Five questions with... Adele Poppleton, Culture lead for Kirklees
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You’re the Service Director for Culture and Visitor Economy in Kirklees – tell us what your role entails.
I lead the development of relationships and of strong and innovative teams. I’m responsible for securing investment and increasing income generation, as well as influencing stakeholders and briefing politicians. I’m also responsible for museums and galleries, events and festivals, tourism and markets alongside various functions across all council buildings. It is a huge team effort to deliver all these services and we have 2,000 staff.
Kirklees is an Arts Council Priority Place. Why is this a good thing for Kirklees?
Being a Priority Place will be particularly beneficial over the next 12 months as Kirklees Council faces significant budgetary pressures from the cost of living crisis, supporting increasing numbers of vulnerable people and following years of under investment.
When faced with these challenges in the past, some authorities have sacrificed cultural services to support the most vulnerable. We recognise that reducing services is not the way to survive and that it’s important to support growth. Culture can make a significant impact on economic growth and we can focus on this by working with the Arts Council.
As a Priority Place, we can strengthen our relationship with the Arts Council and work together to increase investment in Kirklees, from other sources as well as from the Arts Council’s programmes. We’re working more closely with the National Lottery Heritage Fund and, in collaboration with them and the Arts Council, we’re working across culture and heritage to increase levels of investment, cultural leadership and sector development.
What difference is it going to make to the people who live there and to visitors?
Over time, local people and visitors to the area should be able to engage in a diverse range of cultural activities, in whatever way they choose, thanks to the increased investment in culture. That might be as creators, participants, producers and/or audiences.
We are using the additional investment, not just of funding but also expertise, to develop skills in the cultural sector and encourage collaboration and innovation so that there is an appealing, high quality cultural offer in Kirklees.
2023 is Kirklees Year of Music, supported by the Arts Council’s Place Partnership fund. Tell us about some of the highlights of the programme.
The Arts Council’s funding is particularly supporting Herd, our collaboration with Artichoke. This is a mass participatory mash-up involving artists, musicians and hundreds of school children and residents uniting to produce an amazing musical and sculptural odyssey which celebrates our strengths in textiles and music.
Performers from many musical genres representing the diverse communities of Kirklees are working with the composer Orlando Gough to create soundscapes in the form of 23 giant sheep created by Huddersfield artist Dave Young. The sheep will be located across Kirklees and will travel to Huddersfield for a huge celebratory event on 16 July.
We also have a fascinating programme of monthly podcasts produced by Let’s Go Yorkshire, telling the stories of different types of music. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed one of the nation’s favourite pieces of music, Lark Ascending, while staying in one of our villages and so we celebrate his 150th anniversary by bringing together classical, choral and folk musicians and singers to turn folk songs in to hymns. Musicians in different styles, led by local Bhangra specialist Hardeep Sahota, are reimagining the songs of Prince for a special performance at the Lawrence Batley Theatre; and Organic Doom Metal Bands, Aro and Pantheist, are collaborating with our organ curator, David Pipe, to create what could be the birth of a new genre of music.
Tell us about the plans for the £210m Our Cultural Heart development in Huddersfield. What is the benefit of having culture at the heart of this regeneration?
We recognised some years ago that the future of town centres does not lie in retail alone. Vibrant town centres need to be places where people can shop, work, live, socialise and be culturally active. Central to our masterplan for Huddersfield is the creation of Our Cultural Heart, a hub of culture and learning which will include a new library, archive centre, museum, gallery, indoor events and music venue, outdoor events space, urban park and food hall. It will sit alongside existing cultural facilities such as the Lawrence Batley Theatre, the Parish music venue, Huddersfield Town Hall’s beautiful concert hall and the University of Huddersfield’s facilities such as Heritage Quay, Holocaust Centre North, St Paul’s Concert Hall and the Bath House Gallery - offering really exciting spaces for local people to enjoy and to attract visitors to the town, encouraging them to stay and explore our retail and hospitality offer.
Our Cultural Heart is about putting the soul back in to our town by regenerating our heritage buildings, telling the story of our place and its communities and using this to influence our future and make our residents proud. Cultural activities are the most effective way to ensure our communities develop a strong identity and feel a sense of belonging to the town. Kirklees has received lower levels of investment than elsewhere leading to low levels of confidence and pride in the town. Success breeds success and so by increasing cultural engagement through Our Cultural Heart, we hope to achieve high levels of confidence which will appeal to inward investors and stimulate the local economy.
