PUTTIN CULTURE AT THE HEART OF OUR CITY...
FUNDING BID SUBMITTED TO REACH OUT TO COMMUNITIES ACROSS WEARSIDE
More than £1million could be ploughed into Sunderland’s arts, culture and heritage.
Sunderland Culture, a new company set up to manage the city’s major cultural attractions, has submitted a bid of £1.3m to the Great Place Scheme, a £15m initiative funded by Arts Council England (Ace) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The scheme was one of the flagship measures unveiled in the wake of last year’s Culture White Paper and aims to pilot new approaches that enable cultural, community and civic organisations to work more closely together.
It will invest in 12 places across England and the successful pilot schemes are due to be unveiled in late March.
Keith Merrin, chief executive of Sunderland Culture, said a successful bid could make a real difference to Wearside: “Our bid is one for the whole borough and has four strands: how we can improve the city’s creative economy; how arts and culture can help tackle the city’s health challenges, how the sector can improve community connections, and what we can do to help the lives of young people.
“Our health project would be based in the Coalfields; the young people’s project in Washington; the creative economy strand would concentrate on the city centre while the connectivity activity would take place in Pallion, Millfield and Castletown – areas most affected by the new bridge.
“The scheme would enable us to put arts, culture and heritage at the heart of the future vision for Sunderland.”
Sunderland Culture was established last year by the University of Sunderland, the city council and Sunderland Music Arts and Culture (Mac) Trust, which is developing a new cultural quarter behind the Sunderland Empire.
The company will manage and operate major cultural venues owned by the three partners. It will also raise the profile of the city’s arts provision and manage programming for the city’s cultural sector.