(Open to participants of EU Partner Cities)

10.30 City Centre Walking Tour
(Departure from Holiday Inn, Central Milton Keynes)
Tim Skelton (MK Forum) will lead a Public Art walking tour of the city centre highlighting the key pieces of public art and their importance to Milton Keynes. He will talk about the importance of these pieces in building a sense of place and identity within new communities from the city’s early days to the more ‘corporate’ pieces added to the city centre in the 1980s and 1990s. Milton Keynes’s more than 230 public art pieces have been recently recognized as a collection in its own right, enabling it to be regarded as one of the key ‘framework’ attributes that gives Milton Keynes its character, and placing greater emphasis on how works should be commissioned in the future.

12.00 Welcome and Orientation
(Location: Saxon Court)
Shane Downer (MK Council) and Noel James (MK City Discovery Centre) welcome the EU E4C partners to Milton Keynes to go through tour programme.

12.30 Interaction 1: Community Language Service
(Location: Saxon Court)
Anne-Marie Brown from the MK Community Language Service will discuss how interpreters and translators are used in Milton Keynes and the diversity of the communities they serve. Today, over 60 languages are represented to meet the needs of the different influxes of people from across the globe who come to make Milton Keynes their home.

13.30 Interaction 2: Milton Keynes Islamic Arts, Heritage and Culture (MKIAHC)
(Location: Milton Keynes College, Leadenhall Campus)
During Lunch, Anouar Kassim (MKIAHC) discusses the group’s ongoing initiatives in bringing together a range of different ethnic community groups in positive dialogue and activity against a current backdrop of anti-immigration attitudes locally and nationally. Successful initiatives include the work with the police, schools and colleges, and the annual major city-centre ‘Art in the Park’ event which attracts almost 10,000 people annually.

14.15 Loop 2: Netherfield Tour
(Departure from the Netherfield Local Centre)
Simon Jackson (local architect) will lead us on a short walking tour of Netherfield, highlighting its original design, the diverse communities that live there and the issues and challenges facing it today. He will describe its physical decline and the arrival of poorer residents, the rise of absentee landlords and the resulting lack of motivation. Simon will also discuss the proposed regeneration process.

15.00 Interaction 3: Netherfield Exhibition
(Location: Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre at Bradwell Abbey)
Darren Umney (PhD candidate in Design) presents his academic arts project, ‘Every House of Langland Road’, which is displayed as a major exhibition at the MK Gallery. The project proposes design concepts for Netherfield, a culturally diverse New Town area faced with poverty and health issues which is the subject of regeneration plans. Introduction by Noel James.

16.00 Interaction 4: Festive Road
(Location: Festive Road CIC at Kiln Farm)
Jessica Rost (Director of Festive Road) talks about the work of Festive Road in carnival and festival fringe arts, how they engage with diverse groups across MK and help new and existing peoples form an identity and sense of place and belonging. The presentation is followed by a tour of their Kiln Farm HQ (original factory unit).

16.45 Loop 3: MK Museum Tour
Bill Griffiths (Director of a ‘MK Museum Victorian Christmas’) leads a tour through the MK Museum. The museum is set in a Victorian Model Farm dating from 1847 and part of the development of nearby Wolverton, the world’s first planned railway town. Atmospherically lit by lamp and candlelight, the tour will include the special rooms, collections and stories, ending at the Granary Tea Room.

17.30 Interaction 5: Creation of the MK Museum
(Location: MK Museum)
Bill Griffiths talks about the creation of MK Museum from volunteer heritage community roots in 1973 and its evolution over 40 years into the new City Museum to open in 2019.

18.00 Christmas Buffet Meal, with discussion and feedback
(Location: MK Museum)

(Open for the public)
(Location: Holiday Inn Central, 500, Saxon Gate, Milton Keynes)

09.00 Introduction: Welcome to Milton Keynes – Culture, Migration and Identity
Francesca Skelton (Chair of the MK Arts and Heritage Alliance, Moderator for the day) and Liz Grifford (Cabinet Member for Place) give an introductory presentation.

Part one: Beginnings

09.15 ‘Europe for Citizens Project Overview’
Presented by Michelle Provoost (Director of the International New Town Institute)

09.25 ‘Towards 2050 - Milton Keynes: The Cultured and Creative City’
Presented by Shane Downer (MK Heritage Officer)

09.35 Keynote Presentation: ‘Does a more diverse new city mean a more unsettled city? Milton Keynes since 2000’
Presented by Professor Mark Clapson (University of Westminster)

10.05 Panel Discussion
Participants: Michelle Provoost, Shane Downer, Mark Clapson, Liz Grifford

10.45 Break

Part Two: The Makings of Milton Keynes

11.15 ‘A City Designed for Migration?’
Presented by Will Cousins (Chair of MK Gallery)

11.35 ‘Personal Stories: Creating the Cultural Ambassadors of the future’
Presented by the students of the MK Academy. Introduction by Deborah Gockelen (Director of Business and Enterprise)

11.55 ‘Reaching newcomers, migrants & refugees through Culture’
Presented by Mike Kasibo (Chair and Founder of the Global Outreach Foundation)

12.15 Panel Discussion
Participants: Will Cousins, Deborah Gockelen and MK Academy students, Mike Kasibo, Rosaline Stafford (Director of Global Outreach Foundation Milton Keynes - GOF:MK)

13.00 Lunch

Part Three: Placemaking and City Identity

14.00 ‘Different by Design: Milton Keynes the European Capital of Culture 2023? The role of Identity and Diversity in the draft 2023 Programme’
Presented by Fiona Boundy (Public Art Officer, Milton Keynes Council)

14.20 ‘Plan: MK – building culture and identity into the next Local Plan’
Presented by Mike Moore (Senior Planning, Milton Keynes Council)

14.40 ‘The significance of Milton Keynes’s Design Unique Selling Point – The New Town Heritage Register’
Presented by Simon Peart (Conservation and Archaeology Manager, Milton Keynes Council)

15.00 ‘When New Towns are no longer new, Migration, Identity and Regeneration of the original New Town area’
Presented by David Gleeson (Managing Director of Your:MK)

15.20 Break

15.40 Panel Discussion
Participants: Fiona Boundy, Mike Moore, Simon Peart, David Gleeson, Roger Kitchen (Founder of Living Archive), Anouar Kassim (Founder of MK Islamic Arts Heritage and Culture / Community Connects UK)

16.20 Summary and concluding discussion

18.15 Dinner for participants of EU Partner Cities
(Location: Brown’s Restaurant)
Including entertainment from Festive Road