YOUR VIEWS WANTED!

Should Sheffield have got the title of City of Culture 2013?

This summer Londonerry took the award, with Sheffield reaching the final four.

Have Sheffield's acheivements in the arts helped it expand from the 'Steel City' title, or will its industrial roots always be Sheffield's biggest claim to fame?

What's your favourite cultural aspect of Sheffield?
Is it the Millenium Galleries, The Lyceum, Winter Gardens, The Crucible, West Park Museum, or anywhere else?

Any opinions will be greatly appreciated,

Stacey.

Botanical gardens

There's more culture in a pot of yoghurt

Yorvik Centre.......oops, sorry. We didnt get that, did we?

There's more culture in a pot of yoghurt

I disagree!

PRISM, SABBC, Hantu, Tramlines, The old Sweet Shop, the rude shipyard, Now Then, Dirtyface, the mad group of Morris Dancers that dance outside pubs, the largest indpendent cinema in the UK, Sensoria, Docfest, Kelham Island, the Rolf Harris grafitti near the BBC, Kid Acne, Grin up North, Off the Shelf, Threads, speed garage (a bit), 65 days of static, the creative action network, etc etc...

There's more, but please, no culture?

I disagree!

PRISM, SABBC, Hantu, Tramlines, The old Sweet Shop, the rude shipyard, Now Then, Dirtyface, the mad group of Morris Dancers that dance outside pubs, the largest indpendent cinema in the UK, Sensoria, Docfest, Kelham Island, the Rolf Harris grafitti near the BBC, Kid Acne, Grin up North, Off the Shelf, Threads, speed garage (a bit), 65 days of static, the creative action network, etc etc...

There's more, but please, no culture?

this forum desperately needs a 'like' button :thumbsup:

Should we not pay off the first attempt at regeneration aka a ridiculous waste of money, the student games, before we blow any more of the cash we dont have on another second rate event?

And anyway, we wouldn't get it cos the city centre is still a dump. It's going to take us much longer before we get owt like that. Maybe we should put in a speculative application for the 2050 one?

Should we not pay off the first attempt at regeneration aka a ridiculous waste of money, the student games, before we blow any more of the cash we dont have on another second rate event?

And anyway, we wouldn't get it cos the city centre is still a dump. It's going to take us much longer before we get owt like that. Maybe we should put in a speculative application for the 2050 one?

In 2050, too many people will be discussing "Save our Moor Market" as its about to be demolished to make way for a hovver-car landing pad.

Unemployment on the rise, economic outlook looking bleak, shops closing down, death of the high street, more 'Greggs' than you can shake a stick at, vomit on pavements, graffiti on walls, druggies & alcoholics on the streets, stabbings and shootings, lack of respect, unruly kids, a failing public transport system, pubs closing almost daily, a misguided council, prices on the increase wages being frozen, potholes, traffic gridlock, two Sheffield teams in the third tier of football, an outdated underused arena, a sports stadium thats hardly used, museums and libraries underfunded, a great feeling of apathy

YOUR VIEWS WANTED!

Should Sheffield have got the title of City of Culture 2013?

This summer Londonerry took the award, with Sheffield reaching the final four.

Have Sheffield's acheivements in the arts helped it expand from the 'Steel City' title, or will its industrial roots always be Sheffield's biggest claim to fame?

What's your favourite cultural aspect of Sheffield?
Is it the Millenium Galleries, The Lyceum, Winter Gardens, The Crucible, West Park Museum, or anywhere else?

Any opinions will be greatly appreciated,

Stacey.

Seems a great idea if any funds, sponsorship, and above all, sheer combined effort of hundreds of volunteers can be found.
Sheffield has a rich musical heritage: Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Def Leppard, Tony Christie, Arctic Monkeys and more.
Another local figure for whom a new fangroup has been set up with an aim to raise funds for a lasting memorial is EDWARD CARPENTER; he could become an important symbol of Sheffield culture.

Anything which could attract more audiences and visitor money to Sheffield while making more use of some of the Student Games legacy such as the stadium and Arena can only be a good thing.

Have Sheffield's acheivements in the arts
What?

What?!? :huh:

Making up the numbers is not an "achievement".

Sheffield 'City of Culcher'?

Hardly.

