Yesterday you heard about my underground adventure at a Sheffield Speak Easy, the first official event for The North Culture Club. Today I’m taking the opportunity to speak to the man who has kick started this series of events, Ben Duong. He’s just secured support from Sheffield City Council for these events as part of the Creative Forums conceived in the Sheffield Cultural Strategy. I caught up with Ben for the second in my series of interviews about the hopes and opinions for the Strategy from people on the ground.
• What you do in terms of Sheffield’s cultural life?
I run The North, an independent, creative marketing agency specialising in cool events, interesting PR and useful marketing. Luckily most of my friends are creative individuals, e.g. musicians, artists, illustrators, designers and promoters who organise their own events, write their own culture magazines and run art shops. So I spend a lot of my time supporting various creative events, there is definitely more happening than you often realise. In general, I like to keep up with the creative scene whether that’s art music or design, especially internationally.
• What was your initial reaction to the Strategy launch?
I’m glad the Council is trying to continue its efforts from the bid, though shame there isn’t more budget or general support to make it bigger to have an impact on the general public. It needs momentum and consistency to ensure its sustainability in the long run.
• What would you like to see come out of the strategy for your organisation? For the City?
I’m lucky enough to have been asked to help out with the organisation and promotion of three unique events in the coming year as part of the strategy which will link in with The North Culture Club (a creative club for the people by the People’s Republic – linking with creative individuals already doing their own thing and helping each other out). For Sheffield, I want the general public to feel involved and connected to what’s going on. For the people who are already involved in culture, the aim is to see them come together more, speak, mix and banter – to make things happen and most of all celebrate!
• Anything else you’d like to add?
As most people say, it’s connectivity that seems to be lacking in Sheffield. It’s a big task, but we have to start somewhere. And hopefully with the Council now supporting The North Culture Club, we can bring together the individuals who are already doing amazing cultural events and projects such as Peace in the Park, Cabaret Boom Boom, Prism etc and the more ‘high level’ organisations and festivals including The Crucible, City Hall, Doc/Fest, Off the Shelf – so that we move in the right direction.