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Lessons to be learned from Northern cultural capitals

Next month Hull in East Yorkshire takes the baton from Derry-Londonderry to become the 2017 UK City of Culture.

The programme was inspired by Liverpool’s time as European Capital of Culture in 2008, and cities across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been bidding for the title since it was first launched in 2009.

It can’t go unnoticed that Liverpool and Hull are both northern cities. They really embody the main philosophy behind the Northern Powerhouse – connectivity – and now have the power to come together and demonstrate all the positives about the North’s pioneering and cultural spirit.

Why is this important? Because these two culturally distinctive cities have used differentiators to set them apart and by understanding where each sits in the grand scheme of things have drawn investment in to the region. They recognise and appreciate they are best in class at certain things and don’t try to be all things to all people.

It’s a powerful message, and I urge you to learn from their example; where there are similarities draw strength from working collaboratively together to overcome tensions and help each other grow but also acknowledge where one is best in class they are quite simply that.

Hull and Liverpool have the perfect opportunity to demonstrate real creative collaborative leadership as they sit at the west and east ends of the North, joined by a major artery the M62. Both have port operations sitting as they do on two key major rivers, the Mersey and the Humber, looking out through trade routes to the Americas and Europe. Both have the opportunity to really show us how collaborative leadership can work.

Now is the time to break down the barriers and recognise how working together can be truly beneficial. The combined experience of Liverpool and Hull should be built on to help other northern cities as they bid for titles: Sunderland for UK City of Culture in 2021, and Leeds for European Capital of Culture in 2023.

Even more important is that we can remove parochialism from the lexicon and grow together not just as the Northern Powerhouse but as world class serious players. It was that great Hullensian William Wilberforce who said “great indeed are our opportunities; great also is our responsibility”. Worth thinking about.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Andrew Palmer .