Salford set to become arts and culture hotspot thanks to major funding boost

• City to receive almost £750,000 funding from Arts Council England
• Funding received following a bid from Salford Culture and Place Partnership, led by Salford City Council
• Funding will enable planning for a three-year programme of creative activities across the city
• Events to be hosted in the city’s parks, gardens and high streets

Plans follow on from success of ‘We Invented the Weekend’ event in June

The announcement and confirmation of the funding follows a bid submitted by Salford Culture and Place Partnership, led by Salford City Council. It will now see the partnership working with cultural organisations, creative groups and residents across the city as part of the project to bring fun, entertaining and wellbeing focussed activities to the city’s parks, gardens, high streets and neighbourhoods.

As part of the three-year programme, local organisations will create events and activities focused round different themes:

RHS Gardens Bridgewater will invite people to get crafty with woodland craft activities and gardening.

Outdoor arts organisation, Walk the Plank, will train ‘Creative Explorers’ to bring new creativity and adventure to city events.

The team behind Sounds From The Other City will have people dancing in the streets with mini pop-up music festivals.

‘We Invented the Weekend’ will again transform MediaCityUK and the Quays into a family friendly festival of free time.

Local artists and creative groups will also be invited to develop and test new event ideas through a ‘Make it in Salford’ programme and schools in the city will get creative through new artist commissions led by the Salford Local Cultural Education Partnership.

Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett said: “This is great news for the city and our residents. We have a thriving cultural sector in the city doing great work all-year-round, through our world-class cultural institutions, like The Lowry Theatre & Art Gallery, Media City, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and RHS Bridgewater. The city’s cultural sector is also comprised of fantastic arts organisations such as Walk the Plank, Islington Mill and From The Other, not forgetting those organisations that play an instrumental role in delivering on our creative health ambitions such as START Inspiring Minds and DIY Theatre Company.

The successful bid and funding from the Arts Council England will enable the city’s rich, vibrant and unique cultural ecology to further our commitments to animating the city and place-making, making Salford a destination and a place where artists, creatives and makers from all walks of life can live, work and make their work, whilst also ensuring that art, creativity and making are accessible for everyone in the city.

This crucial funding, especially in this 13th year of austerity and with on-going financial challenges in local government, will now mean that plans for a programme of events, developed with partners and residents, can now be brought to fruition for everyone to experience.  The funding will also allow us to build on the progress we’ve made in animating the city following the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also reflecting and learning from our inaugural Festival of Free Time: We Invented The Weekend.  With this positive news and our city’s recent cultural successes, it really does promise to be an exciting time to write the next chapter of Salford’s cultural history.”

Jen Cleary, Director North, Arts Council England said, “I’m very pleased that we have awarded £749,600 through our National Lottery Projects Grants to support this ambitious creative programme in Salford. It is a fantastic opportunity to enable the city’s artists and creatives to share more of their work in public spaces such as parks and high streets for the benefit of local residents and visitors. It’s an exciting time for Salford and I’m looking forward to experiencing some of the programme over the next three years.”