Brian Eno says: "Culture is everything we don't have to do. Culture consists of the gratuitous stylistic extras that we add to the things we do have to do. You have to eat, but you don't have to decorate elaborately prepared curries with silver leaf. You have to move around, but you don't have to dance. Culture is a biological drive for humans. It is not something that we just add on at the end, after we've dealt with all those survival problems, but something we keep doing all the time."

UNESCO described it as: "A set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses, not only art and literature but lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs."

Where we are now
Our work and achievements are a testament to our belief in culture as a connecting force that builds social value when it puts people first.

The impact and value of our work can be highlighted through a review of our activities since we established in 2018. We have counted, evaluated, experienced, sought feedback, learned, experimented, tweaked and innovated along the way. We've listened and continuously refined our approach based on participant engagement and feedback.

The next phase for the Culture Company is a new strategy that consolidates what we have learned from listening to feedback, hearing what people are interested in, and what culture means to them.

We are committed to developing a cultural ecosystem that is truly accessible to all: inclusive of all forms and expressions of culture, ensuring everyone has a place to participate in our city's culture.

When people feel connected to their communities, they feel safer and stronger, and they are healthier.

Our work has shown that participation in culture strengthens bonds, enhances active citizenship, and accelerates social integration.

Where we are going
As recognised leaders in cultural programming and activating spaces that connect with people, we will continue to make a meaningful impact on how people connect with culture and their communities through cultural participation.

We will continue to be recognised by Dublin City Council for our expertise and best practice in the area of community cultural engagement and activating community spaces for cultural activity. We will engage and work with Dublin City Council, understand their objectives, and support them to deliver on their aims around cultural citizenship and cultural engagement. We will ensure Dublin City Council is aware of the resources and support required by the Culture Company to deliver on these agreed responsibilities.

The Culture Company will continue to work creatively to ensure 14 Henrietta Street is a museum recognised for its excellence in heritage, visitor experience and social history.

We will explore opportunities to replicate our Culture Connects programme and cultural spaces initiatives in Richmond Barracks to other properties in our remit in all areas of the city, creating a larger infrastructure of cultural centres with cultural participation and community based cultural access at its heart.

We will expand access to culture in all its forms for makers and participants alike. We will do this by growing the number of people we engage with, along with the diversity of experiences and groups that can benefit from our experience and expertise.

The Culture Company will maintain a stable, sustainable company structure with the requisite resourcing and underpinning for us to deliver this work in the best way possible.

How the Strategy was made
From the beginning, the Dublin City Council Culture Company has defined itself as a values-based organisation; we have built with people, grown alongside partners, and led cultural participation through our dedicated efforts.

The development of this strategy continues this work by listening to, and working with, a variety of groups, including our board, our staff and team members, partners and networks, advisory groups, audiences and visitors to our programmes.

We have held workshops to discuss our company's direction: how we work, how we communicate, and our future goals. These workshops have helped us look at our overall purpose and direction, set strategic objectives that have meaning in the future, as well as set out ways to measure our progress for the next phase of the Culture Company.

It's important to note that this is not a completely new strategy for Dublin City Council Culture Company. We are actively continuing on the path we’ve been on, as well as building on the lessons of the past five years.

Our strategy builds directly on the objectives from 2019 to 2024, and marks the next evolution of our ongoing efforts to build a vibrant cultural environment in Dublin: enhancing how we work, the experiences we offer, and the way we operate.

Company structure and governance
Dublin City Council established Dublin City Council Culture Company in 2018. We are wholly owned by Dublin City Council and registered as an independent not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee. The constitution of our company states our objective as follows: "To create and deliver cultural initiatives in Dublin City and to initiate, implement and manage cultural programmes and buildings for the benefit of the people of Dublin."

Board of directors: The Culture Company is governed by a Board of Directors, of up to seven people, who are responsible for governance and oversight. The Board’s role is to guide the executive team in delivering on the company strategy. The Board works with the Chief Executive and Leadership Team to ensure all activity aligns with the mission and vision, while the Directors delegate day-to-day operations to the staff.

