North East Case Studies

Grid Finder

Creative UK was delighted to announce the first equity investment from the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme in the form of a £100,000 investment in Grid Finder – an early-stage, high-potential, esports start-up based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The investment was part of a wider equity funding round, and catalysed additional private match investment of £325,000 for the company plus another £200k-£300k in soft commits towards their £1M+ Seed investment round.

Tom Bunten, Founder of Grid Finder said:

We are thrilled to have received this investment from The North of Tyne Culture & Creative Investment Programme.  The award will enable us to employ two more incredibly talented developers, Chris Honniball (CIO & co-founder) and Kamil Zurek – as well as giving us the funds to bolster our marketing team and strategy.

This is our second investment round but significantly larger than the first, with more complex mechanisms involved. Creative UK were patient, transparent and incredibly helpful throughout the whole process and it’s a huge boost to know that they have our best interests at heart and are just as motivated to see the business succeed as we are.

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Tull Stories

Tull Stories, a cinema exhibition and film distribution agency led by Jonny Tull, received a grant from Creative UK’s Culture and Creative Investment Programme. This financial support played a role in fueling the organisation’s growth.

I’m delighted to have been offered this support from the North Of Tyne Culture & Creative investment Programme. It will prove invaluable in helping me develop my film support agency Tull Stories. Tull Stories is a business from the North East, and one firmly cemented in the fabric of the region. With this support we’ll employ North East talent to help deliver its aims and help develop the region’s film and cinema ecology even further.

Utilising the grant, Tull Stories expanded its team by bringing onboard freelance practitioners with specialised skills.

In a move towards sustained development, Tull Stories also joined the North East Create Growth Programme. This programme helps businesses develop skills to secure investment and grow. This initiative reflects Tull Stories’ commitment to innovation, financial backing, and solidifying its position as a prominent player in the evolving landscape of cinema exhibition and film distribution.

Bamboo Media Productions

Bamboo Media Productions attended Creative Minds: How to use your IP as a Growth Enabler and has since been mentored by Erica Wolfe-Murray.

Sarah Preston, Founder, said of the mentoring:

It’s been wonderful having her [Erica Wolfe-Murray] to talk to and guide me not just with IP but also with integrating the personal to form a holistic approach to the business/me which is so important. It’s been invaluable.

Bamboo Media Productions has since gone on to join the North East Create Growth Programme.

I can’t tell you what a difference being part of this organisation is making to the journey of developing Bamboo Media Productions Ltd.

Bit-by-bit, with every talk, zoom, programme, workshop, and mentor session we’re getting fitter and fitter as a business. I’m so excited for this year.

Sugarcoat Technologies

Sugarcoat provides an eCommerce platform that allows businesses to create bespoke, high performance selling experiences through API driven technology. The initial concept of Sugarcoat was developed in 2015, since then the product has evolved from a prototype to a commercial MVP. It is in a mature state having been validated for over three years with a number of businesses relying on its capabilities, as well as providing regular product feedback and generating recurring revenue.

Sugarcoat was awarded a loan of £25,000 via the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme to expand their leadership team and continue evolving their product.

We spoke to Sugarcoat founder Rob Mitchell to find out more about his journey.

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Rezon

North East based Rezon is revolutionising performance in sport through brain protection. Backed by world-leading expertise and technology, Rezon has created Halos®, a ground-breaking headband offering athletes unparalleled brain protection.  It’s the only CE-marked brain protection headwear in sport, minimising the risk of concussion and early-onset dementia and being sold globally.

CEO Judith McMinn credits the North East Create Growth Programme for opening doors to a vibrant community of fellow entrepreneurs in the North East.

Being part of the Creative UK Create Growth Programme has opened us to a new community of creative entrepreneurs in the North East, each embarking on an exciting development and fundraising journey.

The 1-2-1 mentoring has been excellent and contributed to Rezon’s further development and investment strategy over the last six months. The suite of workshops have helped Rezon to further understand the current investment landscape and provided actionable learnings and insights.

Arcus Studios

The North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme delivered a £150,000 investment into Arcus Studios, a multi-award-winning animation and multimedia company based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Since forming in 2010 Arcus Studios have built a great track record having worked with clients such as BBC, E4 and the McMillan Trust. The capital injection will aid cashflow stability, capacity building through staff team expansion, and value addition through enhanced financial governance.

Having been part of the Evolve Scheme in 2019/2020 we have trusted CE (now Creative UK) to be a guiding light for our company expansion and this small grant will be a great help towards enabling one of our Children’s Animation series on our slate being considered by major UK Broadcasters, who need to also see that willing investment from ourselves and others in that IP and our regional talent!  A rising tide lifts all ships and these grants will hopefully start to make a real difference in our creative industries sector in the North East that we are all striving to build as a sustainable and scalable resource.

