Lisa Nandy: “I refuse to sit back while communities are forgotten in our national story. Change must start today. That change begins with a culture sector that is proud and unafraid to tell the whole story of our nation.” Looking forward to seeing hyper-localised Arts Council decision making.

Good to catch up with We Are Staffordshire’s Head of Place Marketing, Louisa Shaw, to discuss key topic areas for inclusion in the forthcoming House of Commons Culture Roundtable as part of this year’s #StaffordshireDay tenth anniversary celebrations.

“Stoke-on-Trent should be an international jewel. We’re the world capital of ceramics, a World Craft City with ambitions to become a UNESCO Creative City and the birthplace of a global industry.”

Productive meeting recently with @DCMSgovuk.bsky.social Head of World and Living Heritage to discuss Stoke-on-Trent’s UNESCO Creative City ambitions and the forthcoming living heritage (intangible cultural heritage) inventory. @UNESCOUK.bsky.social

Stoke really is a World Craft City!

To be successful it’s imperative to create an authentic, immersive visitor experience that helps to connect visitors with Stoke-on-Trent’s World Craft City heritage in a deep and meaningful way, moving beyond the traditional ‘show and tell’ to actively engage their senses & create lasting memories.

Having written about Duchess China 1888 a few years ago it was good to be at today’s launch of a new #BeyondTheBottleOven tour in conjunction with Gladstone Pottery Museum.

- Brutal Land - Festival Drayton Centre. Market Drayton Now open .. all welcome! www.festivaldraytoncentre.com/index.php

Whether through tourism, the Staffordshire Day celebrations, or the provenance of where ceramics are made, strategic storytelling is a powerful placemaking tool that can help elevate Staffordshire’s prominence as a destination of choice. #EnglishTourismWeek26 #StaffordshireDay

It's the 1953 set update of Peaky Blinders at The Queen's Theatre. Set for release on Netflix mid 2027. With Lemmy looking on.😆

As screen tourism where people are motivated to visit locations or attractions because More evidence that Stoke-on-Trent’s reputation as a location with a plentiful supply of interesting, filmable cultural resources and heritage assets is highly regarded.

As screen tourism where people are motivated to visit locations or attractions because they are depicted in a television series or film continues to grow in popularity, it’s good to see local interest in the filming of a ‘top-rated programme’ in Burslem. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

May 1 is Staffordshire Day. This year it will also mark the 40th anniversary of HM Queen Elizabeth II visiting Stoke-on-Trent to officially open the National Garden Festival, promoted as ‘the biggest leisure event in Europe’.

‘Most people now accept that you cannot breathe new life into cities, towns and communities without culture.’ Why the UK City/Town of Culture competitions are more than just a powerful title - they can be a ‘scholarship in transformation’ for every place that progresses a bid.

The recent award of World Craft City status is a pertinent reminder of Stoke-on-Trent’s manufacturing significance, and there is an emerging opportunity to reimagine the historic environment and harness our global reputation to transform the city into a cultural tourism destination.

Stoke-on-Trent enjoys an international reputation as ‘The Potteries’, home of global ceramic production. Our unique built heritage is testament to past brilliance, but urgent action is needed if it is not to be lost.

Insightful University of Staffordshire #HopefulFutures interdisciplinary conference. Delighted to be invited to present on how Culture 3.0 is underpinning Stoke-on-Trent’s #Future100 missions & its ambition to progress a place-sensitive application to become a UNESCO Creative City.

A reminder as #potterythrowdown filmed at Gladstone Pottery Museum brightens up the January blues, that it is ‘the only programme of its particular type rooted in a specific place and culture: in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the home of British ceramics production since the 18th century.’

Great to see the enthusiastic Doomsday Morris in #Penkull last night celebrating the 2026 #wassail 📷 #stokeontrent @paulwilliams207.bsky.social

A fittingly profound and upbeat service of celebration and thanksgiving for a life well-lived. Mike Lloyd OBE: Music is a source of comfort and joy. 🎶 Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art! 🎶

Delighted at this possibility as someone who lived in Stoke for ten years and wrote a PhD on the Potteries as a cluster in the later C19th..

Very interesting. As someone who trained in ceramics in the 70s I would love to see a return of this industry in a newly invented form. Hopefully it's not too late!

A new era for ceramics? As the only historic place-based industrial cluster of significant scale in the UK, the Potteries is ideally positioned to help the government deliver several of the ‘IS-8’ growth-driving sectors set out in its Modern Industrial Strategy.

It’s happy new clay day as the Great Pottery Throw Down returns. A place marketing success story, this precious hour of tranquility made in Stoke-on-Trent is, as Keith Brymer Jones says, set to ‘create something of a feel good factor by bringing something positive and upbeat into people’s homes’.

‘Culture, like God and politics is everywhere.’ A montage of articles where centenary-inspired culture, creativity, ceramics and tourism is the golden thread that I’ve enjoyed sharing throughout the year. Here’s to another post-centenary ‘winning with culture’ year in 2026!

