Chester Heritage, Museums and Visual Arts Strategy

Cheshire West and Chester (CW&C) recently developed a Culture Strategy for the Borough. For the City of Chester it recommends Cultural Services and Chester Renaissance work together to gain a clear understanding of our audiences, attractions, collections and assets and develop an evidence and culture based approach to enhancement and investment. We are now commissioning a Chester City wide study that will deliver a clear and coherent direction for interpreting and presenting its heritage and visual arts to deliver a world class offer that inspires audiences and visitors. This will guide future development and projects allowing Chester to fully realise its true potential as a heritage city. To deliver this commission CW&C and Chester Renaissance will collaborate with partners involved in the delivery of Heritage, Museums and Visual Arts assets in Chester including Marketing Cheshire, The University of Chester, Historic England, The Crown Estate, Chester Cathedral and other private providers and landowners. The commission is to establish an agreed heritage, visual arts and museums vision for Chester and it is vital that the consultant aligns existing strategies with up to date audience data, insight and analysis to ensure this strategy is complementary, relevant and deliverable. It is also imperative that the Chester offer is set in context with the rest of the borough and that it also positions the heritage proposition in terms of its region, national and international significance. CW&C will be appointing a multi-disciplinary team to establish this strategy which will act as the blueprint to guide and channel the City's and its partner's future efforts into a coherent and consistent development approach for the City. The brief sets out the parameters within which the commission will be executed. In responding to this brief the consultant team should clearly demonstrate relevant first-hand experience of developing strategies for a comparable schemes/programmes and demonstrate their clear understanding as to the methodology and work stages required to prepare an evidence led heritage based strategy for Chester. We would expect proposals to be consortium-based, combining the expertise of consultants who have deep insight into audiences for city culture and heritage and who use a range of methods for researching and engaging with these audiences together with experts in heritage destination strategy and development work.

Additional information: see the Chest www.the-chest.org note the EOI date above is a tender return deadline All details are on The Chest www.the-chest.org