Coventry City of Culture will lead to 'wave of aspiration'

Incremental improvements to Coventry will be one of the most significant impacts of City of Culture, a senior member of the trust said.

Sir Phil Redmond is chairman of the panel which awarded the prize to Coventry four years ago.

He returned to the city for the Turner Prize and said he was impressed by the changes to the city over the years.

He cited the city's creative hub at the old Ikea store and some of the rebuilding projects as being inspiring.

Coventry is half-way through its year as UK City of Culture.

"The incremental changes around the city centre, just opening up the realm, letting people walk through, the landscaping, and things like taking over the Ikea centre as a creative cultural hub those kinds of things is what City of Culture is all about," Sir Phil said.

"It's not about having big shiny new things coming here.

"Those incremental changes that change people's perception, that's the big prize - being able to change the perception inside the city, and more importantly the perception outside the city."

Alongside events including hosting the Turner Prize, Coventry Moves and Radio 1's Big Weekend, the city has seen a number of public realm projects come to life.

These include a number of regeneration schemes including at the railway station, Belgrade Theatre, St Mary's Guildhall and the city centre.

These projects will inspire young people from Coventry over the coming years, Sir Phil said.

"People who are in their teens now or their early 20s will look back at this year no matter how difficult it is and say, 'come on, we did it then, let's do it again'," he said.

"And then you see the second wave of aspiration coming through."

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