Cultural innovations on Tyneside and Wearside win Government funding
Culture Secretary backs growth-driving creative industries at Gateshead summit
The Government has pledged £5m to a new Centre for Writing, to be based in Newcastle, and an identical sum to Glassworks, a planned new world class facility for glass making in Sunderland.
The announcements came as Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy addressed a creative industries growth summit at The Glasshouse in Gateshead (formerly Sage Gateshead).
Establishing a Centre for Writing has been a key aspiration for Newcastle-based New Writing North for several years and the empty Bolbec Hall, on Westgate Road, was revealed last year as the preferred location.
The Glassworks announcement goes a long way to addressing concerns about the future of creative glassmaking in Sunderland following the university’s decision to close the National Glass Centre in 2026, citing the prohibitive cost of repairs.
The Culture Secretary – Manchester-born but a 2001 graduate of Newcastle University where she studied politics - chose the North East for a summit described as the first step towards delivering the Government’s creative industry sector plan, a key element of its industrial strategy.
She told cultural and business leaders of the intention to “take the brakes off” Britain’s fastest growing industries – including design, TV, music, video games and fashion - and that “unleashing their power” would grow the economy.
“It will create good jobs and it will create choices and chances for all of our young people,” she said.
Alluding to its proud industrial past, she said the region was now at the forefront of Britain’s “cultural renaissance” with its “great institutions” such as Baltic and The Glasshouse along with The Angel of the North and the growing film and video game industries.
That phrase ‘cultural renaissance’ was making a notable return here. Regularly bandied about 20 years ago, it has seldom been heard during recent times of financial restraint.
“While governments of every stripe have appreciated the social value of our creative industries,” Ms Nandy went on, “we believe they have consistently under-priced the huge economic potential of industries that are already among the most powerful engines of growth.
“And the under-pricing ends with us. From theatre to fashion, from advertising to publishing, the creative industries have grown 50% faster than the rest of the economy.”
She said they accounted for one in seven UK jobs, contributing £124bn annually and out-performing aerospace, life sciences and the automotive industry.
“Too often,” she told those gathered at The Glasshouse, “you've done extraordinary things not in partnership with your government but despite it. You've been knocking on doors in Whitehall for far too long with a clear message.
“You want stability to give investors the confidence to back you, you want a government that is prepared to take a bulldozer to every barrier to growth. Well, today you bang on those doors no longer. We are throwing those doors wide open.
“We share your passion, we'll match your ambition and we are going to back you to the hilt.”
The Culture Secretary said she had spent three of the happiest years of her life at Newcastle University during which she had been introduced to “the very rich culture and heritage here in the North East”.
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“When I look around this region,” she said, “it is obvious to me, as it is to so many of you, that it should be the Hollywood of the UK with its innovation, its work ethic, its ability to reinvent and reimagine itself.
“There is a reason why investors are clamouring to invest here - not just the creativity of the people and the strong regional leadership, but the beauty of the backdrops and the space to build incredible studios like Crown Works in Sunderland.
“So it is extraordinary that for 19 of the last 20 years, only two regions, London and the South East, have had the backing and investment to make a net contribution to the public purse.
“Trying to grow the economy while ignoring the potential in most parts of Britain is like trying to fly a jet on only one engine.”
Learning from the success of London as a global hub, the plan now was to “turbocharge” the growth of the creative industries across the UK, thereby tapping into huge unrealised potential.
There was, she said, “no limit to what we can do together”.
In material terms, the Government has earmarked £60m for investing in the likes of video game studios, grassroots music venues and creative businesses.
Accounting for part of that money is the £16.2m Cultural Growth Fund to which bids were invited by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
There were four successful bids with the two major North East projects benefiting to the tune of £10m and with smaller sums going to Harmony Works, a music education centre in Sheffield (£3.5m), and The Tropicana, a cultural venue in Western-super-Mare (£2.7m).
The North East has been identified as a priority region for creative industries (along with Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Greater London, West of England, South Wales, Glasgow, the Edinburgh-Dundee corridor and Belfast).
Additional funding, to be agreed as part of the spending review, is proposed for six mayoral combined authorities – the North East, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, West Yorkshire, West Midlands and West of England – to enable them to deliver growth through the creative industries.
Meanwhile 127 creative businesses across the country have been awarded a share of £3.6m through the Create Growth programme run by Innovate UK.
The Culture Secretary’s speech was warmly received by cultural leaders in the North East.
Abigail Pogson, chief executive of The Glasshouse, said supporting the creative industries was key to driving long-term growth and creating jobs.
“What’s happened here in Gateshead, transforming a former industrial area into a thriving cultural hub, demonstrates that investment in creativity delivers real economic and social impact,” she said.
“This announcement of support for the creative sector across the UK represents an exciting new era. These are the building blocks of a thriving sector that benefits everyone.”
Claire Malcolm, chief executive of New Writing North, said she and her team were “thrilled and excited” that the Government had chosen to support their vision for a Centre for Writing.
“Creative writing is the backbone of the UK’s world-leading creative industries which employ 2.4 million,” she said.
“It also plays a vital role in wellbeing and public health.
“The Centre for Writing will provide an opportunity to expand our work with communities in the region and to work with even more brilliant northern talent.
“It will also bring writers and readers together in a space which celebrates the power of storytelling.”
The writing centre campaign was backed by Northumbria University, local government and publishers including Hachette UK, Faber & Faber and Simon & Schuster.
It’s envisaged that the centre will host programmes, courses and events for all kinds of writers, helping them to develop the skills and connections needed to break into publishing, TV and film.
If all goes according to plan, it will see the seven-storey Bolbec Hall back in use. The Grade II-listed building was designed in 1907 as additional offices for the adjacent Lit & Phil.
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, another speaker at the summit, called the Government’s backing of the writing centre a big vote of confidence in the North East’s creative potential.
It would “burnish our reputation as a leading region for the creative industries, with new jobs and opportunities coming to the region in writing, TV and film”, she said.
Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour said: “This is the latest in a series of exciting investment announcements about Newcastle’s creative industries and an incredible time for our city.
“We want the new Centre for Writing to have a catalytic impact on our cultural heartbeat, with Bolbec Hall based in our city centre’s conservation area and Newcastle’s culture and creative zone, known as Creative Central NCL.”
Backing for the Wearside development was welcomed by Nick Malyan, chief executive of Sunderland Culture, who said the grant was recognition of the city’s proud 1,350-year heritage of glassmaking and its creative future.
Sunderland Culture is working with partners including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sunderland City Council and the University of Sunderland on developing Glassworks: Sunderland, a £7.5m facility to be located in the Sunniside area.
“This is a significant step in ensuring Sunderland remains one of the few nationally significant centres of excellence in the UK with specialist facilities to create and produce in glass,” Mr Malyan said.