The Cultural Consortium is the newest of the One Barnsley Delivery Partnerships. Formed to provide a voice for the growing cultural sector and lead the delivery of all culture in Barnsley. The Consortium builds on the cultural work previously undertaken by the Social Well-Being Goal Group and focuses on three themes.

• Heritage
• Sport and Active Recreation
• Arts and Creativity

Whilst the strategic leadership is undertaken by the Cultural Consortium, it is supported by three subgroups which concentrate on a specific theme.

• Heritage Forum

Formed initially for groups and societies with a Heritage focus to share ideas and best practice, the forum quickly found its feet becoming involved in the Experience Barnsley project and workis to organise a number of Heritage Open Days for the summer months to raise the profile of Heritage in Barnsley. Membership reflects the vast range of Heritage in the Barnsley area with members from organisations such as the Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park Heritage Trust, Friends of Cannon Hall and Cooper Gallery as well as officers representing Local Authority maintained heritage sites such as Elsecar Heritage Centre and Locke Park.

• Barnsley Sport and Active Recreation Partnership (B.SARP)

BSARP is the most well established of the three Cultural Consortium Subgroups having been in existence since 2002.  It started with a number of individuals with an interest in sport coming together to write a strategy for sport and active recreation. Individuals then formed BSARP to take on the delivery of the strategy which later spawned B.SAF (Barnsley Sport and Activity Forum) to provide an open forum for grass roots clubs and societies involved in delivery. B.SARP is now held up as a national example of good practice and Sport England (the lottery funder for sport) are promoting Community Sport Networks such as this.
To date B.SARP has had a number of successes, including the Safe & Active Barnsley project, finding the funds for sports development officers, the completion of an open spaces and outdoor recreation strategy, a recently commissioned facility strategy, the Passport to Leisure Review and the establishment of an endorsement process for the Active England programme.
B.SAF are a group of clubs and societies helping to deliver the BSARP strategy on the ground. They are working at implementing a model of sports development officer provision in Barnsley within each of the 9 Area Forum areas and are also working to create links between schools and clubs, through community sports coaches.

• Barnsley Creative Arts Partnership (B.CAP)

The B.CAP is the newest of the Cultural Consortium subgroups.  Collectively driving forward the arts and creativity agenda in Barnsley B.CAP is symbolic of the developing arts sector in Barnsley. With projects such as Centre for Creativity, Digital Media Centre and transformation of the Civic Hall, these are exciting times for the arts and creativity in Barnsley.
The Cultural Consortium may be in its infancy but the brief overview of each of the three subgroups shows the amount of work already underway to drive the cultural agenda forward in Barnsley.
The mapping of cultural activities instigated by the Cultural Consortium can be seen on the constantly updated diary dates page. This details cultural events across Barnsley and how you can join in.

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