Article: David Styles | Image: © Mark Sepple
Arts Council England has unveiled plans to invest almost £17.5 million of National Lottery funding over the next four years in experiences across twelve areas of England where people “tend to engage less with arts and culture”.
The original figure set aside for the initiative had to be upped by £5 million in order to meet the demand from a plethora of applications deemed too good to turn away. This money was allotted from Arts Council England’s National Lottery contingency and took the total funding amount to £17,472,604.
The twelve selected projects, which form part of the Creative People and Places programme, will take place between 2019-2023 and will created and operated in conjunction with local communities.

Laura Dyer, Deputy CEO of Places & Engagement, labelled Creative People and Places “a hugely important part of how we help create opportunities for communities right across the country to meaningfully engage with arts and culture”.
There have been three million engagements with Creative People and Places across 21 different locations since its launch in 2012. This has been facilitated by the support of more than 800 local partner organisations.
The 12 successful projects
Bexley: Peabody Trust – £1,000,000
Havering: Havering Theatre Trust – £1,000,000
Wellingborough: Groundwork Northamptonshire – £873,383
Newcastle Under Lyme: Stoke on Trent & North Staffordshire Theatre Trust – £1,750,000
Dudley: Black Country Together – £1,403,154
Bradford: Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – £2,000,000
Rotherham: Voluntary Action Rotherham – £2,000,000
Barrow: Women’s Community Matters – £1,930,691
Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland: Teesside University – £2,000,000
Basildon: Things Made Public CIC – £1,289,002
Great Yarmouth: Voluntary Norfolk – £1,125,000
Sedgemoor: Homes in Sedgemoor Limited – £1,101,374
* A separate grant of £286,979 was also awarded to Northumberland Museums bait to deliver the CPP Peer Learning Programme from 1 November 2019 to 31 March 2022
“I know first-hand the long-lasting impact that Creative People and Places has had on the lives of people living in the 21 locations currently receiving funding, and I’m delighted that we are able to add twelve more places to that network – ensuring even more people will get the chance to create and experience arts and cultural activity relevant to them,” Dyer continued.
Conforming to the previous model, the newly announced projects will all be developed and delivered by a consortium of local community partners, including the likes of Middlesbrough Football Club, Basildon’s Eastgate Shopping Centre and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.