Our Purpose
The Shire is the official website of Herefordshire Cultural Partnership (HCP). We are an independent consortium of arts, culture and heritage organisations, local government and businesses with a shared vision - celebrating this county's creative and entrepreneurial spirit.
We exist to drive forward Herefordshire’s cultural strategy, create connections and spread the word that arts, culture and creative engagement plays an essential role for all people and places.
Our Cultural Strategy
Herefordshire Cultural Strategy 2019-2029 defines current priority areas and seeks to provide the basis for planning and delivering ambitious arts and heritage activity in our county. It includes information to guide a wide range of activity: performing arts, literature, music, crafts, visual and digital arts, photography, design, architecture, fashion along with context for creative businesses, and the buildings and facilities where we access culture – museums, arts centres, theatres, churches, village halls, cinemas, libraries, archives, galleries. We include too our wonderful natural environment, gastronomy, and the creative activities that take place in our open spaces.
It runs with the grain of other county strategic plans, such as Herefordshire Health & Wellbeing Strategy; Invest Herefordshire; Children and Young People’s Plan. Importantly it provides the basis for planning and undertaking ambitious actions to bring about change, and the means for effecting that change through collaborative working, bids for funding, planning and organisation.
This 2019-2029 strategy has been produced by Herefordshire Cultural Partnership and a wide range of arts and heritage groups from across the area. It has been informed by in-depth local consultation, a three-month online survey, an Arts Council funded consultancy, and research into national and international good practice.There will be a Cultural Strategy review in 2024/25.
Our Key Goals
A resilient cultural infrastructure that makes Herefordshire a great place to live, work and to visit.
Listening to children and young people, and connecting them to culture and connectivity.
Building and supporting vibrant creative enterprises.
The arts and heritage are for everyone.
Raising Herefordshire’s national and international profile.