Designing and testing an innovative neighbourhood-based model that brings residents, artists, organisations and public partners together to shape the future of culture through participation, evidence and collective action.
The opportunity
Local was initially commissioned, alongside CTConsults, to support the development of the Kirklees Place-Based Cultural Strategy. As part of this work, we developed and piloted Culture Labs as a way of involving residents, artists, community organisations and local partners more directly in shaping the cultural future of their places.
The early pilots demonstrated the potential for Culture Labs to move beyond conventional consultation. Rather than simply gathering views, the approach created space for people to share local knowledge, build relationships, identify priorities and begin developing ideas and actions together.
In September 2025, an opportunity arose to continue and deepen this work through the AHRC Creative Communities programme, in partnership with the University of Huddersfield. Since then, Local's Creative Director, Dr Claire Tymon, has been delivering the programme as a Creative Innovation Practitioner, developing and testing Culture Labs through action research across Kirklees.
This phase of work, which concludes in August 2026, has enabled Local to further develop the Culture Labs methodology, explore neighbourhood-scale cultural development across four different places, and build a stronger evidence base around participation, active cultural citizenship and local cultural infrastructure.
The current focus is on developing a sustainable plan to embed Culture Labs and the emerging neighbourhood cultural infrastructure model more firmly across the district, connecting neighbourhood knowledge and action with the delivery of the Kirklees Cultural Strategy.
What Local brought
Rather than delivering a series of consultation events, Local designed an entirely new participatory framework combining creative placemaking, action research and cultural strategy.
Drawing on our experience of working across arts, local government, universities and communities, we developed Culture Labs as a practical methodology that enables local knowledge, creative practice and strategic decision-making to work together.
The pilot brought together residents, artists, community organisations, schools, cultural organisations, health partners, local businesses and public services across four neighbourhoods — Marsden, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury and Ashbrow — each representing different cultural ecologies and opportunities for learning.
Our work included:
• Designing the Culture Labs methodology and facilitation framework.
• Developing creative tools to support conversation, mapping, storytelling and collective action.
• Facilitating neighbourhood workshops, creative walks and place-based activities.
• Commissioning filmmakers and creative practitioners to document each Lab through participatory film and creative documentation.
• Producing evidence, evaluation and neighbourhood insights to inform the Kirklees Cultural Strategy.
• Developing Local Cultural Action Plans that connect community priorities with long-term strategic delivery.
• Producing a policy paper, podcast, case study and recommendations for regional and national policy.
Rather than treating research, engagement and strategy as separate stages, Culture Labs brings them together through an iterative process of listening, testing, reflection and action.
What changed
Across the four pilot neighbourhoods, hundreds of conversations helped build a richer understanding of how culture is experienced at neighbourhood level.
The Labs revealed that every place possesses different cultural assets, relationships, ambitions and challenges. Rather than producing a single strategy for the whole district, the process demonstrated the importance of neighbourhood-scale cultural development that reflects local identity while contributing to shared strategic goals.
Participants identified opportunities to strengthen creative networks, improve access to cultural activity, support artists, activate underused spaces, celebrate local heritage and develop stronger relationships between communities and public organisations.
The work also generated a series of practical outputs including Local Cultural Action Plans, neighbourhood evidence, participatory films, visual documentation, strategic recommendations and a new framework for understanding active cultural citizenship.
Importantly, the project demonstrated that people are far more likely to shape the future of their places when they are invited into an ongoing process of collaboration rather than a one-off consultation exercise.
Why it matters
Culture Labs represents a different way of thinking about cultural strategy.
Rather than producing policy in isolation, it demonstrates how strategy can emerge through relationships, creativity and shared learning. By combining research, participation, creative practice and evaluation, the model creates stronger evidence while simultaneously building local capacity, confidence and ownership.
For Local, Culture Labs has become more than a project. It is an evolving methodology that supports neighbourhood cultural development, informs public policy and strengthens the connections between communities, cultural organisations, universities and local government.
The learning from the Kirklees pilot is already informing conversations around devolution, participatory governance, creative health and cultural policy, while providing a practical model that can be adapted by other towns, cities and regions seeking to place communities at the heart of cultural decision-making.
Project Highlights
• 4 neighbourhood Culture Labs
• Neighbourhood-based cultural development model created
• Residents, artists, community organisations and public partners co-designed local priorities
• Local Cultural Action Plans developed
• Participatory films commissioned in each neighbourhood
• AHRC-funded action research
• Policy paper, podcast and evaluation produced
• Framework now informing wider regional and national conversations
