Tees Valley Arts has been awarded European funding as part of the Arts Council’s Cultural Sector Development Initiative, to develop a programme of activity that will support artists professional development. The funding, will support a number of initiatives, including a formal training course supported by mentoring and coaching opportunities, bursaries for artists to attend training sessions, a series of seminars and forums and a fund to support collaborative project development between artists and communities and enable artists working in educational and community settings to develop and exhibit their own work alongside participatory project production.
The total cost of the programme is £98,093.00 over 18 months, of which £38,256 is European funding, through the Government Office North East. The remainder of the funding will come from tees valley arts and the development of sub-regional partnerships.
Tees Valley Arts’ Director, Lesley Featherstone commented “we intend to work closely with other Tees Valley cultural and educational organisations, artists and communities, to ensure that the programme fits with sub-regional policies and needs, and works with existing provision to create an imaginative, inspirational and well-trained workforce capable of delivering the creativity agenda in lifelong learning in the Tees Valley”.