In this guest blog post Selina Thompson shares reflections on the challenges and opportunities of collective leadership in 2025.

In this third year of our leadership programme for those traditionally excluded from the cultural sector, we have recruited 12 people to learn alongside and explore how we can make change for ourselves, our peers, the sector and the people and places of the West Midlands. Meet the third cohort of Collective.

We are really excited to announce that we have appointed two Leadership Associates who will be joining Culture Central over the next twelve months. Cara Pickering and Kat Hughes will be bringing their brilliant experience and thinking into the work we do, as well as building on their sector leadership knowledge.

Dr. Anthony Ruck, Culture Central’s Chief Strategy Officer, reflects on the regional research project A Creative West Midlands.

A Creative West Midlands is a data-led initiative developed to better understand the creative engagement of people living in the geographic West Midlands region, and to provide powerful tools to the creative and cultural sectors - as well as to Local Authorities and policy makers - to increase creative opportunities for residents across the region.

We’re looking for four artists/creatives to share or test a creative idea, workshop or activity as part of a Scratch-style event led by and for the Inclusive Network..

As part of Radical Listening Week, Culture Central brought members together for a focused conversation on Leadership and Governance.

Guest blog, as part of Radical Listening Week, by Kat Hughes, theatre director and producer from Stoke-on-Trent, who runs Stoke Exchange Forum.

Join Culture Central on 16th July to hear the latest and most detailed picture of cultural engagement and creative participation in the region.

Culture Central x people make it work x Collective is a leadership programme for those traditionally excluded from senior roles in the cultural sector.

This is an invitation for you to join us to explore and support how we make change for ourselves, our peers, the cultural sector and the people and places of the West Midlands.

This document by Dr Mark Taylor, University of Sheffield, uses Census 2021 data to provide an overview of the West Midlands cultural workforce. This regional overview has been undertaken to support the development of a workforce strategy for the cultural sector.

Culture Central is pleased to be supporting CreaTech Frontiers, the West Midlands’ new creative industries cluster, and share details of its first funding call for creative innovators in the region.

Charlene Carter-James, Partnerships & Development Manager at Culture Central, on Radical Listening Week 2025 and our flagship event for the week, Opening Up Access Symposium on Monday 16th June 2025 in partnership with Open Theatre.

Culture Central is recruiting two leadership associates for two annual contracts of £2,500 to support an individual (either freelance or working in an organisation) to work alongside the leadership of Culture Central for up to ten days over the year.

Charlene Carter-James, Partnerships & Development Manager at Culture Central, reflects on our Inclusive Network programme.

Guest blog by independent researcher Dr Lucy Lopez about the development of a Charter for Equity for the cultural sector in the West Midlands.

In this second year of a three-year leadership programme for those traditionally excluded from the cultural sector, we have recruited 12 people to learn alongside and explore how we can make change for ourselves, our peers, the sector and the people and places of the West Midlands. Meet the second cohort of Collective.

In this guest blog, Dr Cara Courage, Culture, Communities & Place Consultant-Director, reflects on placemaking through the Future City Plan Makers Bootcamp and Conference.

Culture Central and West Midlands Cultural Compacts Network are releasing findings of their Growth enquiry into the future of cultural investment in the West Midlands, which calls for government, local authorities, cultural organisations, and private sector partners to take immediate, collective action to safeguard the future of the region’s cultural sector.

Culture Central and the West Midlands Cultural Compacts network are working with City-REDI at the University of Birmingham to understand the finances of the cultural sector in the West Midlands region after March 2025.