Grant support for creativity

Mar 18 2008 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

FLEDGLING company Babel Digital is among six creative firms to receive thousands of pounds in start-up funding through Tees’ DigitalCity enterprise hub.

The grants - which are the last in a tranche awarded under the Creative Business Ventures scheme by Arts Council England, North East - were certainly good news for Jeremiah Alexander, who describes Babel Digital as “a serious games company”.

Other awards were made to Middlesbrough-based Attention Design, a graphic design and print company, Construct Photographic, a photography studio specialising in fashion, Is-Design, a graphic design and print company, Julie Wright photography and Darlington’s 3D designers Light Lab Visualisation.

Scott Watson, enterprise co-ordinator for DigitalCity, said: “New businesses often struggle when it comes to investing in equipment and marketing themselves but the Cultural Business Venture grant enables these companies to do both,” he said.

“The fact that this funding hasn’t been made available anywhere else in the country reflects the commitment from local agencies to support the growing creative industries in the region.”

Previous companies to have benefited from the millions of pounds in awards given out over the past nine years, include Hartlepool-based Qurios Entertainment whose animation and designs are now reaching international markets.