Jury for Joy: What we are working towards

In May we held our first Jury for Joy – our long-term citizens’ jury for West Cumbria all about culture and creativity.

Since then we’ve been busy working behind the scenes on all the things we discussed. And we wanted to share the key outcomes so you can follow our progress, have an understanding of what we’re promising to deliver and be part of the journey…

1) A new project

The jury created a brief for a new creative project. A community-powered carnival celebrating joy and creativity taking place in the Summer of 2025.

We will bring the event to life through a number of mini festivals across West Cumbria leading up to the carnival itself. The jury wanted a bus so that’s what we’ll have! The Everyone Here bus will be a hub for creative activity and bring art to communities in rural areas working with these communities to co-create a celebration of wonderful West Cumbria.

2) Workington Lights Festival

The jury provided feedback on how they wanted people to feel before, during and after attending the Workington Lights Festival.

We will use this to help inform what the artists commissioned to create the event will do. In November 2024 we will judge the success of the event against this feedback from the jury.

3) Supporting local community initiatives

After a presentation from MillomFest the jury members deliberated on how they would support local community initiatives going forward. They developed ideas for a framework for supporting creative community groups more broadly in the future.

We will ensure this is put in place and develop a way to make sure the application and selection process is fair, transparent and accessible for community groups.

And here’s a little snapshot from the weekend…