Norwich City of Culture

Norwich has reached the final shortlist to become the first UK City of Culture

‘’It’s time Norwich took its place in the limelight as a model for city living in the 21st century’’ Stephen Fry

Norwich is among four in the running for the prestigious title, which would provide a major boost for tourism and attract new investment to the county. Some estimates suggest it could generate up to £200m for the economy of the winning city.

Competition comes from Birmingham, Sheffield and Derry/Londonderry.

Norwich sees culture, along with business, science, education and skills, social science and health, as a vital component for building its long-term prosperity, raising its profile internationally, and improving civic pride and the quality of all its citizens’ lives.

Norwich has three unique selling points:

It is a city of contrasts, a modern city with some of the UK's best heritage sites and a long association with the arts and creativity

A city of innovation with a world class 21st century knowledge economy that is 'enterprise' ready in one of the UK's fastest growing regions

Scale: already part of Regional Cities East, Norwich will exploit its scale and its experience of being 2013 City of Culture to provide a model for other medium sized UK cities that want to drive ahead social and economic change through culture and creativity.

The successful applicant will mark its status with a year of celebrations in 2013.

How can my business help?

In the short-term there are a number of simple, practical contributions the business sector can make that will build a critical mass of interest and activity to help drive our bid to success this summer:

Individually, you as business leaders can:

write a letter of support for use with the media and as ‘soundbites’ on www.norwichcityofculture.co.uk
join the city’s strategic champion’s group

become a media spokesperson for the project an mention it during other, corporate, press opportunities

name check the bid in appropriate speeches during corporate events

approach your personal, high profile business and wider contacts, whether they know Norwich or not, to support the principle of a medium-sized city leading economic change through cultural endeavour

And with your company

develop an in-house '2013 Culture' team to work with city-based communities and arts partners on a 'quick win' culture project, perhaps as part of their corporate social responsibility programme, to serve as case study now and pilot for the future
nominate an employee to business-mentor an arts or culture organisation in a specific specialism
develop a 'front line' approach to promoting the bid via www.norwichcityofculture.co.uk on your corporate website, and via print materials, press releases and email footers
ask your staff to get involved virtually through the bid's Facebook group and actually via voxpop opportunities in the city
host a bespoke event in support of the bid, in partnership with a local cultural organisation, or actually located there

In the longer term the project team would like to work with its business champions to develop a programme of projects across 2013. These would redefine traditional sponsorship – though the value of brand association continues to be important – to explore how culture can better benefit the private sector, perhaps through employee, communications and skills development.

For more information on the bid visit the dedicated website

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Norwich City of Culture

Norwich has reached the final shortlist to become the first UK City of Culture

‘’It’s time Norwich took its place in the limelight as a model for city living in the 21st century’’ Stephen Fry

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