Vienna is pretty neat, Rome isn't shabby, Venice is fun, Paris is interesting; Lille is fascinating, Brugge is beautiful - I've a long list of 'Interesting' but if you really want Sheffield to be considered for 'City of culture' you will (IMO) have to 'clear the crap' (and that includes the criminals) off the streets.

I visit Sheffield 2 or 3 times a year.

Nice place.

City of culture? Not quite. The City of Sheffield isn't quite the place I would want to wander alone (and I sure as hell wouldn't take my wife and family with me at night.)

Sheffield is multi-cultural,

Which culture are you talking about?

The negativity of many people astounds me. That is one of the main reasons Sheffield may never rival Paris and the like as people would rather moan than be positive. The moaners neither embrace what is already present (see post above about Sheffield culture) nor assist in creating new cultural delights and we do not progress anywhere as a result. Not sure why some folks bother stealing my oxygen.

When you consider the council did not execute a meeting on the reasons why they did not win the bid, as they believed Londonderry was a political decision, i fear they missed a massive opportunity to deliver a winning bid in the future.

I have it in good faith, that Phil Redmond, the Culture Chairman, was unimpressed with Sheffield's bid, in particularly the answers they received on the open panel.

Embarrassing for Sheffield... We deserve better.

Sheffield rival Paris? Never. I wasn't moaning, well ok just slightly, I was living in the real World. My post above may have been negative, but unfortunately it was the truth. Too many people see Sheffield through rose tinted spectacles. It's had a hard life has Sheffield, and it's about to get alot tougher. We are still paying off the last bright idea of hosting the student games, so less talk about city of culture please. Lets just get our heads down and hopefully we will see out the forthcoming recession years unscathed.

Seems a great idea if any funds, sponsorship, and above all, sheer combined effort of hundreds of volunteers can be found.
Sheffield has a rich musical heritage: Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Def Leppard, Tony Christie, Arctic Monkeys and more.
Maybe we could have some kind of music based attraction housed in an iconic building?




Sadly cultural apathy reigns in Sheffield. It's the same in most places but Sheffield seems to have a unique twist - most other places wouldn't crassly reject Shiraz Houshiary's sculpture because it wasn't a buffer girl in a stainless steel apron.

Culture seems to exist in Sheffield in spite of itself, not because of itself.

If Sheffield is the City of Culture. Mexborough is the Cote d ' Azur, Barnsley is Paris and Rome together...........and......er......Rotherham is the Garden of Eden

Maybe we could have some kind of music based attraction housed in an iconic building?
Culture seems to exist in Sheffield in spite of itself, not because of itself.

They tried, 'The National Centre Of Popular Music' in that building that looked like giant steel curling stones opposite the Midland train station, it never took off and closed a couple of years later. Cost 15 million, owes 1.1 million to it's creditors.

Unemployment on the rise, economic outlook looking bleak, shops closing down, death of the high street, more 'Greggs' than you can shake a stick at, vomit on pavements, graffiti on walls, druggies & alcoholics on the streets, stabbings and shootings, lack of respect, unruly kids, a failing public transport system, pubs closing almost daily, a misguided council, prices on the increase wages being frozen, potholes, traffic gridlock, two Sheffield teams in the third tier of football, an outdated underused arena, a sports stadium thats hardly used, museums and libraries underfunded, a great feeling of apathy

You could have probably said this about any city in the world, any time in the last 100 years (dismissing the specifics). Every city has its good and bad points, you have only listed the bad ones. I agree Sheffield has its problems but for each negative, there are surely two positives.

They tried, 'The National Centre Of Popular Music' in that building that looked like giant steel curling stones opposite the Midland train station, it never took off and closed a couple of years later. Cost 15 million, owes 1.1 million to it's creditors.

Erm.......I think Tony was being sarcastic

... Rome isn't shabby .... if you really want Sheffield to be considered for 'City of culture' you will (IMO) have to 'clear the crap' (and that includes the criminals) off the streets.

Rome has no criminals? There was a massive one in government till a few weeks ago.

Yorvik Centre.......oops, sorry. We didnt get that, did we?

Yorvik Centre? It's built on the excavated foundations of the Viking capital, Yorvik, now York. Are you thinking of the Royal Armouries that nearly came to Sheffield but were nicked by Leeds?

If Sheffield is the City of Culture. Mexborough is the Cote d ' Azur, Barnsley is Paris and Rome together...........and......er......Rotherham is the Garden of Eden

Well, Barnsley did have a plan to turn itself into a walled town, Tuscany style...

