Responding to and modelling the impact of COVID-19 for Sheffields cultural ecology - a case study of impact and recovery

COVID-19 is radically affecting Sheffield's cultural ecology. The implications appear catastrophic from surveys conducted by PI for the LEP and partners. (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/about/city/news/cultural-sector-covid-response-survey-1.887602. National sector surveys underestimate the interconnectivity of the cultural ecology of the City, the role of place, concentrating on national economic data rather than the local recovery models required (see Florida, 2005; Scott, 2006). Disparate sectors within entertainment, creative industries, leisure, heritage are overlooked in standard business responses. Data from Sheffield City Council (SCC) demonstrate that over 47% of the city's creative businesses are ineligible for government grants/loans due to business rates models/mode of production. An immediate response is required: to collect/analyse data on economic impacts on the wider sector; to understand, respond, work with the city's cultural partners assessing how this co-produced approach will enable a robust, evidence based pathway of recovery that can be a model for other places. This project capitalises on benchmark data created through 5 reports (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/about/city/reports) and a SWOT analysis of Sheffield's cultural ecology commissioned by the SCR/LEP (August 2019) produced by Toulmin/Marshall. The combined collected data will investigate the impact of COVID-19 on Sheffield's cultural ecology - financially, socially, creatively and the implications for the wellbeing of practitioners/audiences. It will explore organisational impacts on LA funding, critique failings in sector models, provide evidence for change, examine positive adaptations. The collaboration includes civic/cultural partners e.g. Sheffield Culture Consortium. By generating immediate and relevant research data about venues, audiences and freelancers that directly impacts on the economic recovery of the sector locally & regionally with national impact, this co-produced research will bring wide and immediate impact by creating data that will directly input into local and regional economic recovery plans, provide a series of benchmark reports for wider national bodies and create a model of best practice for Core Cities and other networks to evaluate the impact of Covid on the wider creative place ecology.