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National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has updated its grant funding conditions to require all the projects it funds to share the digital resources they create under an open licence. This includes images, research, educational materials, project reports, software, web and app content, databases, 3D models, and sound and video recordings. Creators of this type of digital content will have to share it under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).

NLHF says this will ensure that due credit is given to the organisations and individuals responsible for creating the works, whilst providing more opportunity for communities to "get hands on with heritage". They believe it will open the door to using and reusing the wealth of resources funded by National Lottery players for a wide range of purposes, including education, and will ensure digital resources funded by the public remain freely and openly accessible to the public. The new licence also removes the barrier to commercial use. Josie Fraser, Head of Digital Policy, said:“Our new licencing requirement helps us to increase access to the UK’s rich heritage and promote the innovative use of digital across the sector.”

A £3.3m grant from the European Regional Development Funding in collaboration with Salford City Council has clinched plans for the development of Islington Mill in Salford. The Mill supports established artists and provides training, education and early career opportunities for new artists, and the funding - the final part of European funding support to Britain from the EU - will be used to build 25,000 sq ft of new workspace and create new products and services. 'Cooperative governance', where tenants manage their own spaces and provide a support programme for other artists and small creative businesses, will be at the heart of the project, which is named 'The Other City'.

The Welsh Government is developing a Freelancer Pledge that will encourage freelance workers in the cultural and creative sectors to use their skills to partner with public services "to bring creativity and imagination to more areas of public life". The partnership work could include co-creating solutions with the community, contributing to local development plans, re-designing town and city centres or bringing new approaches to capital projects.

The Pledge will be linked to the new Covid-19 funding programme for freelance workers in Wales, and Future Generations Commissioner for Wales Sophie Howe sees it as "a big opportunity for culture to play a large role in Wales’ Covid recovery". She said the pledge to work with public services - which will be optional and not a condition of a grant - will allow creatives to "help build art and culture into everything from hospitals to town centres, improving the way we all live". The detail of the Freelancer Pledge will be designed over coming months in partnership with the freelancer community and unions, and support and training will be available to freelancers wanting to participate. Any work conducted as part of the Pledge would be paid.  

Howe said this approach could form the basis of future schemes where the government provides a safety net on incomes with an option for individuals to participate in work within the community.

Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is set to unveil the refurbished north-east England venue the Stockton Globe, whose £28m restoration was funded by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. A digital industry launch for the venue will include a virtual tour of the 3,000-capacity auditorium, which will accommodate standing and seated events. ATG will also be running a smaller 250-capacity venue in an adjoining building.

Dignity issues around hair and makeup, racist language in the casting processes and casual racism in dressing rooms have been among the growing number of complaints raised by Equity members in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests. The Union tells of a huge rise in cases of racism reported across the performing and recorded arts, similar to the spike of reports of sexual harassment that flooded in at the height of the #MeToo movement.

A new museum, gallery and archive centre on the site of Plymouth's former City Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library and St Luke's Church will be opening to the public next week. Due to open in May but delayed because of the pandemic, The Box cost £47m, with problems attributed to knotweed and bats resulting in a £13m overspend. The building provides 13 exhibition spaces, and commissioned exhibits include a life-sized woolly mammoth and a replica of the ship Mayflower, celebrating the 400th anniversary of its departure from Plymouth to America,

Long-held plans for Smithsonian Institution and the V&A to jointly curate a gallery in the V&A East museum when it opens in 2023 have been abandoned in favour of a collaboration that will provide paid internships as part of a wider programme to promote diversity. Young people from diverse backgrounds living in East London or Washington DC will be offered work experience placements in the two institutions. Cancelling the joint gallery space is described as a move that reflects “evolving strategic priorities” as well as the public-health context.