Creating a Cultural & Creative Strategy for BaNES

In September seventy people from the Bath&NES arts world took part in an Open Space event at The Forum about their ambition for that sector. Here is the raw material from that event for everyone to see. You can download this below:

Open Space Event Notes 100921

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Download PDF • 19.10MB

You may also be interested to read the notes from the round up discussion.

Round Up discussion

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Download PDF • 41KB

What next? At the event Bath Spa University kindly undertook to fund a one year post to begin to implement the refreshed creative and cultural strategy for Bath&NES. Banes, The Bath Bridge and Bath Spa University met on 26 October to plan that role and it will be advertised widely as soon as possible. The material from the event will be an important input.

A new Arts Hub for Bath&NES? Have your say!

Wouldn’t it be great to have a space to connect, communicate, share support and good practice across the Arts & Cultural Sector here in Bath & North East Somerset?

Whether you are a practitioner, freelance worker, organisation leader, or a member of our local community, we would like to hear from you. Help us shape a new Arts Hub by providing us with your input and ideas by completing our survey. We would love to hear your views by 5.00 pm on Saturday 31 July 2021.

Bath Bridge, with the generous financial support from St. Johns Foundation, is delighted to be sponsoring a review of the 2015 Bath&NES Arts Strategy. Maria Santelices MA in Arts

Management, from Bath Spa University has been appointed as Project Manager. Together we have carried out an initial review and you can now read our brief interim report.

The report has resulted from a consultation process that included meetings with our steering group, local authorities and interviews with 36 key cross-sector representatives. Now, together with your ideas, we will be able to create a solution to help boost a strong arts and cultural sector for Bath and North East Somerset.

Further information: Maria Santelices

Beautifully inventive new approach to creating forests

A new organisation from Bath is tackling the climate crisis head-on, by bringing together companies and individuals across the region to fund the purchase of land and plant brand new carbon sequestering biodiverse forests that everyone can enjoy.

Co-forest has announced this week that it has secured it’s first site and will be planting 10,000 trees this coming winter.

The organisations’ announcement comes at the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week 2021, which this year is focused on connecting people with nature for their wellbeing.

Katrina Kelly, Co-Founder of Co-forest, said:

“It has been well established that spending time in green spaces offers many benefits for mental health and wellbeing, and a great deal of research now exists that demonstrates the unique value of forests and trees to humans. However, the pandemic showed us that there are many social inequalities in ability to access woodlands.”

Co-forest is all about togetherness - bringing companies and people together to create new woodlands, and making those woodlands spaces which people can come together and enjoy and appreciate nature.

The first new forest is going to be called ‘Acorn’ and will be situated just north of Bristol near Almondsbury. Over twenty companies have contributed to the project so far and as well as their financial support, many will assist in tree-planting this winter. There is now an opportunity for more organisations to get involved in the project and to either extend Acorn forest or help in the purchase and planting of land at another site.

Katrina adds:

“We would not have reached this point without the immense support we have already received from companies and individuals across the region. We can’t mention every single one, but do want to give a big shout out to our early supporters - Storm Consultancy, Mayden, CiteAb, Dialect, Ultraleap, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Fourth Floor Creative, Bristol Weaving Mill, Royds Withy King, Bath Motor Club, NatAlt Design, Suited & Booted, Backpack, CollectEco, Cellesce, Kelpi, NaturBeads, EnvoPap and the Raby Family Trust.

“Co-forest helps companies improve their carbon footprint through offsetting, and also helps them to contribute to the local area through creating new spaces for biodiversity and for people to enjoy nature for their wellbeing. The companies and individuals who have become Co-foresters to date have had many different motivations, but overall they are all excited to be part of tackling the climate and ecological crisis right here on their doorstep.”

So what can you do to help? Spread the word - please tell your employer, friends, and colleagues all about Co-forest. Sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of our website. Join our volunteer register to get involved in planting days. And ultimately - become a Co-forester and help us plant our next forest!

Further information: David Kelly, Co-Founder of Co-forest