Funding will go toward a three-year scheme creating 'cultural action zones' across the city.
Natalie Willatt/Urban Wilderness
Arts and cultural organisations across Stoke-on-Trent will receive £850k of new funding from Arts Council England (ACE) through the National Lottery Place Partnership Fund, it has been announced.
The investment will go to Stoke Creates’ Cascade project, an initiative supporting cultural development and community participation.
As part of the three-year scheme, Stoke Creates will partner with local organisations to create four ‘cultural action zones’ across the city, hosting year-round activities and events.
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The first zone will be in Longton, led by Community Intrest Company Urban Wilderness, which organised the inaugural Longton Carnival and Pig Walk Parade earlier this year.
Isla Telford, Director at Urban Wilderness, said that plans for the area include large-scale events, a regular town forum, an embedded youth forum, and ‘Wilder Connections’ – a project that aims to tackle the climate crisis through bio-diversity engagement.
Stoke-on-Trent has been designated as a region for investment by both government and ACE. The city features on priority lists as an ACE priority place, an ACE Levelling Up for Culture place and a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) priority place, securing £56m of levelling up funding for regeneration.
Professor David Amigoni, Keele University, co-Chair of Stoke Creates, said: “For Stoke Creates, our Cultural Compact, the project further realises the fact of our great city, Stoke-on-Trent, being a priority place of investment for Arts Council England.
"Working with all partners, Cascade will bring tangible and lasting opportunities for younger people as well as everyone through arts-led regeneration.”
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