Rural

Film and TV production was worth more than £5m to the Cornish economy in 2022, new figures reveal.

The data comes from a Screen Cornwall economic impact analysis into Gross Value Added (GVA) by the sector.

It found there were 422 filming days and 101 pre-production days in the county during 2022, which generated an estimated GVA of £5,040,000 – an 8% increase on 2021.

Screen Cornwall also announced it will receive a further £395,650 through the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Managing Director Laura Giles said the GVA figure was “a significant contribution for our rurally dispersed sector”.

“For the first time, we have a reliable estimate of what film and TV production is worth financially to Cornwall’s economy," she added.

“Momentum continues to grow for both location filming and independent production, so this funding boost comes at an important time.

“A diverse and robust talent pipeline is vital to developing a healthy screen ecosystem, so people are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to become the UK’s most vibrant, rurally dispersed content production region.”

Rural arts organisations in Northern Ireland are being invited to apply for funding as part of a programme to increase access to and participation in the arts.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Rural Engagement Arts Programme (REAP) was launched last year.

The £1.5million inititiative is now on its second funding round, with grants from £500 to £10,000 available.

The focus of the scheme is to tackle isolation and loneliness through the arts. It was conceived as a post-pandemic recovery programme aimed at rural communities that were particularly hard hit by Covid-19.

Projects already funded through REAP include Glenlough Community Choir in rural North East Antrim, and Portstewart-based Big Telly Theatre Company, which created a touring, interactive piece of 'hybrid street theatre'.

Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said REAP will "increase opportunities for people living in rural communities to engage and participate in meaningful arts activities, enriching their lives for the better. I would encourage organisations to apply.”

The Neuadd Dwyfor Arts Centre in Pwllheli has received a £36,000 grant from Arts Council of Wales to develop a new programme.

The funding will allow the cultural hub, situated on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, north-western Wales, to offer more live events, including music, cabaret, comedy, dance and theatre.

The theatre and cinema is due to reopen this week following a period of maintenance work to safeguard its historic building, which was built in 1900 and has been an entertainment space since 1902.

Recently completed renovations include re-rendering the external red brickwork, renewing the lead work and installing new windows. 

“This is a new and exciting chapter in the long history of Neuadd Dwyfor, thanks to significant investment to protect this important resource by Cyngor Gwynedd with the support of the Welsh Government,” said Councillor Nia Jeffreys, Cabinet Member for Cyngor Gwynedd's Economy and Community department.

“I am also grateful to the arts council for their support in developing a contemporary arts programme that will attract audiences for this new chapter."

National Youth Theatre has announced IGNITE Your Creativity, a partnership with Netflix that aims to introduce young people to backstage and technical careers in film, TV and theatre.

The programme is designed to offer opportunities to more than 500 young people aged 14 to 25 in South Wales, West Yorkshire and the North East of England in its first year.

“Theatre is one of the great pipelines to TV and film but sadly the pipeline of opportunity for so many young people has been broken for so long,” said Paul Roseby, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of National Youth Theatre.

“Certain parts of the creative industries are growing, but ironically so is the skills gap in production talent. This partnership will help redress the imbalance”.  

The programme is currently recruiting young people in Newport, South Wales, where participants will work with Urban Myth Films and their Newport-based film studios, the Sherman Theatre, National Youth Arts Wales and local community organisations and schools. 

The programme will expand to West Yorkshire and the North East of England later this year, delivering 20 free community and school workshops in each area. It will also offer set and theatre visits and free week-long courses led by industry professionals.

“Our industry has a pronounced absence of socio-economic diversity partly because it’s freelance, which makes it tough for those from less privileged backgrounds to gain a foothold,” said Anne Mensah, Vice President of UK Content at Netflix.

“IGNITE Your Creativity has been designed to raise awareness and aspirations, and build confidence and networks so that young people don’t need to have existing industry connections, live in a big city or have a degree for a career in TV and film.”

Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) has distributed £500,000 in the latest round of its Rural Engagement Arts Programme (REAP).

The funding has been split between 73 community groups, arts organisations and local authorities in rurally based communities. Funded projects span music, theatre, heritage and the visual arts, supporting different age groups to become engaged in creative activities.

ACNI consulted its Rural Deliberative Forum, a pilot project established in November 2021 designed to give a voice to under-represented groups, and Northern Ireland’s 10 local authorities outside of Belfast when designing the latest REAP round.

The overarching theme of the programme is to tackle isolation and loneliness and promote social inclusion and wellbeing through participation in the arts.

ACNI Chair Liam Hannaway said the effects of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns had been compounded in rural communities.

“The Rural Engagement Arts Programme will increase opportunities for people living in rural communities to engage and participate in meaningful arts activities, enriching their lives for the better,” Hannaway added.

“The Arts Council believes that arts, and coming together as communities, can all make a vital contribution to building wellbeing, confidence and healthy, integrated communities.”

Music organisations working with young people in Wales have been invited to apply for grants in the second round of a fund run Anthem - Music Fund Wales.

The Atsain fund aims to support youth music organisations to address and overcome specific barriers to music for young people in Wales. Eligible organisations can apply for grants of up to £10,000.

The first round of funding awarded a total of £120,000 to 15 organisations last year and created a collaborative network of beneficiaries to facilitate forums for sharing best practice.

“We’re already seeing young people connecting with music in new ways as a result of projects funded by the first round of Atsain,” said Rhian Hutchings, Chief Executive of Anthem.

“Our grantees are working with young people of all ages, helping them to build their confidence, explore their creativity and find pathways to potential future careers.”

Atsain’s Programme Manager Rebecca Rickard said the organisation welcomes “partnerships between organisations that focus on music, but also youth, community, disability, language, poverty, race and more”.

“It is through partnerships that organisations get a better understanding of the barriers young people face, and how to break them down,” she said.

Some of Britain’s historical artefacts are at risk of being lost forever amid a rising wave of heritage crime, a senior police officer has warned.

Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Nolan told the Telegraph that thieves are increasingly targeting churches and other historic sites around the UK, confident they can steal valuables or raw materials undetected amid shrinking congregations and waning interest in local historical sites.

Nolan, who was appointed national policing lead on heritage crime two years ago, said that police receive very little intelligence about crimes against historic buildings and monuments, in contrast to other crimes such as antisocial behaviour.

She warned that public "antipathy” towards the protection of heritage assets is worsening the problem and said that the scale of heritage crime is hard to judge because it is often unreported.

A total of 16 churches were targeted by thieves in July and previous research has found that nearly 20% of listed buildings were physically affected by crime in the space of a year.

“I think the thing to remember with heritage crime is that some of the things that are targeted are literally priceless,” she said.

“I think we should not necessarily judge the individual objects, just looking at how we can protect them and keep the country’s stories alive.”