A3.1 Map of Region

The North West is made up of five sub regions

• Cheshire
• Cumbria
• Lancashire
• Greater Manchester
• Merseyside

Within this structure there are forty six separate local authorities. Each councils will have its own officer with responsibility for arts development, and they may be based within a variety of departments - Cultural Services, Leisure, Libraries, Learning - the arts can be delivered from many starting points, and with a variety of development agendas.

The arts teams will vary in size with the resources of the Council; unitaries may have arts teams with different areas of responsibility, while smaller councils may only have one (full or part-time) officer with the arts portfolio. A full list of Arts Officers is included in this Guide and will be updated on-line on a regular basis.

Each sub region has a regular forum of Local Authority Arts Officers, where District/Borough, Unitary and County arts officers meet to discuss current issues and programmes. As you may be the only officer concerned with the arts in your Council, these are an excellent opportunity to network with people who work in a similar way to you, and have similar priorities.
Contact details for all arts officers can be found here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/information_detail.php?rid=5&sid=14&id=64

A3.3 Information on the arts in the North West

The arts in the North West
The North West has a strong and dynamic arts scene, and not just concentrated in our major conurbations. We have loads to look out for, such as;

• International festivals; the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary art and the Manchester International Festival. The best galleries outside of London such as the Tate Liverpool, Manchester’s Cornerhouse, the Lowry, Salford, Abbott Hall in Kendal. For theatres we have Manchester’s Contact and Royal Exchange Theatre, Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, Oldham Coliseum and Liverpool’s Everyman to name a few.

• Numerous commercial galleries many of whom are members of our Own Art scheme through which people can purchase contemporary arts and crafts on interest free credit. Find out more here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ownart/

• World renowned orchestras in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Halle in Manchester.

• New media projects such as Tenantspin, Liverpool, an Internet TV station which is run by residents of a local housing association and Lets Go Global TV based on a housing estate in Trafford, and the leading digital arts centre in the country, the Foundation for art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool.

• There is Manchester based Breaking Cycles, an artist-led company, dedicated to hip-hop theatre, Liverpool’s Africa Oye who present an annual festival of world music and North west Disability arts forum who run Dadafest, a festival of Deaf and Disability arts in Liverpool.

Every year the arts in the North West are celebrated in an annual event which has been running since 2004 with art04 held in Manchester, art05 in Liverpool and art06 in Preston. Find out more here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/art06

Arts Council England, North West has developed a number of regional priorities and these have been published in our Agenda for the arts, which is available to download here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/publication_detail.php?rid=5&id=531

The North West has five housing market renewal areas and Arts Council England, North West is working closely to ensure that the arts are at the heart of these new communities.

In each sub region there is a partnership to support the development of Creative Industries - please see here for details: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/project_detail.php?rid=5&sid=&browse=recent&id=535

And finally the whole of the North West will be celebrating with Liverpool as it celebrates its’ year as the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Arts organisations
The north west has largest number of regularly funded arts organisations outside London and details of all these arts organisations can be found here: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/information_detail.php?rid=5&sid=10&id=82&page=2

Visit the links section of Arts Council England’s website sorted by artform and subject area. Each link comes with an explanation about what there activities are: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/links.php?rid=5

Creative Partnerships
Creative Partnerships (CP) provides school children across England with the opportunity to develop creativity in learning and to take part in cultural activities of the highest quality.

We have Creative Partnerships in Merseyside, Cumbria, Manchester/Salford and East Lancashire.  See www.creative-partnerships.com for more information.
http://www.creative-partnerships.com/aboutcp/around

Moss, 2004, Junko Mori Image: Junko Mori

A3.4 Information resources and news from Arts Council England, North West

News from Arts Council England, North West contains information about national and regional plans, most recently issues have focussed on the Creative Industries in the North West, Children and Young People and Sustainable Communities.

The Information Update is produced by Arts Council England, North West every two months contains details of regional opportunities for artists, commissions, vacancies, training, seminars and conferences.

This is the link to the North West’s Newsletters home page where you can find our latest issues of the newsletter and the latest copy of the Information Update in the section half way down the page.
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/regions/newsletters.php?rid=5

Join our mailing list
Join our mailing list to receive Arts Council England, North West's newsletter and to be alerted to the online publishing of our Information Update. Update contains details of regional opportunities for artists, commissions, vacancies, training, seminars and conferences.

Update emails will be sent to alert you to the publishing of the Information Update and Newsletter on the website. We will also highlight to you important news from Arts Council England, North West.

Sign up online

Visit our website for news about what’s happening in the North West, for information on Grants for the arts - our funding programme and press releases. www.artscouncil.org.uk/northwest