This marks another investment by the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme, a partnership between Creative UK and the North of Tyne Combined Authority which offers first of its kind financial and business support to those working in the cultural and creative industries in North Tyneside, Northumberland and Newcastle.

Rahul Misra, Investment Manager, North of Tyne, Creative UK, said:

We are delighted to invest into Arcus Studios through our North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme. Arcus have shown the tenacity and perseverance that it takes to run a truly creative business. They have been on an upward trajectory since navigating the challenges of the pandemic, and through our investment, we look forward to supporting the next phase of their business journey.

Michael Gandham – Co-Director and Creative Producer of Arcus Studios Ltd says:

We’re really excited about the opportunity that this loan offers for Arcus Studios to reach its potential.  It will enable us to hone our sales and marketing skills and employ the right talent to allow us to expand and diversify our offer and well as ease capacity issues within the core team.

Creative UK have been a joy to work with and they relayed the procedures and applications in a non-daunting way that made the whole process so much easier!

I would encourage any creative businesses in the region looking to address capacity issues or skills gaps, who just wish to expand their offer, to apply.

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tiny dragon Productions

Creative UK has awarded a loan investment from the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme in tiny dragon Productions: an early-stage creative SME based in Newcastle.

tiny dragon Productions (tdP) produces location-based immersive experiences using mixed-reality and multi-sensory storytelling, that moves cultural events out of theatres and venues and into local communities and economies.

“For us, this was a process of moving away from grant funding towards a revenue-generating business and it meant we had to develop our understanding, methodology and approach and Creative UK helped us every step of the way.” 

Their first immersive offering was a show titled ‘Space Camp’, geared towards family and young audiences. The experience combines immersive audio and visuals and is built into a bespoke shipping container, that can be dropped into locations such as town centres, festivals, and museums.

tiny dragon Productions (tdP) were awarded a loan of £25,000 via the Creative Boost strand of the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme to finance the purchase of key equipment that will build their capacity and catalyse their first full trading year. 

“Creative UK have been fantastic from the beginning – they’ve met us with an open mind and a genuine interest in our plans and ambitions.

With the help and care of the Creative UK team, tiny dragon Productions has been able to triple it’s turnover year on year and to achieve our biggest ideas on a much shorter timescale.  Their expertise, guidance and incredible network has turbo charged our fledgling business – giving us skills and advice as well as support to successfully access vital funding.

This has opened up a wealth of fresh opportunities for us to learn and grow. The funding has catalysed the creation of an exciting new product for tiny dragon and allowed us to develop strong business relationships with new partners, enter a new marketplace and build a scaleable business.” 

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Venture Stream

Venture Stream was founded in 2014 by Vic Morgan, and has since recorded uninterrupted growth across its turnover, client base and workforce, today managing over 60 accounts from a wide range of sectors.

The company nurtures its current talent pool of 27 employees through a top-rated “people-first” culture, and has recently been recognised as a Great Place to WorkTM. Creative UK’s investment enables Venture Stream to accelerate the growth of its consulting business and launch an online marketplace to help top freelancers find work (“Flow Marketplace” or “Flow”). 

Caroline Norbury, Chief Executive, Creative UK, said: 

Venture Stream is a fantastic example of the type of creative business we want to invest in – one with not only a strong growth story and market performance, but also a clear commitment to their Environmental, Social and Governance responsibilities. We are particularly delighted that part of Creative UK’s investment is drawn from the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme, with the growth and success of Venture Stream primed to generate high-quality employment opportunities within the North of Tyne region’s creative economy.

Vic Morgan, Founder and CEO, Venture Stream, said:  

It’s great to have Creative UK on board as a strategic investor, supporting Venture Stream’s award-winning e-commerce and digital marketing business.

With their support, we’re now able to expand our commitment to people-first strategies, including our 4-day work week initiative and creating work for e-commerce and digital marketing freelancers globally through our new Flow marketplace platform.

Our team has always been at the heart of our business, and we look forward to continuing our journey with the financial support of Creative UK, one of the leading backers of talent and innovation in the creative and digital economy.

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Moving Arts Management

Moving Arts Management have received business planning support and a challenge grant through the Culture and Creative Investment Programme. They have since joined the North East Create Growth Programme where they will continue to grow as they learn about investment.

We are delighted to be able to expand the capacity of our producer team to be able to deliver more arts and cultural projects across the North East and beyond. This investment allows us to unlock potential in our business and expand our impact within the dance sector, benefitting other small businesses and independent artists.

