It is something of a mystery why being named UK City of Culture is seen in some quarters as a great civic accolade, a glorious first step on the road to social, economic and cultural regeneration. The experience of Coventry (the winner for 2021) reveals the many downsides to winning this dubious cultural prize. It is a cautionary tale of financial incompetence, threats of legal action over unpaid debts and buck-passing over who is to blame.
The UK City of Culture award has from its inception been little more than a joke at the public’s expense
This fiasco has come to light with the collapse into administration of the Coventry City of Culture Trust. The organisation received around £20 million in grants and donations, including £3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £6 million from Arts Council England and roughly £7 million from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In return, the trust itself generated just £600,000 in ticket sales from the 700 or so events it organised. A paltry figure that perhaps speaks to the lack of any wider public enthusiasm for its year-long cultural jamboree. This matters very little in the largely unaccountable world of arts apparatchiks, where public money flows freely and the air is thick with corporate gobbledygook about missions and legacies. All paid for by someone else’s money.
One oversized goal was to make sure that the good citizens of Coventry enjoyed lasting cultural benefits from the city’s year in the cultural spotlight. This was to be achieved through a three-year legacy plan.
This is now up in smoke because the money has run out, and funding for all legacy initiatives, including something billed as the UK’s first permanent immersive digital art gallery, is no longer viable. The problems at the trust run deep and have done so for a while. Accounts recorded for the end of the financial year in March 2022 showed a funding shortfall of £1.5 million. The trust’s total wage bill for the period stood at £3.8 million, having increased by awhopping £1.2 million from the previous financial year.
Yet only last October the trust was handed even more public funds: a £1 million loan from the city council. This came despite growing concerns about its finances, so much so that trust members from the University of Warwick and Coventry University quit the board in protest, saying they could not agree with the decision to accept the new loan. This latest tranche of taxpayer money is highly unlikely to be recovered.
Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands, is the latest politician to call for an investigation into the financial collapse. Others in the queue for answers include arts organisations: Assembly Festival, which hosted a number of shows, including the Children’s Games event, claims it is owed £1.47 million and that its ‘entire future’ was now in doubt because of the debt. It is a debacle that will make other arts organisations think hard before they take on projects in Coventry. So much then for building a cultural legacy for the city.
What a mess and all for what? The problem is that the UK City of Culture award has from its inception been little more than a joke at the public’s expense. A government-inspired wheeze, held once every four years, it has quickly descended into little more than a beauty parade of empty promises that tick any and every box likely to attract public funds.
Previous winners have included Derry/Londonderry in 2013 and Hull in 2017. Official monitoring reports detailing the benefits that flow from city of culture status have identified things such as an increase in tourism, civic pride and business activity. It is much more difficult to pinpoint tangible and lasting benefits guaranteed to continue long after the arts circus has left town.
All the grandiose talk of cultural legacies is nothing more than twaddle of a high-minded sort much in vogue with arts apparatchiks and their assorted hangers on. Bradford is next in line to adorn the mantle of in UK City of Culture 2025. If sense prevails it will be the last time that this festival of cringeworthy non-events sees the light of day. There are better uses for taxpayer money.
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