YORK UNESCO CITY OF

MEDIA ARTS

2015ANNUAL REPORT

York was designated a UNESCO City of Media Arts on 1 December 2014. Our work over the next 12-months followed a simple mantra:

Start with the possible, aim for the impossible.This report summarises this first year of designation: a time of finding our feet in a global network, building new partnerships, rallying support around an ambitious vision and securing early wins.

At a Glance

5 events

£380,000 pledged so far

10% sector growth*

12 Action Plans

3,000 Twitter followers

1 new Guild

Illuminating York 2015 - Museum Gardens Image courtesy of Daniel Rochester ©

*IT, digital, creative and media

Some have said designation represents what historians call an “open moment,” when a city comes together and change is possible.

The motivation to apply for designation was rooted in this ambition. Conceived as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to raise the social, cultural and economic standing of York, it would benefit the city for decades to come. The bid told the story of York as a place that is culturally-rich and creativity-pioneering, a place where technology and art is used to breath new life into its heritage, where these strengths have been cultivated through £100m investment in media arts infrastructure and by becoming one of the first UK’s first Super-Connected Cities. But bidding involved a leap of faith and we are grateful for the widespread support it received.

Reaching more people and involving them in what happens next was always a key priority. Day One as a UNESCO city saw the launch of a new website and our 2015-16 plan, combined with a flurry of media articles and healthy debate on social media.

Deeper engagement took place in over 250 meetings, presentations at 10 professional events and awards ceremonies, and our regular industry get-togethers and our e-newsletter.

Many people asked how they could help share the good news of UNESCO designation and add value to its projects. We are proud to have so many ambassadors of UNESCO designation.

The Bid AwarenessRegardless of the outcome, we found the process of bidding incredibly rewarding. It brought people together, gave the sector a collective voice and challenged us to make York’s future every bit as successful as its past. No mean feat.

To do so, we felt the term “Media Arts” needed a better definition. This would become the application of technology to any art form – a definition that is simple, inclusive and future facing. Fast forward a couple of years and York is now at the heart of the UK’s growing agenda in digital creativity and has the potential to make its mark internationally.

The following pages illustrate our first steps on this journey and reveal some exciting plans for the future. We hope you’ll join us in making them happen.

Our busy calendar of events

included workshops, talks,

premiere screenings and

sector gatherings. All in all,

we reached out to 2,000+

people in person.

Celebration Event at Merchant Adventurers HallImage courtesy of Ben Bentley ©

York Residents Festival

Guildhall plans

BBC Premiere with Screen Yorkshire

Guild of Media Arts workshop

Creative Cities Network

York is now connected to 69 leading cities from 32 countries covering seven creative fields: Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts.

We aim to benefit from the thought leadership and ingenuity of the network by actively seeking new partnerships and exchanges. This year York was represented at the annual CCN meeting in Kanazawa and the Media Arts annual meeting at Ars Electronica in Linz.

We also met with other fellow UK UNESCO Cities to discuss opportunities to work together, with the next set to be in York in early 2016.

Business Support

Our creative industries are a real success story.

With designation, the ambition is now to double the size York’s thriving creative economy from £164.8m to £329.6m by 2025. Doing so would help us to retain and attract top talent in the city and allow businesses to achieve their full potential.

With that in mind, it was important to demonstrate the power of designation to our industry peers. We were delighted to host Interface with Shakespeare’s Globe, allowing 35 local businesses the opportunity to meet and be commissioned by the biggest organisations in culture, including BFI, Bafta, BBC, Royal Opera House, The British Museum and London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The city’s new Economic Strategy has the creative industries at its heart and we will continue to champion the sector at every opportunity.

Ars Electronica ©

Ars Electronica ©

Interface 2015Image courtesy of Ben Bentley ©

Interface 2015Image courtesy of Ben Bentley ©

Ars Electronica ©

Kanazawa Station courtesy of Takahiro Yanai ©

69 Cities32 Countries

Education

UNESCO designation brings with it the opportunity to inspire, harness and retain a new generation of creative talent in the city. It also positions York at the heart of the nation’s mounting digital learning agenda. This was the focus for our six-month consultation with teachers, schools and higher education institutions.

We heard about the incredible work already undertaken in schools, the current frustrations about access to technology and training, and what we could do to help. The result is the launch of a new Digital Adventurers initiative for young people and the creation of York’s Cultural Education Partnership to take plans forward. New Visuality ©

Brad Flickinger © New Visuality ©

Inspiration

Here are some of the ways York embraced our new ties to UNESCO and its International Year of Light and Light-based Technology (IYOL) – a year-long celebration of the impact that light has on science, technology, the arts, culture and everyday life.