This not only strengthens the sector, but also provides employment opportunities, more creative products for local theatres and venues to programme for their audiences, as well as benefiting the local economy. We want to play our part in making this region the go-to place to make new dance work and where careers in the performing arts can flourish.

North East Cultural Freelancers

North East Cultural Freelancers are an network organisation who aim to connect and strengthen the independent creative sector in the region. They do so through networking, lobbying, partnerships, advocacy and mentoring.

They received a match funded grant of £25,000 which has allowed them to build more sustainable partnerships as well as develop revenue generating cultural and creative products and services, to support the long term growth and sustainability of the business.

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.

Leila d’Aronville, founding director, explains why the Culture and Creative Investment Programme is so important to the North East and the creative industries here.

Mona Lisa Arts and Media

Mona Lisa Arts & Media facilitate art workshops, activities and exhibitions in the community, working with schools, businesses, church groups, youth and community groups.

They attended a Write to Win workshop in North Shields where they received advice and dedicated support how to write a winning bid for investment from business advisor, Catherine Johns. They went on to receive 1-2-1 mentoring from Catherine specific to their practice and the funding bodies they apply to.

I came along with an open mind and not knowing what to expect but found it to be a very interesting meeting. I felt encouraged and the content illuminating. It was good to meet you and the other artists.

Living Archive

Living Archive is a collaborative environment to more easily store, manage, exhibit and showcase all of the content a business and its stakeholders create.

Living Archive received £25,000 in match grant funding through the Culture and Creative Investment Programme, with this funding they’ve been able to access a team of web engineers who can test and develop the infrastructure of Living Archive, de-risking the business and allowing for a more robust protocol.

“It has been incredibly useful to be gifted the five figure grant from the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme, which has allowed me to grow the team and strengthen the direction of the company’s future. It is an exciting time and I am glad to have experts working alongside me to ensure more and more organisations can build their own legacy.”

Nick Williams, founder and CEO, explains further:

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ToneAlly

ToneAlly, established by drummer Tony McNally, is a product for perfecting drumming technique. It focuses on hand grip and repetitive motions. ToneAlly are on the Create Growth Programme.

It’s fantastic, it’s given all of us the opportunity to challenge ourselves really and put ourselves in the situation of what it’s actually like to pitch for our businesses right now in front of an audience we haven’t yet met. It puts us on the spot. Things like a one minute pitch, a three minute pitch, these things are really important to have prepared.

It’s really supportive, it’s a great atmosphere, a room of really talented young businesses and people who are really enthusiastic about what it is they’re doing. Creative UK is certainly helping us a great deal.

Southpaw Dance Company

Southpaw Dance Company is a performing arts company, working nationally and internationally from its North East base. In the last six years, Southpaw has created and been involved in 20 different works, from outdoor touring to indoor augmented reality, from small-scale solos to large-scale outdoor community cast spectaculars; from short films to Little Amal at COP26; from gyms to Metro stations to high streets to the National Theatre.

Their work has secured over £1.25M in funding, been seen by over 350,000 people, they have delivered over 1,000 participatory sessions, and trained some of the most successful professional dancers working today.

They received a strategic grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme to scale up “Myriad” from prototype to minimum viable product. “Myriad” is a portable, lightweight volumetric capture rig that can go anywhere and record and stream 2D and 3D assets in real time.

We are so thankful to be recipients of this amazing grant. While the pandemic has obviously had a huge impact on our sector, there has also been learning and growth in diversifying the offer of creative companies like ours; this grant will help us continue to develop our digital capacity, particularly within innovative immersive technologies, and deepen our understanding of improving access to culture across multiple platforms.

Moving Parts Arts

Moving Parts Arts CIO, is an award winning arts and community development organisation, which uses puppetry and outdoor theatre as a vehicle to engage North of Tyne audiences and artists.

A strategic grant of £25,000 from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme has given them the capacity to engage experienced consultants and trial new income models which in turn has safeguarded jobs and created new opportunities and jobs within the business.

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.

BoHo Arts

Boho Arts is a new charity, on a mission to lease and transform an unused, unloved property into a much loved, accessible creative arts hub in Newcastle. It’s in response to the very real problem of lack of workshop, rehearsal, and office space for artists in Newcastle – that’s affordable, easy to get to, and accessible.

They received a strategic grant that enabled them to do a feasibility study on a new space for BoHo Arts to run from in the North East, including a building study and a market study.

As a new charity with a mission to open an accessible creative hub in Newcastle, and having identified a potential property, Creative UK helped springboard our campaign by providing a grant for a feasibility study. The results of this study of the property, and of the arts community and prospective service users, will provide the foundation of our strategy for sustainability and growth.

