Millions will stimulate our cultural sector

Jun 12 2007 By James Barton, The Journal

An initiative established to support the cultural sector in the North-East will invest £16m between now and September 2008. James Barton finds out how this money will benefit the region.

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Arts Council England North East's cultural sector development initiative (CSDI) is to receive £6.1m from European funding, money that will be spent stimulating the cultural economy throughout the region.

This investment will support 60 projects across 6,000 businesses in the arts and cultural sector. These companies in turn will be required to match the European money with other sponsorship. This should result in £16m being spent in the region from now until September 2008.

Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England. Between 2005 and 2008, it is investing £1.7bn of public funds from government and the National Lottery - a proportion of which is being spent in the North-East - and is the bedrock of support for the arts in England.

It is forecast that the estimated £16m being spent in the region under the CSDI scheme will generate £3.8m of turnover for the organisations taking part creating 390 new jobs and safeguarding 860.

The money will also be used to train 1,100 people in business and vocational skills.

Mark Robinson, executive director, Arts Council England, North East says: "We are thrilled to have been awarded this money. The CSDI is a unique initiative supporting the development of a strong creative economy in North East England. We know this investment will have a huge impact on the future growth of the cultural sector."

Supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) through Government Office for the North East (GO-NE), this money is designed to provide business development opportunities to artists and cultural businesses and organisations.

Andrew Lewis, deputy regional director at GO-NE, says: "Creative industries make a major contribution to our economic and cultural vitality, and the European programme is proud to support this valuable initiative, helping small arts businesses to thrive throughout the North-East."

In the Tees Valley, Tees Music Alliance has been awarded £143,000 via CSDI to support a range of music-related activities including providing advice to musicians wanting to know how they can work more effectively with the UK's music industry. Its support will provide musicians with one-to-one mentoring with music industry specialists, advice on artist marketing campaigns and will enable artists to work with established music producers.

Paul Burns, director of Tees Music Alliance, says: "This funding means that we can continue to develop a better infrastructure of events and services for musicians in the Tees Valley; reducing the need for our artists to move away from the region and helping to create the kind of buzz which attracts the attention of the national media and music industry.

"The CSDI funds will also be used to further develop our events programme, which provide showcase opportunities for many of the musicians and music businesses we represent. In particular Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival will benefit from CSDI - allowing our regional artists to play alongside some major established acts."

This is phase three of the CSDI programme which, with phase one and phase two taken into account, has achieved a commitment of £32m for cultural sector skills and business development, £12.9m of which has come from European grants. The first two phases of the CSDI programme proved very successful with £16.2m already spent on cultural sector development since June 2003.

John McCreadie, of EKOS Consulting, said: "Some of the most important European funded projects have been from the cultural and heritage sector. The North-East has led the way in linking culture to economic growth."

Some of the organisations that have benefited from the first two phases of the programme include the Cultural Business Venture which aims to increase the viability and sustainability of commercial creative businesses, encourage the safeguarding and potential creation of jobs, and to support overall growth of the sector.

It has assisted more than 400 North-East businesses. Newcastle-based Isis Arts, which manages artist-led residencies, exhibitions and events has assisted 70 artists to attend a residency programme with a further 40 helped as part of its training programme. And Live Theatre, of Newcastle, has become one of the country's leading new writing theatres providing opportunities for writers to further their craft through mentoring, commissions and production work.