Art of the region gets pounds 3m windfall.

Byline: By Rebekah Ashby

The North-East's cultural sector was awarded more than pounds 3m last week. Rebekah Ashby looks at where the European cash is headed.

The cultural sector greeted with delight the news that more than 200 jobs are to be created over the next 18 months, thanks to a new pot of European money.

Arts Council England North-East, the development agency for the arts, estimates that some 227 jobs, 1,782 businesses, 1,621 individuals and 34 different projects will benefit from the pounds 3.1m windfall.

It said the money was a "vote of confidence in culture" which would help everything from theatre and music to dry stone walling and traditional crafts.

Andrew Dixon, executive director at Arts Council England North-East, said: "It's great that we have got this vote of confidence in culture because it has become a very big growth sector in the region and we have had a significant number of new business start-ups in the creative industries as a result of this type of funding.

"The North-East is being transformed by culture-led regeneration. Baltic, The Sage Gateshead, Seven Stories ( the Centre for Children's Books, DanceCity and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art are making a real difference to the aspiration and economic prosperity of the North-East.

"Continued funding for Cultural Sector Development Initiative (CSDI) will enable the cultural sector to access high quality business and professional support and so create the foundations for successful and sustainable culture-led regeneration."

This latest round of funding, from the Objective 2 programme through its CSDI, will run until September 2006.

Who will benefit?

The writers

NEWCASTLE'S Live Theatre says European funding is vital if it is to nurture North-East writing talent such as Billy Elliot playwright Lee Hall.

Live, which describes itself as an `ideas incubator', uses the cash to support and develop writers from all over the North-East to reach stage, screen and television.

Live Theatre's executive director Jim Beirne said: "Lee Hall started off as writer-in-residence and wrote The Dancer, which later became Billy Elliot, so we have a long tradition and association with writers. And Peter Flannery has written the new play The Bodies starring Jill Halfpenny.

"The funding helps us support and develop younger writers and we are able to do that because we have a group of directors, writers and actors who work in collaboration a lot.

"This gives us the opportunity to train actors, do courses for people that would like to become a writer for stage, screen or television.

"Live Theatre provides a whole service so we may start with a writing course, a short commission for a radio play, a small piece for the youth theatre, a monologue, readings in front of the public before they might go on to become a major production.

"And for Live Theatre it doesn't stop there ( it sometimes goes on to other theatres, film or TV and it's not just Billy Elliot that has followed that route.

"We have enabled a lot more of that to happen systematically over the last two or three years.

"This source of funding supports the company's new writing programme as well as the Northumbria Live Academy, creating and supporting new talent and creative industries in the region."

The Arts and Craftspeople 

CREATIVE entrepreneur Sam Burnish is a member of Northumberland's Aurora project and says the European funding enables her to meet like-minded artists.

The former civil engineer, who now uses breathtaking views of the Tyne Valley to inspire her soft furnishings business, says she is also gearing up to attend subsidised craft fairs this year.

The 30-year-old, who lives in Bardon Mill, near Hexham, runs Lynnwood Interiors.

She said: "I attend Aurora meetings for members which give me an overview of the kind of activities that Aurora are going to be involved in for the next six months including craft fairs, training sessions and what subsidies are going to be available.

"Aurora went to a trade fair in Harrogate in May, they took a stand and the people that went did very well.

"There's no way I, and other small artists, could do it without funding from Aurora because it is just too expensive.

"The project is also a good networking opportunity. You get to meet lots of other artists form the North-East which you wouldn't meet otherwise."

The Aurora Project will benefit to the tune of pounds 35,000 from the latest round of EU Objective 2 funding.

Project manager Brian Reid said: "This money will enable me to do marketing and publicity for the members of the project and training programmes.

"The funding is vital. Aurora is a tremendous support network because most of these artists are working alone and living in isolation.

"They need to network and this provides them with business and personal opportunities."

The Film Makers

POPULAR police drama 55 Degrees North and feature film Goal!, which focuses on Newcastle United and is set for release later this year, have been shot in the region, thanks in part to CSDI funding.

The Cultural Sector Development Initiative, which also helped BBC drama Distant Shores shoot in the Northumberland, has brought almost pounds 8.5m into the regional economy through film and television productions.

CDSI also pays for Northern Film & Media (NFM) ( the body responsible for building a sustainable screen industry in the region ( to run its location service department, which is responsible for attracting television and film productions to the North-East.

As well as prime-time dramas like 55 Degrees North, television programmes including Jamie's Dinners and a pounds 1m advert for Carling lager were shot in the region last year.

NFM estimates a total of pounds 8.47m was spent by film and television companies and some 86 productions shot here during 2004, compared to 71 in 2003.

NFM chief executive Tom Harvey said: "The pounds 8.5m figure demonstrates the economic value of moving image and is the pay off for the hard work we put in to bring productions here.

"We strongly believe that location filming has other spin offs, not just the money spent on hotel rooms and catering trucks.

"For example, the new series of 55 Degrees North is showcasing the region to millions of viewers."

NFM's team helps production companies find locations to shoot in via its location database which contains beaches, castles, churches and private houses. And it also runs a crew and facilities database, helping local film professionals get work.

The cash also assists NFM run familiarisation trips for London-based production managers who are considering coming up here to shoot film and television.

The location service department is currently working on a Film Friendly Strategy to make it even easier for companies to film in the region.

NFM location service manager Gayle Mason adds: "The strategy will raise the profile of the region amongst the production sector and ensure the region benefits further from filming."

The Dancers

DANCECITY, the National Dance Agency for the North, is jigging very nicely along thanks to European cash for the arts.

The new DanceCity building has taken half a million bricks and 200 tonnes of steel framing to construct since work started last July.

The centre, which has one main performance hall and four smaller studios, is the brainchild of Dance City boss Janet Archer.

She set the wheels in motion in the hope that the Billy Elliots of the future would not have to up sticks and move to London to train.

The centre will support around 65 artists on DanceCity's graduate scheme. It will also work alongside Newcastle College and Northumbria University and is devising an MA course to start in the autumn.

Director of the agency Janet Archer said: "Dance City's new building on St James' Boulevard will be able to offer future students studying on the BA Hons Dance: Choreography course purpose-built facilities to rival those throughout this country and in Europe.

"This course is unique in that it is designed to concentrate on approaches to choreography rather than purely dance technique.

"It allows the students to truly express themselves in a way that many other courses do not."