Sir Nicholas Serota went home this week with a ceramic sheep under his arm.

It's not the kind of thing you'd expect the Chair of Arts Council England, and former Director of the Tate, to leave with. But it's exactly the kind of detail that keeps drawing him back to Matson. This was his third visit to Culture Matson since 2018, hosted this time at Matson Library, and each visit generates passionate conversation about citizen-led creativity, the successes of the group, and how we’re thinking about the collective challenges that face the arts sector.

Culture Matson has been running since 2017, and turns ten next year. At the heart of it is strong relationships built on trust, and a community fund called the Sheepy Bank, named after the free-roaming sheep that graze the greens near Matson Avenue and Redwell Road. The Sheepy Bank didn't exist from day one - it opened once the group had built enough trust and shared decision-making to manage money together, and it's grown since into a genuine creative piggy bank, with funding decided locally by the people it's meant to serve.

The Sheepy Bank has backed a real mix of activity. Some of it is collaboration across the whole alliance, some of it is individual organisations doing their own thing with a bit of shared backing behind them. The Matson Lantern Parade brought together local artists, families and schools to light up the estate with handmade lanterns. GAS Projects have used it to run Art Busters, a weekly after-school creative club. Mindful Clay has run ceramics workshops with The Ewe Space and The Children's Centre. GL4 have delivered workshops at Finlay School. These are just a handful of the projects that have been shaped with the support of the group.

Here's a distinction that matters: Create Gloucestershire doesn't ‘own’ Culture Matson, and never has. What we do, and keep doing, is create the conditions that help a group like this to grow and make its own decisions. An independent Creative Catalyst spends time building relationships in the community, and a neutral Convenor keeps the group's gatherings on track, and connects them to the wider sector. The roles don’t end once an alliance finds its feet; they stay in place for as long as the alliance needs them, keeping the group honest to its own values, extending the invitation to new people, and building the connections into wider funding and systems that let a small, community-led idea eventually reach a Government programme or an Arts Council chair.

Culture Matson's Creative Catalyst, Debbie Christie, said:

"It was fantastic to welcome Sir Nicholas back to Matson and share our success stories with him, as well as considering how we'll all meet future challenges in the creative sector. He's been so supportive of Create Gloucestershire and Culture Matson and we're sure that's in part because we've shown how sustained, long-term commitment can make sustainable change happen."

Sir Nicholas thanked the group for the sheepy bank they'd made him, and reflected:

“It was a pleasure to return to Matson three years after my last visit, and to pick up conversations with cultural organisations delivering important work for their local communities.

Thanks to public funding via the National Lottery, Create Gloucestershire’s partnership-led initiative, Culture Matson, is helping shape culture with the audiences and artists they serve. It demonstrates how meaningful participation in culture can help places flourish and transform lives. The work reflects Arts Council England's commitment to ensuring that everybody, wherever they live, can develop their own creativity and access excellent culture.”

Culture Matson is one of four Create Local programmes we run across Gloucestershire, alongside Cam and Dursley Creatives, Bream Dream in the Forest of Dean, and an emerging Women's Creative Health alliance. All four work to the same principles: invitation not instruction, dialogue over delivery, possibilities not problems, belonging before boundaries. Those aren't just words on a page. They're the reason a visit like this one ends with tea and a hand-thrown sheep rather than a ribbon-cutting.

As Tracey Thomas, Associate Co-Director at Create Gloucestershire, said:

“We’d like to thank Sir Nicholas for his continued interest and support. It was lovely to welcome him again and to be reminded of his unwavering support for citizen-led creativity. Culture Matson is a working example of this, and we hope our experience inspires others as next year we celebrate ten years of convening Culture Matson and working in Matson.

These are exciting times for Culture Matson, especially as Matson and Robinswood have been awarded funding through the Government’s Pride in Place programme. The support from Create Gloucestershire over the last decade has helped grow creative and financial power across the community and we’re excited to build on this in the future.”

Ten years ago, Culture Matson started with a handful of people around a table. Next year, it turns ten, with a growing reputation and potential to seed its ideas across the county and beyond. We're proud of the part we've played in holding that space, and prouder still of everything Matson has built inside it.

To find out more about how Create Local works check out this post: https://www.creategloucestershire.co.uk/blog/2026/6/11/the-space-between-something-and-nothing-learning-from-create-localnbsp

And as always if you’d like to get in touch or learn more you can connect via hello@creategloucestershire.co.uk

Why Sir Nicholas Serota keeps coming back to Matson

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