A new ten-year strategy designed to transform Ipswich’s cultural future has been launched today, setting out a shared vision for arts, culture and heritage across the town.
The Ipswich Culture & Heritage Strategy 2026–36 outlines how culture can strengthen communities, improve wellbeing, create opportunities and contribute to economic growth and regeneration over the next decade.
Developed on behalf of the town by We Are Ipswich, an independent collective of the town’s leading arts and heritage organisations, the strategy seeks to bring together cultural organisations, artists, community groups, businesses, education providers and public bodies around a common set of goals.
Created by independent consultant Amy Vaughan of Fringe Culture Ltd, supported by Kath Cockshaw and a team of local freelancers, the strategy is informed by extensive consultation with residents, artists, cultural organisations and community partners, alongside research into participation, investment and the challenges facing the town.
While recognising Ipswich’s strong cultural assets, including nationally recognised arts organisations, significant heritage sites and a thriving grassroots creative scene, the strategy also acknowledges that access to cultural opportunities remains uneven across the town.
Five key ambitions sit at the heart of the strategy. These include improving access to culture across neighbourhoods, ensuring young people play a central role in shaping Ipswich’s creative future, fostering stronger collaboration between communities and institutions, embedding culture and heritage in placemaking and regeneration, and creating a healthier environment for creative freelancers, organisations and artists to thrive.
The framework is intended to guide partnership working, investment and decision-making over the next ten years, with early priorities focused on building relationships, understanding barriers to participation and developing approaches alongside local communities.
Douglas Rintoul, Chair of We Are Ipswich and Chief Executive/Artistic Director of New Wolsey Theatre, said: “Ipswich has extraordinary creativity, rich heritage and a groundswell of energy. This strategy gives us a shared direction for what we can achieve together. For us, success means more people taking part, young people seeing a creative future here, artists building careers and communities shaping their town.
“This strategy belongs to everyone, and no single organisation can deliver it alone. As a cultural sector, we’re excited to explore it with communities, businesses, freelancers, self-employed people and partners in education and health, working out together how to turn its ambitions into action. Those conversations will shape the practical steps we take and how we support each other. We’re already getting started, and everyone has a part to play.”
Amy Vaughan, Independent Strategy Consultant and author of the strategy, said: “I’ve admired Ipswich from afar for many years during my time living and working in the East of England. It has all the ingredients to be a cultural powerhouse, but has needed a joined up strategic approach to be able to really make its mark. It’s been an honour to work here over the past year and play a part in pulling this strategy together.
“From the outset, it was clear there is a perception to shift across the town. To go from a brilliant but disconnected and sometimes invisible cultural offer to presenting a unified and confident collective narrative that people can access and benefit from. Local people, freelancers, supporters and organisations have contributed so much time and energy into this strategy and that has given it real authenticity and power. It genuinely feels like now is Ipswich’s moment to step into the limelight and show what this place is capable of.”
The strategy has been funded and supported by Arts Council England, Ipswich Borough Council, Ipswich Central, New Wolsey Theatre and Suffolk County Council, with partners encouraging residents, organisations and businesses to help shape the town’s cultural future.
More information can be found here.
