Cultural Compass
A tool for decision makers to consider their decisions on culture.
Overview
The Cultural Compass is a tool for decision makers to consider the impact of any decision on culture.
Why use it?
Culture is intangible - which means it can be difficult to fully understand and consider in the context of complex decisions.
The Cultural Compass was developed originally to support Elected Municipal Officials to consider the impact of their decisions on culture, as the decisions made by municipalities often impact significantly and sometimes negatively on the creative and cultural life of residents and businesses.
The tool presents questions for decision makers to consider the impact of decisions on values, peoples sense of connection to each other, place and nature, interaction, 'the vibe' of places and cultural resilience.
Who is it for?
Any decision makers - particularly Elected Members/ Politicians, Municipal Leaders, Policy makers, Systems designers, Place consultants, Property developers
How long does it take?
A few minutes - at a glance.
How many people is it for?
For individual contemplation or teams - such as Elected Member bodies
What materials do you need?
Ideally - one compass per participant.
What does the facilitator need to know or be able to do?
Basic knowledge of arts, culture and place is helpful - but the magic is in the participants engagement with the questions and the emerging discussion.
Acknowledgements
Inspired through contributing to the Cultural Impact Guide developed by the South Australian Creative Communities Network with the support of the Local Government Association in South Australia.
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This tool is licensed under a Creative Commons BY SA 4.0 license. For full details visit our Licensing Rules. 
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Member
anabel lopez
toulouse, france
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Member
Peter Cummings
Skipton, England, United Kingdom
Retired accountant and retired translator volunteering in organisations that promote sustainability.
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Member
Stefan Schöggl
Vienna, Wien, Austria
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Member
Sigmund Wien Nordlie
Oslo, Norge
I help people and companies to think differently. As a cultivated rebel, I`m not any smarter than anyone else in the room. Often the opposite. The difference is that I have organized my ignorance better. Clients I`ve worked with: Finn.no, TechnipFMC, Choice, MAD architects, Zinc, reMarkable, Norad, Obos and many more.
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Member
Deborah Weinreb
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
I am a social practice artist based in Bristol in the UK. In 2020 I was a part of an 'Artists Make Change' group looking at the importance and challenges of artists in relation to the economic doughnut. The main premise was the importance of Art, Culture and Creativity as a social foundation and its power in developing ideas, thoughts, behaviour changes and so much more. From this research many notes were collected. I like visual outcomes so one of my lockdown projects was producing a graphic that encompassed much of what we discussed in an open way that could inspire thought in others. Commonly known as the Art Doughnut it is a large complex graphic and so is not very screen friendly. However you can view it here and fall in on a word/phrase or 2 that you will hopefully find motivating. I am now working with Dr Cara Courage to try and extend the ethos of the Art Doughnut so if you have any ideas please do get in touch. We are especially interested in developing a web friendly version ( probably an animation), so any funding ideas for this would be very welcome. If you would like to see a bit more about Social Art Projects you can visit a notebook website that I put together while researching projects in the USA. Besides links to projects there are many interesting articles on the blog. This was one successful and uplifting project I visited. Assembly, an arts program run by the non-profit organization Recess that’s an alternative to incarceration.
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Member
Tom Owen-Smith
Lambeth, London Borough of Lambeth, England, United Kingdom
Doughnut Economics is an inspirational text, and I am keen to be part of building it out to change our economy and society. I am the Sustainability lead at SUMS Consulting – we are a not-for-profit membership organisation providing consultancy services to the university sector, mostly in the UK. One aim is to make universities run sustainably and in harmony with their place. Universities are also at the centre of knowledge production and can make big contributions to the paradigm shift through their research, education and ability to bring people together. I hope to learn from this community and share ideas for change – both for my work and for living my own life.
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Member
Alice Koubová
Praha, Česko
Senior Researcher, Vice-dean for Research, Coordinator of applied grant program "Resilient society for the 21st century"
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Member
Stacey Pottinger
Bath, England, United Kingdom
Hi I am Stacey, I live and work not far from Bath. I work for an arts and health charity running socially engaged artists training and I am a poet. I am a Mum of 2 children [plus a Golden Retriever] and a runner. I am currently taking part in the Sky Blue programme for Environmental Leaders.
