Mayor's Cultural Leadership Board Minutes 7 March 2024

Ambassadors 

• Moira Sinclair OBE, (Chair) Paul Hamlyn Foundation  
• Amanda Parker, (Vice Chair) Creative Industries Representative  
• Sharon Ament, Museum of London  
• Sade Banks, The What If Experiment 
• Alice Black, ArtULTRA,  
• Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea, London Councils (Apologies) 
• Ajay Chhabra, Nutkhut (Apologies)  
• Bernard Donoghue OBE, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) (Apologies) 
• Stuart Hobley, The Linbury Trust 
• Amy Lamé, Night Czar, (Apologies) 
• John Newbigin OBE, Creative Industries Representative  
• Amaarah Roze, Independent Facilitator, Performer & Producer  
• Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries  
• Dr Jo Twist OBE, UKIE  
• Nigel Twumasi, Mayamada  
• Deborah Williams, Creative Diversity Network  
• Claire Whitaker CBE, Southampton Culture Trust  

Other Attendees 

• Lottie Macnair, Sophie Thomas, Thomas Matthews, Ben Long, Useful Projects  
• Senior Management Team and Policy Officers, Culture, Creative Industries and 24 Hour London Unit    

1. The Chair noted apologies as above and that the draft minutes from 13 December 2023 had been circulated for the Board’s comments. 
2.  The Chair noted one previous meeting outstanding action: 

3. The Chair advised that this training would be hosted jointly with the Black on the Square Community Advisory Group, and shortlisted artists from the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm projects on 15 April 2024. 
4. The Chair outlined the agenda items and asked about any Conflicts of Interest regarding any outlined items. None were declared. 

1. Useful Projects consultants presented the research, provided an overview of the challenge areas and proposed recommendations to work towards achieving net zero in the creative sectors. These included: 

   • The need for complex retrofit
   • On-location fuel use
   • Material use and circularity
   • Reducing the impact of design

2. After the presentation, the consultant responded to questions.  

1. The workshop focused on three questions:  

   • Have we missed any key challenges to decarbonisation for London’s culture and creative sectors?  

   • From your sector perspective, what are the barriers and enablers to embrace the recommendations?  

   • What can we learn from other cities, sectors, and initiatives?

2. Reflections from Ambassadors on the draft report included the following:  

   • There has been a significant downturn in funding available for capital works for cultural venues in recent years (e.g. Arts Council England funds are significantly reduced, trusts and foundations spend less on capital, etc.), so making the case for capital retrofit more widely will be critical in the future. 

   • It was noted that there is an extremely limited supply chain of specialist contractors who can undertake this work such as producing energy audits to capital development planning. What can the Mayor do to encourage more growth in this industry? 

   • Review the final report's language so it is more inclusive and will engage people who are less aware of this subject area. 

   • There is a need to support organisations to better understand where they can start to respond to this challenge. Suggestions included: 

     • Diagnosis of the skills gaps and identification where specialist support was needed 

     • Fund an energy audit or something similar

     • Bring in/or upskill staff to help understand how to respond to such a report

     • Build an arts network that will help provide peer support. 

   • There is a need to help arts organisations see/understand the financial benefits, such as cost reductions and generating income. There are many good examples in London and across the UK where arts organisations of all scales have retrofitted, reduced carbon, and improved their financial resilience as a result. The Creative Enterprise Zones programme could also help build a business case with current examples. 

   • Need to encourage more funders to focus on retrofit projects. Funders such as the Wolfson Foundation and the Linbury Trust support these kinds of projects, but Ambassadors would like to encourage more partnerships and collaborations across funders to make more impact.  

   • It was noted that organisations like Ashden were leading the Let's Go Zero campaign for schools, working with local authorities on carbon reduction and running an awards programme for innovation. There is some good learning from these winners (such as VECTAR, who make realistic sets for TV and theatre using cardboard). See also Fit for the Future network. 

   • To include Net Zero in the London Plan.  

3. The feedback and suggestions from the meeting were fed into the final net zero research report.  

1. The Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries delivered a thank you speech and outlined key achievements during the 2021-24 mayoral administration.  

2. The Chair and two board members provided case studies of their engagement during the term: Theatre Green Book, Culture Health & Wellbeing and the Creative UK Summit. 

3. The Chair introduced the second roundtable discussion: 

   • Top 3 things a Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board should always aim to do

   • Top 3 things a Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board could do.

1. The Chair flagged that members would receive an email relating to the 2024 Mayoral Election administration and are invited to respond to a survey to gather further feedback about their role on the Board. 

2. The Chair thanked Ambassadors for contributing to the Board for this Mayoral term.