A new survey is being launched to find out how East Devon District Council (EDDC) can best support the cultural/creative community.

In the wake of the pandemic, the Arts and Culture East Devon forum is being relaunched as ACED – Arts & Culture East Devon.

This new public forum is designed to support local cultural services in East Devon such as theatres, museums, galleries and festivals as well as all creative practitioners.

ACED hopes to connect the creative and cultural communities of East Devon, providing a central platform to engage, network, promote and talk about arts and culture across the region.

Its new survey aims to find out how EDDC can best support the culture in East Devon through ACED.

The results will be shared in the first Network Member Forum on April 29

Councillor Paul Arnott, Leader of East Devon District Council said: “This survey is a mark of how seriously our council takes the arts, culture and entertainment sectors in the life of East Devon.

“We'd love to get a response from all such East Devon-based cultural organisations and communities, please, to help us to understand how ACED can interact with the entire network, and what the forum's priorities for the future should be.”

ACED aims:

• Provide support for professional and artistic development, enabling partnership
• Develop and promote local authority arts and culture-led economic growth initiatives
• Support advocacy work for local arts and culture services and identify areas for collaboration
• Share news, best practice, plans and ambitions- aiding communication between arts practitioners, arts organisations, non-arts organisations, local government and regional and national bodies
• Embed the role of the arts in the cultural, social, educational, environmental and economic life of the district
• Increase participation in cultural activity in the district, developing a healthy social and cultural ecology which engages and enriches communities

The intent is to host three Network Member Zooms a year, two Executive Membership meetings (including East Devon District Councillors) a year, and distribute a bi-monthly newsletter.

The deadline for completing the survey is April 9. To take part in the survey, visit https://forms.gle/Jj6V9Zo1ymgeED9g7