News

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has launched a two-year scheme to invest in the arts, heritage and culture sector.

The proposals include spending £1m on a programme of sector-specific skills and business support for early- and mid-career freelancers, small cultural organisations, and creative businesses.

Up to 100 individuals and small organisations can join the Activate programme, receiving tailored workshops, mentoring, masterclasses, networking opportunities and well-being support.

The programme will also include internships to encourage younger people to work in the cultural and creative sectors, part of WMCA Mayor Richard Parker's plan to reduce high levels of youth unemployment.

In addition, WMCA will run a Future Boards Accelerator scheme to help people develop skills and confidence to take up positions on governing boards.

Applications are now open to join the Activate programme, and later this year, small grants will also be available to pay for "targeted learning" and "personal development opportunities".

Parker said: “The West Midlands cultural and creative sector is one of the biggest in the country – and the people at its heart make a remarkable social and economic contribution to our region.

“They must be able to look to the public sector for our support, and they have already told us that one of the biggest barriers to success is the lack of sector-specific support to sustain and grow their businesses."
 

The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) has launched an in-house rural and regional press agency to provide its members with specialist publicity support while also highlighting "the stories, challenges and successes of rural touring and rural life."  
    
The agency will act as a remote PR department - writing press releases, checking strategies, maintaining press lists and managing communication with media. 
  
Holly Lombardo, Director of NRTF, said: “We want the Press Agency to be an important advocacy tool and contribute significantly to the visibility of rural and community touring across the UK.  
  
“Smaller arts organisations often have less capacity for press and PR coverage. Publicity is the thing our members have said they’d like more help with, so we are delighted to respond to that with dedicated support in this area.” 
 
  

A theatre and arts centre in Hampshire is to get a new home as part of a regeneration project funded by an £18.3m government levelling-up award.

The Lights in Andover will be relocated to a purpose-built building in a new location by the town's bus station and shopping centre car park.

Test Valley Borough Council has appointed architects Burrell Foley Fischer (BFF), whose previous projects include Winchester Theatre Royal and New Theatre Royal Portsmouth.

The new building will have a "state-of-the-art auditorium and modern spaces" and is expected to open in early 2027.

The scheme is part of the Andover town centre masterplan, which the council adopted in 2020. 

Leader of the Council Phil North said BFF had been chosen "for the quality of their work and extensive expertise in the cultural sector". 

BFF director Helen Grassly said that "whilst representative of the area and its history", the company would "provide a contemporary building for The Lights to expand their cultural and community offer”.

A planning application is expected later this year.

The arts patron Sir Leonard Blavatnik, who donated a record £50m to Tate Modern for its 2016 extension, is facing criticism for his investment in the Israeli broadcaster Channel 13.

On Sunday, the British-Israeli group WeDemocracy protested outside Tate Modern's Blavatnik Building, calling on the Ukraine-born UK billionaire to "stop the attack on the free press".

The group believes that Blavatnik, who has a majority stake in the broadcaster through his company Access Industries, is complicit in the recent appointment of former politician Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich as its Chief Executive.

Soon after Shamalov-Berkovich’s appointment, an investigative news programme known for its criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration was cancelled.

The liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz said in an editorial that taking the show off air was “purely a political decision, contravening all financial and journalistic logic”.

Speaking to The Guardian, WeDemocracy member, Aviel Lewis, said Blavatnik was involved in “something that is clearly taking Israeli media years back and corrupting it”.

A spokesperson for Access Industries said: “Sir Leonard Blavatnik believes in the importance of press freedom in Israel and across the world.

"He has invested a significant amount of money in Israel’s Channel 13 to safeguard its existence and secure the future of free, impartial journalism. The channel has never had a political agenda – as is the law in Israel – and he has never had editorial input.

“It is categorically not the case that Sir Leonard appointed the CEO of News. The decision as to who runs Channel 13 News is a matter for its independent board on which Sir Leonard has no role.”

An arts charity that helps people with mental health support needs has received a financial boost from London's biggest independent charity funder.

Lewisham-based Arts Network has been awarded a £91,266 grant from City Bridge Foundation. The money will help it deliver more arts workshops covering areas such as painting, crafts and photography.

The charity also provides studio space for those who wish to develop their creative skills.

City Bridge Foundation chairman, Giles Shilson, said he was “really pleased to be able to help Arts Network to build on the great work they’ve been delivering since the 1990s to support people to boost their mental health, confidence and self-esteem through art”.

He added: “Getting creative and producing art can have a profound effect in helping people recover from even quite severe mental health conditions."

Arts Network CEO, Kate Price, explained: “When people first come to us it can be a big change for them, particularly if they’re coming from a clinical setting, so we work really hard to make it a safe and welcoming space.

“Doing something creative – especially using your hands and doing something tactile – is great for taking you out of the space you’re in and transporting your mind somewhere else."

People are usually referred to Arts Network via a mental health practitioner, but they can also self refer to take part in more informal sessions.

The Box museum and art gallery in Plymouth is celebrating a "highly impressive" rise in visitor numbers.

The Plymouth City Council venue, which opened in 2020, welcomed 272,000 people for the 12 months from April 2023 to April 2024, an increase of 10% on the previous year. 

Since opening, 817,000 people have visited the venue. Of these, more than a third were first-time visitors and a quarter had never visited a similar attraction before. 

Deputy Leader of the Council, Jemima Laing, said: "These latest figures from The Box are highly impressive and give us so much to celebrate."

She added: "Every time I visit, it seems to get better and better, with everything from free creative activities for families and young children to world-class art exhibitions that are touring the globe." 

The Box was voted Devon’s Best Family Attraction in the 2024 Muddy Stilettos Awards in May. It has also just received a Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice award.

The Chief Executive of the Scottish Book Trust has been called on to apologise after describing two gender-critical authors as “vile and jeering trolls”.

Marc Lambert made the comments about the poet Magi Gibson and her husband Ian Macpherson, a comic novelist, on X (formerly Twitter).

The pair have said the trust's revised code of conduct, which urges authors to guarantee they will not tolerate bigotry or transphobia, would be “weaponised” against women with gender-critical views.

Gibson wrote on X that the code "creates a chilling effect on free speech, esp for GC [gender critical] authors".

In an exchange on the social media site, Lambert said Gibson and Macpherson had targeted him, made false claims and been abusive. 

He wrote: “You and your husband trolled me and my chair for many months. Your husband in particular was jeering and vile.

“That is: making false claims; claiming we won’t engage when you’ve gone straight to the press; jeering, provocative emails and relentlessly pushing to learn the identities of those at the Scottish Book Trust responsible for making policy (for reasons I cannot fathom).”

Gibson, who is a former reader-in-residence at Glasgow Women’s Library, disputed Lambert's claims and challenged him to provide evidence.

She wrote: “I would also very much like him to apologise to me for making such a sustained, unevidenced, and yes, ‘vile’ attack on me on Twitter/X and impugning my good character with downright lies and accusations like ‘incivility’."

Macpherson denied he had been “jeering and vile”.