Harnessing the city’s post-centenary energy, confidence & imagination to develop a collective creative vision for the future will ensure Stoke-on-Trent remains ‘a place that has such a great artistic and industrial mix of talent and fortitude’ as we write a new ‘love story’ to Stoke-on-Trent.

An insightful first day at the Legacy and Continuity Ceramics Symposium with an eclectic series of speakers from around the world exploring the global reach and significance of Stoke-on-Trent’s renowned ceramics history and heritage from an archeological perspective. #WorldCraftCity #SoT100

Over 250 years on, the curriculum review is once again cementing Josiah Wedgwood’s place in Stoke-on-Trent’s schools by reconnecting art, creativity and technology with inventiveness, imagination and innovation.

Despite Arnold Machin’s lasting legacy, the intriguing story of how a young Trentham school teacher became the ‘Queen for a day’ without knowing it and came to be featured on the most iconic, reproduced image of all time has been rarely told.

A superb kiln-side review of a pilgrimage to Britain’s ceramic capital. ‘I keep coming back to the memory of the 100 Years, 100 Faces celebration. Stoke-on-Trent does pride right; if only we could adopt this on a national scale.’

My latest column focuses on the unveiling of the #100Years100Faces centenary mural and why its most enduring legacy will be how it can inspire the next generation of young place-makers to pick up the baton and shape the next chapter in Stoke-on-Trent’s illustrious place story.

As those who attended the unveiling event heard, the #100Years100Faces mural showcases our unique city as ‘a history of heartbeats knitted together with theatre tickets, penalty shootouts, helping hands, and smiling kilns.’

An accessible, aesthetic work of art, the #100Years100Faces mural is a living to tribute to the inspirational individuals who have left their mark on our world craft city. The publicly nominated people depicted will provide a hundred conversation themes and serve as an enduring #SoT100 legacy.

“The opportunities for cultural exchange and research collaboration will also strengthen Stoke-on-Trent’s position as an international centre for ceramic excellence - supporting the world craft city agenda and Stoke-on-Trent’s ambitions to achieve UNESCO creative city status.”

University of Staffordshire VC, Prof Martin Jones: “It was Thornhill’s wish that the collection be used for educational purposes and partnering with the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery will allows us do that by making it more accessible to both scholars and the public.”

Johnny Vegas: “There’s so much space in ceramics for everything, for exploration, and it’s a skill set that we just cannot afford to key go of. “It’s great to celebrate it but the celebration had to continue once the (British Ceramics Biennial) festival ends.”

City of Fire and Beautiful Bricks’ Exhibition at The Glosthouse, Longton. Stoke-On-Trent. www.theglosthouse.co.uk An ongoing exhibition of Works both new, and never before exhibited. Painting : Drawing : Collage. Poetry : @minxyowlwriter.bsky.social #Stoke100 #SoT100

A celebration of clay, craftsmanship, skill & artistry in a city that has clay deeply embedded in its identity. Clare Wood: “Through British Ceramics Biennial we are maintaining national and international interest in Stoke-on-Trent and its ceramics.”

‘As well as the Biennial which has been running since 2009, the Staffordshire city is celebrating its centenary in 2005. And it is just over a year since Stoke-on-Trent was awarded World Craft City status, which is recognition of its global importance as a centre for pottery production.’

Just Be There, a collaborative artwork crafted by Johnny Vegas, described as ‘an avenue of hugs captured in clay’ to be showcased at the forthcoming British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent.

It’s black over Bill’s mother’s! A Mirror to Nature @newvictheatre.bsky.social

You're a gentleman, Paul - thank you very kindly indeed.. My very first creative incursion into Stoke-On-Trent.

THE POTTERIES BOTTLE OVEN - the 'go-to' resource site for information about the bottle ovens and kilns of the Potteries, Stoke-on-Trent Want to know about bottle ovens and kilns? This is the place! bottleoven.blogspot.com More links in bio

Bottle Oven Day is a chance to share the Magnificent 47 again! @ianrpearsall.bsky.social

Priestley continued: ‘unless you are prepared to take a deep and lasting interest on what happens inside those ovens, it would be better for you to take the first train anywhere’. Bottle ovens featured prominently in our application to become a designated World Craft City.

It’s August 29th. It’s Potteries Bottle Oven Day. And it’s the day to recall how J. B. Priestley on his English journey in 1933 proclaimed: ‘the pottery kilns and ovens ... without these great bottles of heat, there would be no Potteries. They represent the very heart and soul of the district.’

Our small but mighty city’s unique identity, global renown as a centre of ceramics excellence, creative ecosystem, entrepreneurial endeavours, and acclaimed universities’ research impacts means Stoke-on-Trent punches above its soft power weight.

Delighted to hear Claybody Theatre will continue to be based at The Dipping House on the former Spode pottery site. Looking forward to seeing many more place-based productions ‘shaped from the unique cultural heritage and contemporary lives of the people of Stoke-on-Trent & North Staffordshire.’