There's more culture in a pot of yoghurt
More like more Eastern Europeans here than in Eastern Europe!

A point I think that's ironically buried in this thread, is that culture comes from the people in a city, not through government or Local Authority funds or projects. Those who complain there's nothing here might want to start something or get involved in what's already happening. £15 million buys you a building, not a successful cultural enterprise. People are the difference.

Why a city that's made it's name from making the best steel in the world should we have lost it is beyond me,now we still call ourselves steel city? What steel? As what little is left is hardly worth talking about,we are living on our past reputation and instead of capitalising on what we once had we try to find alternative things that seem to fall on deaf ears as no one seems to be interested apart from a silent minority,if you have the best!! Then people are prepared to buy it,this being the case with fashion,[named brands] but the items have to qualify as the public arn't stupid when it comes to quality,anyone can try to copy but the origional always stands out,our culture and heritage was steel why not get back to what we do best.........or do we say it wouldn't be viable???????????? And lost forever.......

Liverpool got it the other year, far less worthy or likely than Sheffield in my opinion, but they made a real go of it and it was a complete success.

I guess that only a minority of Sheffield folk will get behind it, the rest will compare it to the WSG and moan about it being a waste of money.

Seems a great idea if any funds, sponsorship, and above all, sheer combined effort of hundreds of volunteers can be found.
Sheffield has a rich musical heritage: Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Def Leppard, Tony Christie, Arctic Monkeys and more.
Another local figure for whom a new fangroup has been set up with an aim to raise funds for a lasting memorial is EDWARD CARPENTER; he could become an important symbol of Sheffield culture.

Anything which could attract more audiences and visitor money to Sheffield while making more use of some of the Student Games legacy such as the stadium and Arena can only be a good thing.



How many of those folk still live in the city?

I thought their music making was a last gasp desperate ploy to get enough money together to escape this hell hole.

Oh yeah, and you forgot Bring Me The Horizon. If you've heard their alleged musical heritage the city is well rid. I saw them once and I've heard drum kits falling down a flight of stairs that sounded better.

Sheffield does lots of cultural things..................but like much else it does in the city it just doesn't do them well.

How many of those folk still live in the city?

I thought their music making was a last gasp desperate ploy to get enough money together to escape this hell hole.

It doesn't matter where they live. Liverpool got plenty of famous old locals to come back to perform. Sadly that included Cilla Black, which put a real downer on the whole celebrations.

If Liverpool managed to become the city of culture a few years ago then I would think that anything is possible - because that place has been a dump for years. (And yes I do know that they've done some good stuff recently, around the Albert Dock area and Liverpool 1 shopping mall). I still think it's a dump.

But Sheffield being a centre of "culture"? - I mean, come on... let's get real. I love this place like nowhere else on earth but no way would I describe it as a city of culture.

I don't know what the word is that means the opposite to culture but I think that's nearer the mark.

When Don Valley was built. Myself and one other where the first on the site, We povided a security service employed by a local firm. Throughout the 18 months or so the construcion took place we did a pretty good job. No down time due to theft, etc. Our bosses really looked after the job and as we were all Sheffielders we were proud to be involved with what we were told would be the re generation of the east end of the City.

By the time the construction was finished there were a total security team of 12. All local lads and ex steel workers. When the construction was handed over to the council we were all sacked and a security team newly recruited from Manchester was brought in to provide security for the games themselves. These werent specialists, they were all taken off the dole in Cheetham Hill. We went back on the dole in Sheffield.

The way we were treated was typical of the managment abilities of the council at the time. No wonder we are still paying the debt.

As for getting involved in the "City of Culture" nonsense. Grow up, pay our debts, and once we do have some spare cash spend it wisely not on stupid pointless initiatives like this.

I think that's appalling treatment that you describe xenia. What a disgrace.

Tell me something though, wouldn't being awarded the "city of culture" bring finance to this city? It seemed to do that for Glasgow and Liverpool and they are much improved as a result.

So, why wouldn't you want to have something that would bring money in and help spruce the place up a bit?

It is, an if that's the feeling of many Sheffielders its no wonder the city is left off maps and ignored by the rest of the country.

sheffield is sugar

I think that's appalling treatment that you describe xenia. What a disgrace.