Working with Carol and Julia from Creative UK has been a great experience as they really get behind you and are only a phone call away when you need advice. Our project came about as we feel it is so important to retain and develop talent here by providing the space needed for it to flourish, and it feels like Creative UK and North of Tyne have that firm belief too, by listening to us, and providing the support we needed, when we needed it.

The Six Twenty

The Six Twenty (TST) is an innovative theatre and creative project company based in Newcastle. They are a female led organisation who work with a highly-skilled multidisciplinary team of creative freelancers and partners.

This grant comes at a pivotal time for The Six Twenty as we begin to grow our core team and develop our work with local communities. We’re really excited to have this opportunity to explore new ways of working, different business models and fundraising opportunities. It’s brilliant to have the support and expertise of Creative UK in the North East.

Studio Pensom

Studio Pensom is a graphic design business founded by Paul Pensom in 2018, art director of Creative Review.

Studio Pensom struggled during the pandemic as print design, their usual staple, was dwindling. With support from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme they’ve been able to purchase new equipment and training for staff to expand their digital offer and support the long term sustainability of the company.

Creative UK have been generous enough to offer the studio a grant that will greatly expand our creative offering, enabling us, through new equipment and training, to explore motion design in a far greater depth than we’ve ever done before. This in turn will unlock a whole new customer base. Creative UK have been supportive and inspirational. I recommend that all creative SME’s should examine what CUK has to offer.

There is obviously a great deal of native talent in the North East — and doubtless always has been — but there is also enough clustering of creative talent going on to suggest that support for the industry at this point could have exponential results.

Theo W Scott

Theo W Scott is an animation director and illustrator who’s work has been displayed around the world and funded by organisations such as BFI. They were able to use grant funding to develop animation tests which then formed new partnerships for them, solidifying more work for Theo W Scott and a team of freelance animators.

Creative UK will allow me to spend more time fully focused on progressing my career in moving-image, rather than hurrying to find multiple illustration jobs to subsidize the costs of developing my portfolio. The Team at Creative UK have been very attentive, advising and organising workshops with their team in order to help me progress my practice as an Artist. I believe with more investment to the region companies like Creative UK could wake a sleeping giant, creating more opportunities to earn in the North East.

Kielder Observatory

Kielder Observatory is a science and discovery centre – its mission is to create opportunities for people of all backgrounds and abilities to experience moments of inspiration, revelation, wonder and hope through observing the cosmos. It achieves this by offering a variety of public events on site, education in schools and outreach to communities with arts and science programmes.

Their grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme allowed them to launch Kielder.space – a digital learning platform to enable anyone to learn about dark skies heritage no matter where they are, or what knowledge they have.

This has extended their reach and diversity; and provided additional revenue for a more resilient business model.

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.

ACT2CAM

Founded by company directors and owners Louise Woods and Stephen Woods, their principal business activities are in the cultural education and film production sectors.

They deliver creative, business, employment and life skills, through improvised drama, devised film, and associated production activities. They train young people in preparation for careers in the creative industries, providing skills, knowledge and experience in-front-of and behind the camera, offering services to councils, schools, charities and youth organisations in the North East.

The Culture and Creative Investment Programme grant allowed ACT2CAM to purchase two self-contained filming kits that can be used independently by young people and has allowed the business to run after-school activities across multiple sites, giving ACT2CAM the resources to diversify their offer.

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.

Kirlian

Kirlian develops audience-facing stories for global screens, seats and societies. Driven by a spirit of investigation, innovation and invention, we deliver practical and purposeful interventions and solutions to engineer effective creatives and content.

Central to Kirlian’s strategic growth plan was the development and rollout of The Story Bridge – a rapid diagnostic algorithm for scripted story content to aid in the development process of film and episodic materials. Utilising principles of neuro linguistic programming, the algorithm is able to assess the ‘shape’ of the story measured against the identified structural components (character, plot, theme etc) and the cumulative emotional impact of individual scenes. With a strategic loan from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme they were able to develop this.

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 [Carol Bell, OBE] 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.

BANK Artists

BANK studio artists are a newly constituted group of ten artists from diverse backgrounds and at varying stages in their careers. We share the costs of renting a North Shields studio space, offer support to one another and share opportunities for exhibitions, projects and networking.

A Strategic grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme has allowed BANK Artists to focus on organizational development, specifically, to bring the group together in creative activity to develop the strategy, and to engage external advisors with expertise in establishing artist-led initiatives, such as More
Than Meanwhile Spaces and Navigator North.

