Webinar: Integrating the Environment

• How successfully has the environmental theme been integrated into UK City of Culture 2021?
• Have attitudes towards the environment changed in Coventry?
• What should organisers of future cultural mega-events consider in relation to environmental integration?

Recording

About

The webinar was held on Thursday 8 December 2022.

To address specific Outcomes listed within the Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 (UK CoC 2021) Theory/Story of Change, the Coventry City of Culture Trust commissioned a series of focus studies.

This focus study examined how appreciation for the natural environment was integrated into UK CoC 2021 and how people’s attitudes and behaviours towards the environment changed as a result.

This was particularly important, as it was the first time that there had been an explicit focus upon the natural environment within a UK City of Culture programme.

Research Question

How successfully has the environmental theme been integrated into UK City of Culture 2021?

A report is available on the Integrating the Environment focus study page that provides an overview of findings and conclusions. The team has also described its findings across a series of four videos.

Themes

The webinar explored how:

• the natural environment theme came to be an explicit focus within UK CoC 2021
• people experienced environmental activities and events within the programme
• the behaviours of organisations, communities and individuals were influenced.

It concluded with a discussion of learnings from the research and recommendations that have been made for future events which seek to integrate environmental dimensions within a cultural (mega-)event.