Derby enters race to become UK’s City of Culture 2025

Derby is urging communities, organisations and businesses to get behind its bid to become the UK’s City of Culture in 2025.

The bid will use the city’s rich and vibrant heritage as the birthplace of the industrial revolution, site of the world’s first factory and home to innovators such Rolls Royce, Bombardier, Toyota and many others to fuel its bid.And it is hoped that a successful bid would act as a springboard for culture-led regeneration, economic growth and tourism in the city, attracting potentially billions of pounds of investment in the process.

The UK City of Culture title is held by a city for one year and is administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The first holder of the title was Derry in Northern Ireland in 2013.

This was followed by Hull in 2017, which saw £3.4 billion public and private investment into the city as a result, and currently in 2021, Coventry is the City of Culture.

An expression of interest is currently being drawn up in Derby for submission by July 19 and involves a wide range of city organisations who have indicated their willingness to get behind the bid.

The city previously considered applying in 2010 to become the first UK City of Culture in 2013, but it was felt the time was not right, but on the back of the recovery from the pandemic, the timing is now considered just right.Councillor Chris Poulter, leader of Derby City Council, said: “We’re not suggesting that Derby bids as ‘the best cultural city’ in the UK; we’re bidding as a city of aspiration, and a city of potential, which we know Derby will be able to get behind.”

Tony Butler, executive director, Derby Museums, said: “For over three hundred years Derby has been a centre for creativity, experimentation and making.Here, on the banks of the Derwent, the industrial revolution first took hold, fuelled by the ideas of scientific discovery and enlightenment.

“That legacy resonates today as a city that is global in outlook committed to economic innovation.

“Every citizen has the right to participate in cultural life. It helps define who we are and our place in the world.

“It provides citizens with the agency to create and contribute to making the places where they live. Being inspired by a rich cultural life unlocks individual ambition and generates a sense of collective joy.”

A long history of making and creativity sits alongside Derby’s diverse cultural community and organisations that have worked together to create many vibrant events including Festé, Format photography festival, Derby Folk Festival, Darley Park Concert, Caribbean Carnival, St George’s Day celebrations and Derby Market Place.

Derby’s many cultural institutions include: QUAD, Derby Theatre, Sinfonia Viva, Déda, as well as Derby Museums. The city has a track record of coming together and delivering as a city.

By working in partnership, it has delivered the Olympic Torch Relay, Feste, Made in Derby Walk of Fame and the Poppies: Weeping Window exhibition.