Tell me something though, wouldn't being awarded the "city of culture" bring finance to this city? It seemed to do that for Glasgow and Liverpool and they are much improved as a result.

So, why wouldn't you want to have something that would bring money in and help spruce the place up a bit?

I dont think in the present financial circumstances and the fact that the council is not known for completing projects efficiently our city should take the chance of adding to existing debt.

Some figures:


Liverpool's year as capital of culture has seen 15m visits to the city's arts venues and events, a rise of 30% on 2007, figures revealed today.

The Liverpool Culture Company, the umbrella group for the city's culture programme, reported an £800m boost to the region's economy at a press conference this morning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/dec/11/liverpool-capital-culture


Liverpool profited from year as capital of culture, says report

Designation brought in millions of extra visitors and pounds in 2008, says research


http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/mar/11/liverpool-profited-from-being-culture-capital

I disagree!

PRISM, SABBC, Hantu, Tramlines, The old Sweet Shop, the rude shipyard, Now Then, Dirtyface, the mad group of Morris Dancers that dance outside pubs, the largest indpendent cinema in the UK, Sensoria, Docfest, Kelham Island, the Rolf Harris grafitti near the BBC, Kid Acne, Grin up North, Off the Shelf, Threads, speed garage (a bit), 65 days of static, the creative action network, etc etc...

There's more, but please, no culture?

do you not think most cities have equivilent or better than most of these things? we have some good stuff but not enough sadly.

do you not think most cities have equivilent or better than most of these things? we have some good stuff but not enough sadly.

Every city has things to be proud of, assuming that the grass is greener elsewhere is a very easy thing to do. To take some of the examples I cited though:
Tramlines is the largest free music festival in Europe. No other UK city can match it.
The Showroom is one of the largest independent cinemas in Europe.
Docfest, if you can name a more respected documentary festival in the UK, then go for it.
Sensoria is the largest festival of film and music in the UK.

Of course there are things happening in Sheffield that have equivalent/concurrent activities in other cities, but that doesn't in any way demean the great stuff happening on your doorstep. Great things are afoot!
For example, did you see the Portico Quartet's only free gig in the UK at The Riverside? We can all be more positive, and we can all do more to add to this great city's cultural heritage. Some of us, it seems, could also do less to belittle the efforts of some amazing local people.

Tramlines is the largest free music festival in Europe. No other UK city can match it.

Not sure where this oft-repeated nugget comes from, but the Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool every August bank holiday is a great deal bigger, with 360,000 visitors over two days this year. That event also promotes itself as - guess what - the largest free city centre music festival in Europe.

And where exactly this leaves the Notting Hill Carnival, with millions attending, I'm not quite sure.

The point is though really that OriginB is quite right - there are lots of home-grown, high quality events going on in Sheffield, and Tramlines has grown quickly to become a fantastic, popular event with a distinctive Sheffield character. It's all there if you're interested and don't expect cultural activity to somehow simply be delivered to you on your sofa at home.

Not sure where this oft-repeated nugget comes from, but the Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool every August bank holiday is a great deal bigger, with 360,000 visitors over two days this year. That event also promotes itself as - guess what - the largest free city centre music festival in Europe.

And where exactly this leaves the Notting Hill Carnival, with millions attending, I'm not quite sure.

The point is though really that OriginB is quite right - there are lots of home-grown, high quality events going on in Sheffield, and Tramlines has grown quickly to become a fantastic, popular event with a distinctive Sheffield character. It's all there if you're interested and don't expect cultural activity to somehow simply be delivered to you on your sofa at home.

I stand corrected :-)

No problem! I totally agree with what you were saying anyway :)

Honestly, what a bunch of pesimists there is on this thread. Why don't people actually see the glass half full, and instead of just keeping our heads down, and being so depressing about the city we live in. Why don't we get out there, and keep things going. I myself am an art Student and find that there are quite a few things ot do in Sheffield, though sadly not as much as the city in which my course is based (Leeds). Tramlines is a really good idea, and I love going to different venues where live music is being played. Off the Shelf, going ot the theatre, grin up north etc Things like this bring people together. It's not a case of seeing Sheffield through rose tinted glasses but seeing the glass as half full and not half empty. Which I don't think is something which we should be slanderd for. We should be encouraging people to carryon with these sort of things.