Home > Arts, culture and heritage

Heritage, Arts and Culture

Arts, culture and heritage are great for the North East in their own right. They can also contribute to our future prosperity. But their benefits need to be felt more widely.

Vital issues

Developing arts, culture and heritage has long been a focus of charitable giving in the North East, but is there also a need to focus on communities that have had less investment to date?

 

Breaking down barriers that prevent local people from accessing the North East’s fantastic arts, culture and heritage is vital to their future, and philanthropic funding is key to this work.

 

Enabling people to overcome disadvantage is an area where local arts organisations can have a big impact. Charitable funding is essential to the development of such projects.

42,343

People employed in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector in the North East

>25%

Population of the North East who think that “the arts are not for people like me"

1 in 10

English World Heritage Sites in the North East

Background

The North East Culture Partnership brings together practitioners, local authorities, universities, colleges, businesses and voluntary organisations to champion, promote and support the arts, culture and heritage sectors. Both of the region’s Local Enterprise Partnerships recognise arts, culture and heritage as assets that create employment and growth by underpinning the region’s offer to investors and tourists. In every corner of the region, philanthropy has nurtured the development of these assets as the history of the Berwick Film and Media Festival, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Sage Gateshead and  Kynren Festival show. But in some parts of the region, the cultural offer is much less developed.

 

Arts, culture and heritage activities can enable local people to understand themselves and their communities, and to think about how to improve them. A range of outreach projects and small community arts organisations have a significant role to play in improving quality of life.