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

Day for Night was founded in 2006 by Sonali Joshi with the aim of enabling broader access to visual culture through curatorial projects, specialist film distribution, subtitling and audio-description. Working across these sectors, Day for Night occupies a niche position within the creative industries, drawing from a knowledge base that facilitates cross-pollination of ideas and creative practice.

A grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme has given Day For Night the opportunity to update their customer-facing assets, including an improved website, new branding and research to develop new audiences.

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.

Amble Pin Cushion

​​Amble Pin Cushion is a family-run business, based in the Northumberland town of Amble. They are experts in all things fabric and yarn and we provide a broad range of products including: quilting and craft cotton, fabrics, embroidery, crafting and soft furnishing materials and equipment, making kits, and millinery. 

They planed to use some of the elements of our existing cross stitch sampler designs to use as individual motifs on easier-to-stitch background fabric, to enable beginners and those whose eyesight is not what it was, be able to enjoy creating cross stitch
pictures of local features.

This small grant is important to my business as it will allow me to develop a new product line which will help with future growth and sustainability. It will enable me to have someone in place working in the shop whilst I work on development ideas and practicalities of the project.

By introducing a new product to our existing range, we are making more use of components and skills we already have available, and by working with a local graphic designer on packaging for this range, we may well update our existing products to enhance the whole Northumbria Knit and Stitch range. I also want to explore supplying more heritage outlets with our products which are relevant to both visitors and the local population.

The Old School Gallery

The Old School Gallery is a hidden gem in the charming village of Alnmouth on the Northumberland coast. Housed in a beautifully restored village school dating from 1872. Their gallery showcases fine art, printmaking and illustration.

They proposed four residencies in our Shoreside Camping Huts on Alnmouth beach.
The residencies will take place during winter and will be four, five day stays in one of our huts available to creative practitioners from any artistic discipline. Our approach will be to promote the opportunities to try and bring a diverse and varied mix of
individuals to the huts, infusing the area with fresh, creative perspectives.

The challenge fund will enable our small gallery business to broaden the scope of what we already do by helping sustain the camping huts through the winter and introduce some creative input in the area too. We are delighted to see this investment in Northumberland and the support for the fantastic, talented creatives who work in the region.

Creative Heritage Studios

In a collaboration between Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme, Creative Fuse, and the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, the Rural Creative Challenge was launched in December 2022. This new opportunity aimed to provide support and funding to North of Tyne-based creative businesses and practitioners addressing crucial challenges in rural areas, including sustainability, access to markets, wellbeing, and place-making.

We are thrilled to receive funding from the Rural Challenge grant scheme. As a Community Interest Company, this grant will give Creative Heritage Studios the opportunity to highlight the vital role that creativity plays within society.

As an art project, we will explore the historic exploitation of creative skills and services, while also producing a collection of high-quality products that people can purchase to support the legacy of crafts in the United Kingdom. The working title of this project is Antiques of the Future.

HexhamTV

Hexhamtv (Schoolhere Ltd) is a ‘hyperlocal’ digital channel on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. It delivers news, education, interviews, events & livestreaming about things happening in and around the Hexham, Tyne Valley and wider Northumberland.

They proposed to work with 3 groups of 3 Northumberland based artists to create 3 separate live stream events where each artist can talk about their creative practice and offer to sell some of their work live online.

It’s vitally important that artists, creatives and producers in rural areas such as Northumberland are supported to be able to expand their market to urban customers nationally and internationally. This important funding from Creative UK will enable Hexhamtv to pilot a new service under the brand ‘Shop Northumberland’ which will use the latest AI and virtual technology to create exciting new services to sell products from Northumberland artists, creatives and producers to new urban customers.

Trina Dalziel

Trina Dalziel is an award-winning illustrator and visiting tutor at UK Art Colleges.  Commissioned illustrations for books, magazines, including major international brands.

They sought funding to create a highly visual illustrated infographic diagram that places the visual artist in Northumberland at the centre and demonstrates who the regional arts organisations and funding bodies are and how they relate to each other, what they provide from a visual artist’s perspective and how their value and output relates to the artist in a very clear, colour coded and visually accessible way.

This grant will support me to develop an additional skill as an illustrator, as I’ll be making a print and digital illustrated infographic on a more complex level than tackled before.

The information in the infographic will hopefully aid other visual artists in Northumberland to access funding in the future by clearly and visually explaining who the funding bodies are in the North East and pointers to where business support is available. I like how it is a project that will help me grow in my career as an illustrator but also is based around a subject that will hopefully be really beneficial to fellow artists.