Compliance: Good governance, rigour, compliance, and transparency are core to our work. We comply with all Irish Company legislation and financial reporting standards. We have built a framework that ensures efficient operations and high governance standards. Over the past five years, we have regularly updated our practices to adhere to Irish legislation, regulatory guidance, and best practices.

Finance and Risk: We use a tool called Risk Register, shared by the Board and the Executive, to keep track of opportunities and potential risks. This ensures everyone understands the risks, responsibilities, and tasks for all areas of our work. A Finance and Audit Committee, including external expertise, oversees our financial position, budgets and audits. We conduct annual external audits and have internal review processes to ensure continued compliance with legislation and the Companies Acts.

Equity: We make a positive impact on Dublin's wider cultural ecosystem by embedding integrity and equity into our operations. We confidently offer professional pathways for culture makers. We consistently work to improve the wellbeing of our employees and team members, as well as to provide equitable training opportunities.

Team Structure: Our team brings together diverse skills, including community engagement, arts and culture, project management, and finance. We are organised into various departments focused on key organisational priorities. This approach helps us maintain high standards, meet our strategic objectives, and stay agile in responding to new opportunities.

The Leadership Team: The Leadership Team guides the company's vision and mission according to the company strategy. The team focuses on organising and structuring the company to achieve its goals, overseeing areas like programme development, accessibility, financial management and governance. They collaborate closely with their teams to design and implement programmes that engage the people of Dublin. With the wider team, they work to grow the audiences for, and participants in, cultural experiences across the city.

We add expertise
We want to create impact and we believe that if we bring our method to a project, it adds value. When projects and ideas spark our curiosity, we assess our opportunity to contribute and how best we can focus our expertise in supporting cultural participation. Our method puts people firmly at the centre of our work. We designed it specifically to support cultural habit forming behaviour and connections between people and place.

We collaborate
We work together to ensure quality in all that we do. We are committed to working through co-creation with participants and cooperation with partners. We emphasise inclusion and participation. We apply our strengths and seek additional expertise when needed.

We listen
We deliver dedicated programmes of listening through a team of skilled experts who, through continuous engagement, learn what's important to the people of Dublin. What we hear forms the backbone of relevant and meaningful programming.

We are motivated
We want to provide opportunities for people to try out their own ideas. We make programmes that allow us to use our expertise in meaningful ways. We act to ensure that the programmes and activities we work on create new 'ways in' to culture for people: building cultural habits and increasing cultural confidence.

We build
We create pathways within and across our programmes, and those of our cultural partners. We make cultural activities more openly accessible and approachable. This includes bringing culture to places where it's not usually perceived to be and connecting people to culture who wouldn't normally see themselves as involved with culture.

We respond
We create responsive programming by responding to what people tell us through the development of our programmes, projects, and activities. We are agile; we listen and respond to people's feedback to ensure our work remains relevant.

How we deliver impact
We are dedicated to the Learning Cycle model which we have developed. This means that we build, deliver and evaluate our programmes in a way that ensures an ongoing cycle of listening and engaging with people. This includes sharing and facilitating with partners, continuously learning, resourcing internally and adapting as needed.

We use a Learning Cycle that keeps people's needs at the centre. It begins when we actively seek out and engage with people. From this initial encounter we hope that people feel welcome and comfortable, trusting to engage with us further. This period of engagement can last moments or be something much more long term. In either case, when people feel ready they can begin to experience or participate in cultural activities with us.

During our activities, it is crucial to the Learning Cycle that people can make connections, providing opportunities for reflection and validation. This process allows people to determine if a cultural activity or space is 'for them' and decide if it's something they would like to do again and/or tell other people about. In this way, the Learning Cycle encourages participants to share their experiences, helping to draw in more people and enrich Dublin's cultural landscape.

The Learning Cycle also builds in ways for people to provide feedback, and we work closely with culture makers to ensure their work with us reflects what we hear. This helps us improve and act decisively as we start the Learning Cycle once more.

How we evaluate our impact
We gather and measure qualitative and quantitative feedback and data. We regularly monitor:

• The number and location of the people we are engaging with across all levels of participation.
• People's experiences of cultural participation either as participants or creative and cultural workers and partner organisations.
• The value of the different types and level of engagement and participation we offer.