Illuminating York 2015

Inspired by the UNESCO International Year of Light, the 2015 Festival celebrated light in all of its forms, from the flickering flame to the light emitting diode.

FilmYork

From grass roots to professional filmmaking, FilmYork is an exciting new portal that connects creative enthusiasm with corporate expertise to support a new wave of UK films.

YorNight

York’s contribution to European Researchers’ Night was an evening of free hands-on activities, talks, exhibitions, interactive displays, and experiments. Its centerpiece was a spectacular, specially-commissioned music and light finale to bring the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey in York back to life.

New Visuality

‘Text: Technology, Disability & Art’ brought the voices of Yorkshire's most vulnerable citizens to tell the story of the area's next digital chapter in a poster campaign that documented the Twitter reactions to York's City of Media Arts bid.

Digital Creativity Hub

York’s creative credentials took a boost as the University of York opened an £18 million Digital Creativity (DC) Hub to harness cutting edge research in digital games and interactive media to benefit society and industry.

Yor Night Photo courtesy of Ian Martindale ©

New Visuality ©

Illuminating York 2015 Image courtesy of Daniel Rochester ©

Aesthetica

Art, Design & Photography publication Aesthetica took centre stage in Apple’s 2015 Keynote Speech to showcase the next version of iOS, adding to its print and digital readership of over 284,000 worldwide.

Closer to home, the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2015, attracting 20,000 admissions and over £556,499 of economic impact on the city.

York St John University

York St John University alumnus Chris Hees was awarded a British Academy Film Award in the Best British Short category.

The former Film and TV student won the award for The Bigger Picture, a short film which follows two brothers as they care for an elderly parent. The animation was also nominated for an Academy Award for best animated short film.

“The stuff that’s happening in York today is what we’ll be seeing happening in London in five years.”

Accolades

It was another wildly successful year for York’s artistic and creative industries talent.

Stage One

The York-built UK Pavilion at this year’s Expo in Milan has received much praise not only for the concept and design, but also for the execution of the build. The most recent of its seven awards was the International Prize for Best Pavilion Architecture by the Italian Association of Architects.

Bright White

Described as ‘the next generation of museum interpretation’ the awards haul for creative design consultancy Bright White’s Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre appears to have no limits. With 100,000 visitors through its doors in the first year, it was most recently crowned the best visitor centre in the UK and recognised for excellence in interpretation.

Screen Yorkshire

Screen Yorkshire has opened a major new film and TV studio space on the outskirts of York. ‘The Yorkshire Studios’ has studio space totalling in excess of 200,000 sq ft at a former RAF base in Church Fenton and is already attracting major film and TV productions to the region.

York Museums Trust

Alongside the successful reopening of York Art Gallery after £8m redevelopment, York Museums Trust (YMT) is also leading the way in digital openness. All of the Trust’s 150,000 online collections objects are free to download and re-use by anyone, anywhere. The same collections have made their way into hundreds of Wikipedia articles in 25 languages where they have been viewed by a staggering 1.5 million people, engaging an entirely new audience.

University of York

A £200 million deal with China to provide TV and film courses to 300 overseas students each year at the University of York. Prime Minster David Cameron described the deal as a ‘huge achievement’.

York Museums Trust ©

ASFF 2015Photo courtesy of Jim Poyner ©

A commitment to the next generation of talent will be at the heart of the festival as they work alongside leading artists and have the opportunity to tour amongst other UNESCO Creative Cities around the globe.

Building on the city’s proud tradition of social innovation, the Mediale will also be the most accessible festival ever - with access all areas granted to everybody, including technical simultaneous signing, translation, and multi-platform online access.

Above all, the proposed festival is about the city coming together to make a statement about its future. A festival of partnerships, it will take a united York to the world and bring the best of the world to York.

2019 Vision

Mediale #2

250,000 Visitors

500 volunteers

Hosting of the annual UNESCO Creative Cities meeting of 100+ cities

DBOX Photo courtesy of Ryoji-Ikeda ©

The UK National Commission for UNESCO welcomes this

excellent initiative from York UNESCO City of Media Arts

to establish a new international festival. It proposes to

showcase York’s innovative digital and creative vision,

cultivate participation with local people, and fulfill the

commitment to UNESCO to take an active part in the

Creative Cities global network by building connections with

other leading creative cities.