Wooler Arts Junk Orchestra Project

Wooler Arts Junk Orchestra project has provided a space where different groups of the local community can enjoy making music in an innovative way with the added bonus of engaging in a cultural activity in a community based collective space.

The North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme is so important to our ambitions for Wooler Arts as a provider of Arts experiences in rural North Northumberland. The Creative UK Rural Challenge Grant is key to our being able to create and sustain the Junk Orchestra, a new initiative to open up the opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to play music together.

It will achieve one of our key objectives – engaging those in the community who may feel excluded or isolated. This is very much a community venture, an exploration of sound and rhythm enabling participants to experience the joy of playing together in an ensemble.

Sylvan Skills

Sylvan Skills is a willow artist, and coppice crafts person. Products and services include animal sculptures, outdoor classrooms for schools, forest school structures and bespoke woven panels.

They aimed to address the ‘well-being and creativity rural challenge’ by working with a local group teaching willow weaving for well-being, to older learners, possibly with dementia. I hope this will improve participants mental health (and possibly physical health). They taught short sessions over a couple of months.

This grant will enable me to design and deliver a new therapeutic willow weaving service, which will hopefully be able to be rolled out on a larger scale in the social prescribing sector.

It is important to me as it enables me to dip my toe into the water by working in a new way and it could lead to more sustainable and worthwhile work for myself. The grant will give me a more robust and regular revenue stream for myself; and up the other rural providers I will be engaging will also benefit from enhanced revenue.

Creatively Conscious

In a collaboration between Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme, Creative Fuse, and the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, the Rural Creative Challenge was launched in December 2022. This new opportunity aimed to provide support and funding to North of Tyne-based creative businesses and practitioners addressing crucial challenges in rural areas, including sustainability, access to markets, wellbeing, and place-making.

The funding will help us test a brand new model of making compost in our allotment garden. Working with the local community and local tourists we hope to educate, explore people to make more compost in their green spaces too.  The project is rooted in wellbeing and allowing people the time to slow down and connect with the soil and themselves through day long retreats.

Bumble and Bloom Media

Bumble and Bloom Media is an award-winning marketing consultancy working with some of the world’s biggest brands since 2014. Key services include: Brand Consulting, Email Marketing, Environmental Consulting, Marketing Consulting, Project Management, Public Relations, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Lead Generation, and Marketing Strategy. 

They used this funding to develop a prototype that provides safe, consistent, clean access to water for a wide range of wildlife throughout the year. It also engaged the local community through rural creativity who experience the prototype physically, and/or via imagery shared on social media from the in-built wildlife camera to start and grow the conversation of supporting wildlife and biodiversity on their doorstep.

In July 2022 the UK experienced the hottest temperatures on record, putting our native wildlife under immense stress. After doing some initial research I quickly realised that a year-round solution needed to be found. Armed with an idea, I knew I needed additional support to help make it a reality. This initial research phase will be funded by Creative UK to create a prototype to test my idea and take me one step further towards an innovative, scalable solution. This is just the beginning, but feels like a huge step in the right direction which has been made possible by grant funding.

Lynda Vusthoff

The rural challenge grant supported them to purchase a vehicle and turn it into a mobile studio and gallery. This served as a creative and innovative way to address the needs of underserved communities, by providing access to creative workshops and resources. By bringing workshops and creative activities directly to these areas, they could help to develop local talent and foster creativity in places where it may not currently exist.

I would like to thank Creative UK & all who organised the Rural Challenge Grant workshops which have culminated in my award of funding to help me to develop an idea for a mobile studio.  I can now reach rural communities to participate in creative clay workshops. Without this funding it would have remained just an idea. This will also impact my practice in giving me a new income stream, helping my business grow.

Crane Innovation

In a collaboration between Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme, Creative Fuse, and the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, the Rural Creative Challenge was launched in December 2022. This new opportunity aimed to provide support and funding to North of Tyne-based creative businesses and practitioners addressing crucial challenges in rural areas, including sustainability, access to markets, wellbeing, and place-making.

This funding is enabling Crane Innovation to pilot a virtual slice of the metaverse. The focus in on Prudhoe, offering a gallery and enhanced immersive experience to local artists and creatives. This will offer insight into how Northumberland may deploy the latest technology to deepen engagement with new audiences

North Coders

Back in 2016 the founders of Northcoders saw a tech skills gap in the north and realised that they could fill it with a coding bootcamp. Since then, investment from Creative UK has played a part in the business’s evolution from a company with space in one shared Manchester office to one with offices across the country.  

Northcoders obtained a loan through Creative UK partnership fund, iAMDigital in 2017 and has since expanded into Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle, been listed on the public stock exchange and received £1.5 million of further funding from Creative Growth Finance and the North of Tyne Investment Fund.