Ongoing analysis of data allows us to contribute and maintain cultural community buildings and responsive programming as we:

Culture is always changing, and so are we. Our evaluation process helps us understand what's working and where we can improve, making sure that our work remains meaningful and impactful for everyone in Dublin who makes or enjoys culture. Our process is active and continuous, using both numbers and narrative to demonstrate our growth and widening scope.

Within our organisation we set and monitor internal ambitious KPIs in our areas of growth to ensure we continue to improve. We set targets, seeking to expand and deepen our reach with audiences and maintain quality in all we deliver. This means expanding our geographical reach, growing the number of people participating in our programmes and increasing the number of programmes we sustainably deliver. The KPIs are set, regularly reviewed and reported on, and adjusted as necessary.

For us, evaluation is more than a checklist. It is an ongoing conversation. We want to make sure every project and programme stays on track with our strategic objectives, so we are always listening to feedback. We keep in touch with the people of Dublin through informal conversations and open consultation processes like our Tea and Chats programme, as well as formal advice from our Advisory Group alongside regular check-ins on our activities.

By constantly reviewing and adapting based on what we hear, we stay flexible and up-to-date in an ever-evolving cultural landscape.

To achieve this, we will:

• Invite people to tell us what they care about.
  Listen and adjust accordingly to ensure our work stays relevant and engaging.
• Create new cultural opportunities and spotlight existing ones to help people find experiences that matter to them and participate in ways that suit them.
• Invite people to come together to connect and share experiences, fostering a stronger sense of belonging.
• Consult widely and thoughtfully to help us and our partners stay current and relevant. This improves audience development and provides valuable feedback, ultimately making our work more inclusive and engaged.

What success looks like:

• We connect regularly with people and are responsive to their cultural interests.
• We open up new ways for people to engage with culture. People have visited a cultural place for the first time, visited more often, or engaged in deeper ways.
• Feedback consistently shows that people have fun and find joy through our programmes and spaces.
• We document a sustained growth in cultural opportunities and repurposed spaces for cultural use.

To achieve this, we will:

• Generate conditions for people and communities to explore and develop their own cultural ideas.
• Make cultural projects together with people, based on their stories, wishes and experiences.
• Activate more and different ways for people to engage in culture.
• Grow the cultural ecosystem through new partnerships, programmes, and relationships we have nurtured.

What success looks like:

• We maintain an active Advisory Group and partner network to improve cultural participation.
• There are more opportunities and spaces for people to access culture in Dublin.
• We have made cultural projects and connected culture makers with different people in more places.
• We will continue to pilot and test new ways of working, in new places, with new people, cultural partners and culture makers.

To achieve this, we will:

• Invest in team training and development to enhance our effectiveness and ensure we deliver top-quality work.
• Seek out and integrate the best ideas to innovate and uphold high standards.
• Highlight and celebrate our work as well as the achievements of the cultural makers, facilitators, and partners.
• Collaborate with partners and peers to improve practices, demonstrate expertise, as well as uphold high standards and diligence in all of our efforts.

What success looks like:

• We have an excellent reputation, built on rigorous curatorial practices.
• Feedback consistently shows that people have a high-quality experience in our programmes and spaces.
• We have established a strong training framework to support professional development for our team and organisation.
• We are recognised as leaders in cultural participation and engagement, through awards and invitations to join national and international research, as well as working groups.

To achieve this, we will:

• Identify and remove barriers as much as we can and ensure that everyone can engage with culture confidently and comfortably.
• Recognise the diversity of needs of people and ensure these needs are accommodated from the start within our programme design, delivery and the work by our team.
• Champion accessibility and share best practices to set a standard in the cultural sector, reaching beyond accessibility standards by pushing for higher benchmarks in all that we do.
• Partner with stakeholders and Dublin City Council to advocate for accessible cultural experiences across the city.

