Caroline Norbury: Growing Good Growth? How pension consolidation could help the creative economy to thrive.
// Caroline Norbury // creative industries // Fiscal Event
A range of grant options are available via Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme. These grants enable enterprises to build upon their creative and commercial ideas, creating opportunity for them to become more sustainable or grow their business.
Round 3 is currently open. Read the guidelines to find out more about our grants of up to £5000 and strategic grants of up to £25,000, and how to apply. Applicants will be notified in November and should plan for activity beginning from December onwards. Activity should be completed by the end of April 2023.
Grants of up to £5,000 are available to fund targeted activity addressing resilience and/or growth. Round 2 recipients include:
Kielder Observatory
“This grant will help us launch a brand new digital learning platform, which is an essential part of our journey to develop a range of digital experiences for Kielder Observatory. The process was very smooth, the grant application process was easy to follow and helped us to capture the growth journey we wanted to explore. The North of Tyne region has a wealth of assets and immensely creative people: this kind of investment provides both a focus on the value of the creative industries, and a tailored support to help the sector grow.”
Inhouse Type
“We are thrilled to be a recipient of the Creative UK grant. As a woman-owned startup business, Inhouse Type Foundry is in the business of creating unique fonts for people who want to communicate their authentic vision to the world. We create bespoke typefaces to give your words, your brand and your product a one-of-a-kind voice. Our motto is to inspire and empower the world to design with type. Inhouse Type is committed to promoting positivity, diversity and environmentally friendly solutions. With the help of Creative UK funding Inhouse Type will be able to host an exhibition dedicated to type design in use. It’s a great opportunity to share what Inhouse Type foundry does and to inspire others to be creative.”
ACT 2 Cam
“New to Creative UK, we are looking forward to using their investment/funding to train young people behind-the-camera, with the launch of our new filmmaking classes. Creative UK have been incredibly helpful in advising and guiding us to enable us to effectively convey our vision in our application. Our grant is helping us to train the next generation of cinematographers, and to boost the industry skills of the region.”
Larger grants of up to £25,000 are available to support enterprises at a more strategic level. Round 2 recipients include:
Moving Parts Arts
“We are thrilled and very grateful to have received this grant from Creative UK and North of Tyne Combined Authority. Moving Parts Arts CIO will now be able to begin focussing on building and strengthening our team and resources, which in time will allow us to engage more people and produce more ambitious work. Up until this point all of our festivals, events and community projects have been run on a shoestring and have relied on many hours of voluntary service from the core team and our supporters who believe in the project. This grant marks a turning point where we can start to build strong foundations for the future.”
Kirlian
“The team at Creative UK have and continue to be incredibly supportive to us throughout the process. We are grateful to the Strategic Engagement Lead for their time and patience as we presented our value proposition and in answering all our finickity questions. The assistance we have received helped shape our thinking as well as our articulation and our success is testament to the support and encouragement we received throughout the application process.”
North East Cultural Freelancers
“This grant is all about supporting the creative freelance sector to be stronger and more sustainable – working with each other and partners to anchor themselves and our freelance community into the creative ecology. It is about being visible and present, it is about creating opportunities and access for creative freelancers to access support they so desperately need. Each individual connecting to this programme will be able to grow their knowledge and/or networks without negatively affecting their earning potential.”
BANK Artists
“Creative UK have been responsive and supportive in the process of application. We are a relatively newly formed group of artists living and working in North Tyneside. Key to our growth is affordable studio space, a supportive network and the time to develop as a group. The grant will allow BANK Artists to progress our activity, create valuable opportunities to build support and raise the group’s visibility in the region and beyond.”
Day for Night
“As an organisation that has recently relocated to the North East and whose founder is herself from the region, Day for Night is thrilled to be a recipient of this Creative UK grant. This grant will help boost our presence locally and further afield and cement our position as a distinctive access services provider to the arts in parallel with our work as a strong advocate for greater diversity within moving image culture. Ultimately, this support from Creative UK will enable us to further our goal of bringing arts and culture to wider audiences across demographics and localities, while building on established connections and partnerships as well as fostering new collaborations, contributing to the continued growth of the creative landscape of the region.”
Your Tribe
“I am super excited to be receiving support from Creative UK. The money I received from Creative UK is going to allow us to expand our offer so that more festivals can get involved in the fun we bring, getting people colourful, messy and creative with paint. To be based in the North-East and be bringing exciting creative experiences for people to get involved with is so exciting for us. This investment is going to allow us to shout more about what we do and ultimately raise our profile. Let’s get messy, let’s be the art!”
Brick This
“This grant is really exciting for Brick This! It will allow me to develop my new studio into a more public-facing space where I can hold regular LEGO events and workshops for a diverse range of people, whilst also providing more space for my commissioned projects. The grant will allow me to work with another local creative company to fit it out to high standard and make it a space that I will be proud to welcome visitors to, as well as helping to promote my business and new directions that I hope to explore.Working with Creative UK has been a very easy process. The conversations I had prior to applying were relaxed and very helpful and clearly gave the impression that the fund is there to support creatives in the way most fitting for them.”
Read more about Round 1 recipients here