News – Urban culture winners

£19.5m of Lottery money ? £4.5m more than originally planned ? has been awarded to support cultural programmes across 19 areas of the UK though the Urban Cultural Programme, a partnership between the Millennium Commission and Arts Council England.
34 cities applied for funding from the scheme, and 11 of the 19 successful bids were from the 11 unsuccessful bidders for the title of European Capital of Culture 2008. Other successful bidders were Blackburn, London ? Leaside, London ? Lewisham/Greenwich, Manchester, South Lanarkshire, Swansea and Three Cities (Derby, Leicester, Nottingham). The successful bids were for a wide range of cultural activities and events, but not for capital projects.