What success looks like:

• We continue to look at how people access culture and advocate for increased diversity in scheduling, locations and opportunities to broaden participation.
• Our programmes and our company attract people from diverse backgrounds who continue to engage and connect with us as their needs are met.
• We are recognised as an excellent example of universal access to programmes, evidenced by training goals, accreditations and awards.
• We gain recognition from partners for our best practices, and they adopt our models as a working standard.

To achieve this, we will:

• Implement and maintain processes that ensure high professional standards and build trust with participants, partners and funders.
• Manage resources and our team in an efficient way to ensure long-term growth and stability.
• Prioritise transparency and good governance in all that we do as we continue to grow funding and delivery.
• Build and sustain our reputation as an effective, values-led organisation in a leadership role and as a model of good practice.

What success looks like:

• Our processes and systems are viewed by staff and external and internal auditors as secure and trustworthy.
• We build and retain a strong and confident team who continue to work collaboratively.
• Feedback shows that people trust our work and are happy to continue to engage and participate and fund our work.
• We ensure that our work strongly demonstrates and deepens understanding of our values.

To achieve this, we will:

• Enhance our offerings on an ongoing basis to strengthen the city’s cultural ecosystem.
• Partner with peers and exchange ideas to facilitate bigger thinking and broaden the city's cultural reach.
• Build further opportunities, new networks and identify new partners to enhance connections, and create more opportunities for cultural growth locally and internationally.
• Review and monitor our relationships on an ongoing basis to ensure maximum impact and alignment with our values.

What success looks like:

• Feedback shows that we are introducing people to cultural experiences in new places and spaces across the city in impactful ways.
• We share and leverage expertise, resources and cultural offerings to allow expansion and growth in the cultural infrastructure.
• We have road-tested new ideas with local, national and international partners.
• Partners look to us for support in expanding cultural horizons and developing cultural access in Dublin.

To achieve this, we will:

• Nurture new opportunities for communities and for people to try out their own ideas, and create their own cultural pathways, either through introductions or on their own.
• Provide training and support to those who wish to build their own cultural experiences at a local level and within our own team.
• Build and develop programmes and cultural spaces that are reflective of what is important to people.
• Promote active participation and social inclusion through culture with lasting benefits to Dublin and to the Culture Company.

What success looks like:

• Our programmes are built to accommodate the daily habits of people with different levels of engagement, timings and schedules.
• We are recognised as demonstrating best practice for the provision of continuous training and development for local communities, culture makers and our team.
• Increased cultural access and sustainable programming in places currently lacking cultural provision or recognition.
• Participant feedback demonstrates a sense of pride and ownership of cultural assets in the city.

To achieve this, we will:

• Track impact to ensure lasting value and to guide future efforts, continually improving our skills to support cultural growth.
• Use our experience to develop further cultural participation methods and practices as we move forward.
• Share how people build cultural confidence, passing on those insights to our partners.
• Document the city's cultural history through original voices at a local level and track its evolution and change.

What success looks like:

• We regularly monitor, evaluate and critically analyse what we are doing and how we are doing it.
• Our programming provides multiple opportunities to ensure people's ongoing and sustainable participation.
• We grow Dublin's cultural awareness by sharing our skills, as well as exploring different perspectives to challenge our thinking and inspire better practices.
• We deliver the first contemporary qualitative analysis of the City's cultural history (2015 to 2030) through longitudinal engagement based research.

To achieve this, we will:

• Ensure the provision of cultural rights to everyone by using a broad definition of culture.
• Create and sustain professional opportunities and celebrate the achievements of our team, helping to build professional pathways to grow their careers.
• Increase access to and awareness of Dublin's cultural spaces, organisations, and networks alongside our own work.
• Highlight the impact and value of our work, and advocate for it through our activities and people. Share our research and insights to contribute to national and international discussions on cultural advocacy and development.

What success looks like:

• We expand our reach across the city and demonstrate increased engagement through feedback and participant information.
• We share our work with culture makers through case studies, articles, and conferences, benchmarking their work against the wider industry.
• We attract new audiences to cultural spaces and programmes across the city, providing regular feedback and practical insights into growing a cultural audience.
• Our work enhances a national and international understanding of the value of cultural participation and cultural rights, highlighting the links between culture, participation, and wellbeing.