-Tim Williams, Chair of the UK National Commission for UNESCO

The Future

The MedialeThe proposed flagship initiative of York’s UNESCO designation is a new international media arts biennale, a Mediale.

Aiming to take place in 2017, and every two years thereafter, plans for the inaugural festival include major light commissions alongside interactive pavilions and exhibits that utilise the beautiful backdrop of our city like never before. Its 20-day programme will be underpinned by year-long development activity with schools, communities and businesses.

In enabling as many people as possible to experience the transformative power of culture firsthand the aim is to build media arts into everyday life in York and to reposition the profile, ambition, excellence and impact of the UK’s programming in media arts.

The Guild of Media ArtsYork has welcomed its first new trade guild in 700 years to recognise York’s thriving creative community and those who support them.

The Guild of Media Arts joins the seven other ancient guilds in the city and is the first of its kind in the UK.

With a mission to unlock the full benefits of UNESCO designation and to champion York’s growing creative credentials, the Guild is hoping to inspire a new generation of creative adventurers in the city and drive continued growth in the sector.

The Next GenerationYork aims to blaze a trail for young people’s involvement in digital arts. Thinking big and thinking ahead allows York to better equip teachers and students with the technology and training to learn new skills, express themselves in new ways, and reward their creative potential with high-paid jobs in the future.

We are proud to start this work by launching an exciting new Digital Adventurers initiative for young people in 2016 that will reward their experimentation in coding and media arts.

Meanwhile a new Local Cultural Education Partnership will develop a wider strategy for culture and creativity in children and young people.Membership only £25 per year.

www.cityofmediaarts.com

Guild of Media Arts workshopPhoto courtesy of Ben Bentley ©

Messages of SupportOn behalf of the city of York, the council is fully supportive of the future plans for UNESCO City of Media Arts. Designation is a wonderful asset that has the potential to contribute to a prosperous and attractive city, bringing benefits for many decades to come.

-Steve Stewart, Chief Executive, City of York Council

The University of York is delighted that the city of York has been awarded the status of UNESCO City of Media Arts. The University is a global leader in higher education and has an emergent strength in digital creativity and digital heritage. We already work with many partners in the city and region - we believe therefore that the city’s access to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network offers excellent opportunities for all of us to work together to build recognition for the city as a hub for media arts and creativity.

-Professor Koen Lamberts, Vice-Chancellor of the University of York

“TalkTalk is delighted to be able to support York as the first city in the UK to achieve the UNESCO designation as City of Media Arts. Their future plans for their connected and fully accessible International Mediale festival will be able to build on the success of York being the first gigabit city in the UK, thanks to Ultra Fibre Optic.”

-Dido Harding, Chief Executive of TalkTalk

York’s UNESCO City of Media Arts status is an exciting initiative for the city and has the capacity to transform the way the York presents itself to a wide audience, demonstrating its credentials as a centre for highly contemporary creativity and innovation.

-Sally Joynson, Chief Executive of Screen Yorkshire For York to be the UK’s first City of Media Arts is such a major achievement and we should not underestimate the importance of this designation; which rightfully establishes York as one of the leading Creative Cities in the world. York St. John University is delighted to be working with the UNESCO team to develop the plans for an International Arts Festival. This will provide a world-class platform for York to showcase the outstanding talent of all the people connected with media arts as well as bringing significant economic investment to the City of York. We are particularly proud that this will provide some outstanding opportunities for our students and graduates.

-Professor Karen Stanton,Vice Chancellor of York St John University

PartnershipsAll of this is made possible due to the enthusiasm and expertise of our partners across the city.

Telling Our StoryFor two millennia York has been the meeting point for the ideas and creativity of the world. It is playing this role once more through digital innovation and media arts.

It is important York confidently tells this story to the world.

Positioning York as a great place to live, work, learn and invest in today and tomorrow is at the heart of our future communications strategy.

By getting involved and sharing this message, audiences will become ambassadors, partners our cheerleaders, and interest in the city will be at an all time high. You can get started by proudly displaying our partner logo on your website. Please email everyone@cityofmediaarts.com for more info. Our website will display the many other ways you can engage with York's ambitions as a UNESCO City of Media Arts.

Nobody needs an invitation to get involved and everyone can play a part. We hope you can join us in this endeavour as York rises to the challenge of being an international creative city.

www.cityofmediaarts.com

Illuminating York - Shambles Photo courtesy of Chris Jones ©

Cover Photo Credit Thanos Zolotas ©

www.cityofmediaarts.com