The Hull & East Yorkshire Creative Charter, launched in summer 2024, now has over 120 signatories. We’re thrilled to be sharing with you some insights into the successes of our Signatories – and the Charter itself – from the past year.
The Creative Charter launched with a simple but ambitious ask: that businesses across Hull and East Yorkshire pledge their support for arts, culture and heritage through advocacy, collaboration and – most importantly – action.
One year in, the evidence was already speaking for itself.
After a year, 76% of respondents to our survey told us the Charter had increased their support of arts, culture and heritage over the past year.
91% had marketed arts, culture and heritage to the public, 81% had advocated for it to other businesses, 67% had dedicated business time to cultural activity, and 62% had purchased creative services. Over half had actively promoted culture to their own teams.
Almost half of signatories provided financial support to arts, culture and heritage, and almost half offered in-kind support. 4 in 10 encouraged staff to volunteer, and 1 in 3 supported arts and culture governance, taking on board roles and contributing directly to the organisations that shape our region’s cultural life.
The range of activity across Charter signatories reflects just how many ways there are to engage, from hosting events at cultural venues to co-founding festivals, from donating tickets to community charities to commissioning creative services.
Signatories of all sizes and sectors have taken action aligned to their business expertise and personal values. Here are a few examples:
- Future Humber used cultural venues such as Hull Truck for corporate events
- HullBID advocated arts, culture and heritage to their 830+ plus members, encouraging them to participate in and champion city-centre cultural activity
- Lasercroft Ltd supported Rooted In Hull, a CIC who use creative workshops to promote wellbeing and sustainability
- The Deep collaborated with two not-for-profit accessible arts organisations to create temporary exhibitions inspired by marine life.
To mark the first year, HEY Creative brought together 50 delegates from across the region’s business, public and cultural sectors for a celebratory event. Max May (Chief Officer at HEY Creative) and Dominic Gibbons (Managing Director of Wykeland Group and Chair of HEY Creative) reflected on the Charter’s impact and the journey businesses have been on since signing. We also heard from Dave Garness (Managing Director of Garness Group), who shared his personal experience of putting the Charter into practice, using it as a framework for staff development, retention and wellbeing, with tangible results for his organisation.
Just like culture in our region, the Creative Charter is constantly developing, but one thing is clear: the first year demonstrated what’s possible when businesses and culture commit to working together.
We’re looking forward to seeing that grow, and to support that, we’ve updated our Creative Charter Signatory resources, including the above graphics, so you can make the case for culture to your colleagues and networks, and find new ways to build on your commitments.
If you’d like to find out more about the Creative Charter, click here.