We had great support through covid from Creative Growth Finance and it comes back to that relationship building element of it. Sticking with one lender where we always had a great relationship with our Investment Manager, Matt [Browning, Head of Investment] meant that, though navigating covid was obviously very difficult for us – and we did have a serious reduction in income – we knew we had the support we needed from our investors.  

Our high street bank backed us with a Cbils loan and Creative Growth Finance were very understanding of that and allowing another charge against the company. You don’t always get that kind of treatment from lenders, it’s computer says no at a lot of organisations, but with Creative UK you can talk to someone who understands what’s actually happening on the ground. 

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Frances Arnold

Frances Arnold is a freelance artist and creative producer. Rural landscapes and urban architecture have inspired her current collection of abstract screen prints. She received a grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme to research temporary rural studio hire in Northumberland and work with other creatives in these studio spaces.

Creative UK made the application process for the Freelance Challenge super easy and relatively quick to do which drew me to it. Without the ease of application I would not have applied.  Everyone I’ve met or had contact with at Creative UK has been very approachable which I greatly appreciate.

Susannah Ronnie

In a collaboration between Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme, Creative Fuse, and the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, the Rural Creative Challenge was launched in December 2022.

This new opportunity aimed to provide support and funding to North of Tyne-based creative businesses and practitioners addressing crucial challenges in rural areas, including sustainability, access to markets, wellbeing, and place-making.

As a freelance creative based in rural Northumberland, the opportunity to receive support from Creative UK at this point in my writing career is invaluable.

It will enable me to expand my network, move forward with the theatre writing aspect of my practice, enhance my workshop facilitation experience and support the development of my playwriting peers who have been similarly isolated as a result of the pandemic.

Sarah Tarbit

In a collaboration between Creative UK’s North of Tyne Programme, Creative Fuse, and the Rural Design Centre Innovation Project, the Rural Creative Challenge was launched in December 2022.

This new opportunity aimed to provide support and funding to North of Tyne-based creative businesses and practitioners addressing crucial challenges in rural areas, including sustainability, access to markets, wellbeing, and place-making.

Creative UK & their associates have been incredibly supportive in this process. The Northumberland Co-Working Day offered opportunities to network and we were not only encouraged to apply for the Challenge Fund but were signposted to lots of other opportunities, too. Being recipients of this grant will allow us time to come together, collaborate in new ways and develop an idea for the screen. It’ll also allow us to reflect on our practice and support other female working-class creatives in the region who want to write for television.”

Adinda van ‘t Klooster

Exploring aspects of interactivity in the virtual world; artist/sound specialists Marek Gabrysch and Lindsay Duncanson teamed up with virtual world creator and artist  Adinda van ’t Klooster to explore interactive potential of her AudioVirtualizer virtual world environment and specifically develop and enhance interaction with voice and to explore further use as a therapeutic tool and an improvisational aid.

This grant will help our companies (Noizechoir and Adinda van ‘t Klooster) grow by exploring together the potential of expanding the AudioVirtualizer, a VR audiovisual art experience that generates graphics in response to precomposed soundscapes and microphone input, to be a performance and therapy tool, again responding with graphics to sound input. It will also allow us to reach out to other companies and professionals and hopefully line up future funding.

Maureen Lawrie

Maureen Lawrie has used a grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme to develop a list of co-working/hotdesking locations in Northumberland to address the problem of space/place/location for artists looking for spaces to produce their work, collaborate and be creative without all the overheads of setting up their own space and also creates the potential for additional income for those who have spaces to offer.

The grant will help my growth by diversifying my income and providing the opportunity to create ongoing income in the future. This is the first time I have worked with Creative UK.  I like that they seem to understand how freelancers work.  The grant application process was very easy and smooth.

SportFin

SportFin are a group of sport researchers, volunteers and technologists, who are on a mission to preserve and grow the positive impact community sport has in society and culture.

With a strategic grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme they were able to recruit business support staff to handle the high volume of new clients they were bringing in and also develop the next stage of their sports technology.

The grant investment from the North of Tyne Culture & Creative Investment Programme will provide a huge boost to our development resources and will help us effectively service the growing traction SportFin is seeing and also further improve our product – all of which will help us support multiple community sport organisations be more financial resilient.

NE14 TV

NE14 TV are a production, casting and training company with a commitment to diversity in the screen sector. Using their strategic grant to build their resources they have been able to grow to fit the needs of bigger productions and promote diversity within productions that come to the North East.

