Carlisle Ambassadors held their latest meeting at Carlisle Racecourse, on Thursday 12th March. The assembled business leaders and entrepreneurs heard from some of the region’s cultural ambassadors, who are busily bringing aspects of Carlisle’s rich past and cultural future to life, as they play their part in encouraging people to live, work and visit the City.
Technical director Frank Giecco and regional director Chloe Brownlee-Chapman from Wardell Armstrong archaeology services outlined what they do as a business, some of the varied projects they are and have been involved with. East Anglia One, one of the UK’s largest wind farm projects and an excavation at Cumbria House Botchergate before the new Cumbria County Council HQ was built, which revealed a Roman cemetery, part of the Roman town and the associated road that served Carlisle. As well as operating commercially the Wardell Armstrong also work with local community groups; including the Friends of Rickerby Park, West Cumbria Archaeology and Carlisle Cricket Club, where they revealed a Roman bathhouse complex with tantalising links to Emperor Septimius Severus. The team working with Carlisle City Council and Tullie House are currently awaiting the results of a lottery bid to undertake further excavations this summer.
Ben Heslop from Landmark Street Art gave an overview of some of the work they have been undertaking to put Carlisle on the international cultural map working with renowned street artists like UK artist Angry Dan, who has work on a wall at Struts, Dutch artist Tymon De Laat, who has work at The Old Fire Station, Israeli artist AME72, who has several piece of work at Chapel Street, Austrian artist Tabby who has numerous works across the city including a piece at Abbey Street and local artist Phoebe Bell from Keswick who has a piece of work located at Coco Mill. Ben talked about his desire get people of all ages to engage with art. Street art is one format which he believes can help in this for Ben it’s about a sense of fun, providing a positive experience for people when they are confronted by something they aren’t expecting to see.
Carlisle City Council’s Jane Meek, Corporate Director of Economic Development gave an update on key projects across the City including the work undertaken at Central Plaza, which was demolished ahead of schedule before Xmas. This sensitive project required the removal of 7000 tonnes of debris whilst maintaining the integrity of ancient remains of the city wall. She also outlined key milestones of the Borderlands project with three specific projects in Carlisle centred around Carlisle Station Gateway and making the rail station fit for purpose and a fitting gateway to the Borderlands, repurposing the Citadels with the University of Cumbria as part of their City centre campus and development of Caldew Riverside. She also outlined the progress of project development bids made that have been granted to both the Future High Street Fund and the Towns Fund to facilitate project development for the City.
Young Carlisle Ambassadors Lizzy Coulthard, Holly Masters and Connor Fish gave an update on current projects and appealed to the assembled business leaders to get involved in their next scheduled Talent Connect event on 26th September by hosting a workshop, holding a demo, or by providing speakers or leading activities.
Michael Mitchell Principal Lecturer, Media Arts and colleague Development Manager, Karen Jones, both from Cumbria University’s Institute of the Arts outlined their involvement in the creative arts, delivering courses in fine art, digital arts, media arts, perform sing arts, creative writing. He then went on to talk about how as a University they are engaging with businesses to develop a cultural future for the City, aligning academic courses, cultural leadership and higher-level apprenticeships through their ten-point strategic plan and their work with 250 creative practitioners from across Cumbria.
Michelle Masters provided an update on Ambassadors activity including a recently launched collaborative lorry advertising partnership with Stalkers Transport Services and AST Signs and Graphics. She went on to outline how a number of other towns and cities have requested information to help them set up their own Ambassadors programmes. Michelle also announced the introduction of network buddies for new Ambassador members to help them make the most of the networking opportunities at each meeting they attend. She also outlined a new partnership with Shout Network to host a major event the first ever Cumbria Business Expo, which will be held at Carlisle Racecourse on 12th June.
Michelle Master said: ‘’It’s always great hearing from our diverse business community. The expertise found in Cumbria across a huge and diverse range of business frequently surprises me. We are perhaps more than most counties guilty of hiding our light under a bushel. Thankfully this is slowly starting to change, and I’m pleased to say Carlisle Ambassadors is helping with that process. By showcasing what we do locally, regionally and nationally we can really begin to create a vibrant City for the future and our creative, cultural, and heritage sectors all have a huge role to play in attracting people to the region and in making it an interesting and vibrant place to be.’’
To find out more contact Michelle Masters by email [email protected] or by calling 07810 224 735
