Local authorities

Blackpool will establish a new cultural partnership to help the local arts sector recover from Covid-19.

Initiatives including a town centre creative hub and new live-work studios for artists will be pursued with the support of Blackpool Council.

The council said it hoped the partnership would help with "developing a vision and maximising investment in the sector".

Blackpool was recently named one of Arts Council England's priority places for investment.

Recent surveys have uncovered much creative talent and a full ecology of arts activity in the area, from amateur and community arts to professional creative work, but lower levels of investment than other parts of England.

Belfast has become the third UK city to recieve UNESCO City of Music status.

The accolade, announced on Monday (November 8), recognises the Northern Irish capital's unique musical heritage and local efforts to strengthen engagement with music.

A 2018 survey undertaken during the European Capital of Culture bidding process identified music as the city's strongest cultural output, prompting the bid for UNESCO status.

"Being deisgnated as a UNESCO City of Music honours the gargantuan effort that the entire music scene has made to help raise Belfast up and out of the darkest of times," Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody commmented.

Belfast will join the UN body's Creative Cities Network of 59 places, with Lightbody and Emmy-nominated composer Hannah Peel acting as official Belfast Music patrons.

Belfast City Council will consult residents on a City of Music action plan, having worked with a City of Music steering group on the bid submission.

Glasgow was the first UK city awarded the title in 2008, followed by Liverpool in 2016.

An online petition to secure the future of South London’s Cinema Museum has received over 60,000 signatures.

It was sent to the museum’s landlord, property developers Lifestory, on Friday (November 5) in response to the expiration of its lease.

Lifestory's planning application to build a 29-storey tower on the Dugard Way site was rejected by Lambeth City Council.

The petition calls for Lifestory to be “fair to the museum”.

“2022 will see either the salvation or the destruction of this important piece of UK cinema and film heritage,” Director and Co-Founder Martin Humphries commented.

The museum estimates it had more than 20,000 visitors per year before the pandemic. A 2020 Crowdfunder campaign raised £75,000 to help the museum survive closure during Covid restrictions.

There are ambitions for a new youth theatre in West Yorkshire.

West Yorkshire’s new Culture, Arts and Creative Industries Committee convened for the first time last week (November 4) to discuss the region’s cultural recovery.

Led by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, the cultural board discussed plans for a “theatre without walls” to include a Yorkshire Youth Theatre.

“We might not be able to have a national theatre, but we can have a Yorkshire Theatre that would be made up of Yorkshire voices, Yorkshire stories, Yorkshire writers and Yorkshire talent," Brabin said.

The committee also considered a Town of Culture competition, previously suggested by former Shadow Culture Secretary Brabin.

Its next meeting is scheduled for January.

Derbyshire County Council has set aside £1m to boost the county's culture and creative industries.

The money, which comes from the council’s Covid-19 Recovery Fund, will be put towards a series of initiatives drawn up with the county’s Culture, Heritage and Tourism Board.

Council leader Barry Lewis said the funding will support businesses which contribute to the “vibrancy and vitality” of the county.

“The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating to Derbyshire’s creative and cultural economy, with those businesses that rely on attracting audiences and visitors some of the very last to return to normal operation.”

The announcement follows Derby's place on the longlist for UK City of Culture 2025, revealed last month.

A Medway theatre is one of three local creative sector projects due to share £14.4m in Levelling Up funding.

The first tranche of grants from the Government scheme was released as part of Wednesday's Budget.

Medway Council says The Brook Theatre will be "comprehensively repaired, refurbished and upgraded". More than 400sqm of creative workspace will be added.

Creative workspaces are also a feature of the other two levelling up projects.

The Docking Station, a former police section house, will be redeveloped to house the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries. Artists, graduates and staff at the University of Kent will have access to studios, performance spaces and an interactive digital gallery.

The Fitted Rigging House will be brought "back into effective use" with 1,939sqm of creative-focussed commercial floorspace.

Essex County Council will launch a local Arts and Cultural Recovery Fund next month.

The fund is geared towards recovery and development post-pandemic, benefitting organisations that support artistic and cultural work.

Graham Butland, the council’s cabinet minister for devolution, the arts, heritage and culture, has not revealed the size of the fund but said it is “significant”.

He confirmed a key focus will be supporting small grassroots organisations.

“The arts is something the county council left the stage a few years ago and we want to back in there.”