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CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260217T151927Z
DTSTART:20260311T163000Z
DTEND:20260311T183000Z
SUMMARY:Professor Abigail Gilmore's Inaugural Lecture – 'Between a Rock a
 nd a Hard Place'
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DESCRIPTION:Between a Rock and a Hard Place: England’s Cultural Policy La
 ndscape under Austerity and Devolution\n\nWhat makes a town or city cult
 urally vibrant\, and who gets to decide? Which arts venues\, cultural am
 enities and heritage spaces should communities be able to access—not onl
 y for their own quality of life\, but for the liveability and identity o
 f their neighbourhoods?\n\nThis inaugural lecture explores the spatial p
 olitics of cultural policy in England and the tensions it creates for cu
 ltural placemaking and democracy. Following a narrative that travels nor
 thwards from Macclesfield in Cheshire across Greater Manchester to Mytho
 lmroyd in West Yorkshire\, Professor Abi Gilmore traces two decades of r
 esearch into cultural infrastructure\, the public policies that shape it
 \, and the governance and funding systems that have produced stark geogr
 aphical inequalities in cultural access and provision.\n\nPostwar Englis
 h cultural policy is characterised by the arm’s length Arts Council mode
 l\, free entry to museums and galleries and a heritage sector buoyed by 
 National Lottery investment\, plus the midwifery of the creative industr
 ies under New Labour. More recently\, attention has turned to ‘left behi
 nd places’ through Levelling Up investment into culture and heritage as 
 tools for tackling inequality and reviving high streets\, with a new nat
 ional Towns of Culture competition just announced.\n\nYet these policy i
 nnovations sit uneasily alongside a decade of deep cuts\, and despite th
 eir cultural ambitions\, there is no national strategic framework. Local
  government—the largest public funder of culture—has seen its cultural s
 pending halved in real terms. Instrumentalism is entrenched\, with cultu
 re expected to deliver economic growth\, improve health outcomes\, and r
 epair social fractures in exchange for support. Combined with a quiet Bu
 tskellism\, cultural infrastructure remains discretionary\, vulnerable\,
  and unevenly distributed.\n\nDrawing on a long-term engagement with “cr
 ap towns” and “cultural deserts”\, alongside pioneering Mayoral Strategi
 c Authorities and Cities of Culture\, the lecture reflects on how auster
 ity\, devolution\, and politics are reshaping England’s cultural landsca
 pe. It asks what kinds of cultural policies are needed and how they migh
 t honour and represent the structures of feeling and dynamics of place —
 when cultural infrastructure sits between the rock of local precarity an
 d the hard place of methodological nationalism.\n\nSchedule\n\n4.30pm???
 ?Wine Reception\n\n5.00pm????Introduction from Thomas Schmidt\, SALC Hea
 d of School\n\n5.15pm????Abigail Gilmore's Inaugural Lecture\n\n6.00pm??
 ??A response to Abigail's lecture from Distinguished Scholar\, Andy Myco
 ck\n\n6:10pm????Q&A session\n\n6.30pm????Inaugural ends
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:SLG.12\, Samuel Alexander Building\, Manchester
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