors. Leeds 2023 and Bradford 2025, the UK City of Culture. It feels like a really exciting time that's really galvanising the people of Leeds and the city region, and really mobilising everyone on campus to think about what culture can do to make people's lives better.
Hannah: Leeds is an amazing city full of really rich cultural organisation. It's really exciting to think about the possible ways in which the cultural industries and a university can collaborate more closely together.
Wieke: There are lots of things that excite me about the strategy. One of the things that excites me most is how in a few years time it will be really clear why you would come to the University of Leeds to see a show or see an exhibition. A university like ours which wants to have a really big impact in the world to make the world a better place, what better place to start with culture and art making and creativity. The University of Leeds can play their part in enriching that offer.
(A caption says “Find out more at the Cultural Engagement Strategy”.)