Together Culture CIC
In a brief profile like this it’s impossible to capture fully the concept behind Together Culture, the scope of its ambition to be a catalyst for system change, and its transformative vision for the future of Cambridge, but to start simply in the words of its co-founders, Together Culture is ‘all about making an impact whilst having fun and connecting to new people, with a programme of inclusive, creative and shared experiences.’
CEO Heather Thomas, Community Director Ellie Breeze, and a group of like-minded people are building a diverse community of artists, social entrepreneurs, civic-minded citizens and all types of creative souls – if you do something that is meaningful to you then you are creative – who want to develop their creative skills, and use them to effect the sort of change that will ultimately lead to a more inclusive, ecological, equitable and vibrant Cambridge. This is the social impact that Together Culture is aiming for over the next ten years.
How? There’ll be a programme of activities to help people develop a transferable creative practice, a Citizens Studio in which members will explore, collaborate and help each other to identify the themes and ideas that can start to bring this future closer, and an Incubator to turn these themes and ideas into new social enterprises that will lead to new products and services, new sorts of businesses and jobs and, ultimately, to a new creative economy built on a shared vision and shared purpose.
Together Culture are also working to build permanent, affordable creative workspace for artists and entrepreneurs. The Story of Us pop up studio was the first step. They gathered the stories of 100 people to create the Together Culture manifesto; each story became a portrait captured on a mannequin; and the portraits are being displayed at the Fitzwilliam Museum throughout August, along with the premiere of a film that tells the story of Together Culture’s creative potential to build a more inclusive creative economy.
It must be obvious that there’s much, much more to find out about Together Culture. Visit the website to connect with Heather and Ellie; you may find yourself finding space to be more creative.