Placemaking

The London Borough of Culture programme is set to return in 2025 and 2027.

Applications will open in May, with all boroughs that have not previously held the title eligible to apply.

Selected boroughs will receive £1.35m from Greater London Authority (GLA) to help deliver their cultural calendar.

Launched in 2017, the initiative was designed to platform grassroots creativity by developing creative opportunities and legacies in the chosen borough.

GLA estimates more than 3,000 young people, 2,200 artists and partners, 3,370 volunteers and 315 schools have taken part in creative programmes delivered by previous winners Waltham Forest, Brent and Lewisham.

Current hosts Croydon began its calendar of events earlier this month.

The hosts for the next two editions will be announced in early 2024.

“I look forward to seeing the creativity of our boroughs shine through in their bids as we work to build a better and fairer London for everyone,” Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said.

The charity that runs the Exchange Theatre in North Shields has announced that it will close the venue after failing to reach an agreement with the local council over the use of the site.

The theatre, café and bar is housed in the Grade II-listed Saville Exchange building, owned by North Tyneside Council.

It will close for up to four weeks from 17 April, while it undergoes a refit, before reopening with a new operator as part of the council’s plans to develop the town.

For the past seven years, the theatre has been operated by the Exchange Theatre charity. Tony Bridges, Chair of the charity’s board, said it had created a space to inspire future generations through the arts, ensuring the arts were accessible to all, not just to “one section of society”.

“It is with sadness that we are preparing to leave the building”, a spokesperson for the charity said.

John Sparkes, Director of Regeneration and Economic Development at North Tyneside Council, said that the building is key to plans for creating a vibrant “Cultural Quarter” in the town.

He added that the new operators, selected through an open tender process, were prepared to invest significantly in the building. 

“We'll be working closely with the new operator on the transfer of the building and look forward to seeing this cultural landmark flourish in the future”, he said.
 

Croydon has shared its programme of arts and cultural events for its stint as London Borough of Culture.

The timetable will run from April through to March next year, featuring street festivals, dance, music and theatre productions.

It commences on 1 April with Oratorio of Hope at Fairfield Halls, an orchestral commission led by London Mozart Players involving more than 250 of the borough’s young singers and instrumentalists.

The programme has been arranged by This is Croydon, a partnership between residents, cultural groups and the council.

The group says events will focus on grassroots talent, unsung cultural heroes, young people and disability-led productions.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan commented: “Croydon has a rich history of creativity, diversity and talent, and I’m delighted that this will be reflected through a huge range of inspiring art and performances in their year-long programme.” 

“It will be a fantastic example of how culture can inspire and unleash the potential of the next generation as we build a better London for everyone.” 

Croydon’s year of events marks the fourth iteration of the Borough of Culture project. Croydon is taking the torch from Lewisham, which hosted the 2022 edition, following on from Waltham Forest in 2019 and Brent in 2020.

A large chunk of official audience figures for UNBOXED festival came from viewers watching Countryfile on the BBC, it has emerged.

Organisers of the £120m project said a total of 18.1m people had “engaged” with the project, consisting of 2.8m people attendeding events last year and a further 13.6m engaging with broadcast and digital content.

The Times reports that the 13.6m figure included five million Countryfile viewers watching an episode in October when the programme reported on one of the projects, Green Space Dark Skies.

Speaking in parliament, Labour MP Nick Smith raised the Countryfile figures with civil servants and ministers and questioned whether the festival had "made the impact it intended".

"The department [DCMS] reported in November that the figure for audience engagement was just over 18m," he said. 

"That sounds a reasonable reach, but it turns out that a one-hour “Countryfile” TV special was doing the heavy lifting with five million viewers — nearly a third of the total."

Smith has asked for the matter to be considered as part of a wider evaluation currently taking place.

A former library building in Berkshire is to be converted into a studio theatre and community engagement space by the arts venue Corn Exchange Newbury. 

Originally built in 1906, the building has stood empty in recent years, having ceased being the borough library in 2000.

Plans to create a 100-seat theatre and public engagement spaces have been approved by the council's planning department.

Corn Exchange Newbury will work with local community development charity Greenham Trust to restore and convert the building.

Katy Griffiths, Director of Corn Exchange Newbury, said: "We are really excited to have the opportunity to make a permanent home for all our community engagement work, as well as a new performance space for smaller-scale touring work in a much-loved Newbury heritage building.

"Working with Greenham Trust we will be restoring this beautiful, historical building and bringing it back into public use for the benefit of our local community."