As a people centric business, grant funding will allow us to inwardly invest in talent and create more opportunity in our region. The TV/Film industry really took a beating during the pandemic and this grant will help us become more resilient, more forward thinking and to get more people into training and employment, boosting the North East as a whole.

By diversifying our services and dedicating resources to our growth, our business will flourish and expand – meaning we can bring more people into the fold and offer more opportunity, which is what we are all about!

Cultured. North East

Cultured. North East (CNE) is a specialist news and features website and content-sharing platform focused on providing expert and quality coverage of the arts and cultural scene in NE England – and getting that coverage a big audience.

Their strategic grant allowed them to build a more robust pool of freelance writers, invest in new equipment for more agile working, and gain experience in digital marketing, podcasting and social media. Together, this has provided Cultured. North East the skills for longevity.

We are delighted to have been awarded grant support from the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme. This financial support will enable us to establish and enhance Cultured. North East as a sustainable specialist news and features website and content sharing platform, providing expert and quality coverage of the region’s arts and cultural scene. The grant will underpin an important period of business development for Cultured. North East and we’re looking forward to the opportunities it will afford.

Mortal Fools

Mortal Fools is a theatre, drama and creative learning charitable company. They believe their work must make a demonstrable and measurable difference to those they work with and to wider society.

Their grant supported the creation of a new role of full-time Producer, who will focus on generating earned income from their CONNECT Programme of training for businesses and sales of their Melva Digital Programme for schools.

This grant is an investment in an area of work that is growing, is high impact and benefits young people, professional artists, communities and organisations of all sizes in the Northeast and beyond.

Due to the funding landscape and as a small, growing organisation, it is hard to raise funds for pilot projects or to have the ability to invest in the present for something that will benefit us long term. And this funding does exactly that, secures the next chapter of a high growth, income generating work stream.

Théâtre Sans Frontières

Théâtre Sans Frontières (TSF) was founded in 1991 by Artistic Directors John Cobb and Sarah Kemp who trained in Paris with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux, two internationally renowned teachers of physical theatre. TSF tours multilingual physical/visual theatre productions to theatres, schools and community venues across the UK.

With a small grant, TSF were able to commission a new website, which was made more accessible and easier to navigate, helping them to find new clients and build revenue streams.

TSF is delighted to have been offered this crucial support from the North of Tyne Culture & Creative Investment programme. It will enable us to develop and build a new website and increase the digital skills of our small team, using the expertise of Ukrainian film director/website designer, Svitlana Pohasiy, who came to live in Hexham in April 2022.  

A new, fully functional, interactive, website will enable TSF to drive its work forward and raise our public profile. The new website will play a vital role in enhancing communications with our audiences, venues and supporters.

Lucy Nichol

Lucy Nichol is a published author, having written several books. She used a small grant to employ marketing and PR expertise to launch her most recent book, and push her writing to a wider, national audience.

As an author in a highly competitive marketplace, this funding will enable me to really amplify my work and profile, contributing towards future writing opportunities and earning potential within the publishing world and beyond.

Maggie Read Jewellery

Maggie Read Jewellery is a jewellery maker that specialises in silver and enamel jewellery using recycled metals and ethically sourced gemstones. A small grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme has allowed them to purchase silversmithing work benches that can be used for workshops and also hired by other metalsmith creatives.

I’m thrilled to have been awarded a grant by the North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme to enable me to open a jewellery teaching school in north Northumberland. The grant will be used to equip my new workshop into a welcoming and creative environment where I will offer a variety of silversmithing and beading workshops as well as providing a venue for other businesses to use as a workspace.

The funds will allow me to diversify and grow my business while giving people the opportunity to learn and develop new creative skills. I’m very grateful to Creative UK for their support

Your Tribe

Your Tribe is a creative experience business. It’s immersive. Groups of people (families, kids parties, schools, kids activity groups, hen parties, work groups, teams, couples) go to their studio to throw paint around and at each other. They create artwork and Your Tribe take photos whilst they have all the fun.

They received a strategic grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme which they have used to enter the markets of festivals and have bigger groups experience their fun, they’ve also been able to prepare for franchising their studio.

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

Brick This is an independent LEGO artist producing display pieces for a range of clients from single models to complete exhibitions. Brick This also produces bespoke kits for sale to the public and for corporate clients all over the world. They are one of very few such artists in the UK and have produced work for clients including The Alnwick Garden, Bowes Museum, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Newcastle United. They also run workshops aimed at inspiring children and adults to tap into the creative side and get building with LEGO!

A grant from the Culture and Creative Investment Programme supported Brick This as they moved into a larger studio space, from here they have begun running workshops from their studio and have fitted a gallery space into the studio to display previous projects and attract footfall into the studio.

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.

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