Blackburn culture drive boosted with £760,000 grant

The drive to make Blackburn with Darwen into a creative hub has been boosted by a £760,000 grant from the Arts Council England.

The cash will turbocharge the borough council’s £1,216,800 campaign to maximise its cultural assets including King George’s Hall.

It will help pay for the recruitment of 250 volunteers and 12 paid workers as the authority bids to keep creative young artists in the area,

A report to Thursday’s meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive board by growth boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood says: “The award of £760,000 over two years will facilitate the delivery of the borough’s Cultural Investment Plan.

“It will include a programme to develop skills, opportunities and employability in the creative sector across a variety of cultural organisations in the borough; work with schools on a place-based curriculum; promote and support volunteering opportunities, especially for young people; and strengthen the Creative Alliance partnership involving National Festival of Making, The Making Rooms, Super Slow Way, Culturapedia, The Bureau, Chip In volunteering and British Textile Biennale.

“The overall submission was valued at £1,216,800 with match funding of £456,800 identified from existing, secured external grants.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the borough to maximise the capital investment in cultural assets, including King George’s Hall, and deliver the cultural vision for the borough.

“Whilst there will be indirect benefits for everyone with the key focus is on nurturing and retaining the creativity of the borough’s young people, creating new opportunities and progression routes using cultural volunteering as a gateway into creative careers and industry, developing skills and employment prospects within the borough rather than creatives having to move away to further their careers.

“This will be achieved by:

“• support for diverse creative and cultural career paths: expanding the Creative Alliance programme with two new organisations (in addition to four existing partners) and providing 12 new paid placements allowing for a diverse selection of candidates;

“• growing and developing our network whilst addressing historic gaps in creative and cultural provision;

” • developing creative learning and skills by building on the successful volunteering futures programme to expand opportunities for young people creating 250 cultural volunteer positions;

” * integrating local resources, values and creative assets into cultural education and exploring the narrative of our industrial and post-industrial making whilst reinterpreting and reinventing this with young people; and

” • working with communities, creatives, artists, producers and musicians, to reshape our creative infrastructure, spaces and the programmes they host.

“We will pilot co-designed pop-up programmes in various spaces,

“Without accepting this grant award the council and its partners would not be in a position to support local creatives develop their skills, experience and employability in cultural industries at the scale and pace that the funding will facilitate.

“The grant award is for £760,000 available to spend between now and the end of March 2027.”