Information on Loughborough

Creative Sector Funding Boost

Posted on 18/04/2008
P. Klein

swimming poolCreative businesses in Leicestershire are set for a £155,000 boost thanks to a county scheme.

 

Creative Leicestershire has received the cash from Leicester Shire Economic Partnership, to give further support to arts, design and media businesses in Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.

 

The funding will be used to run a creative development bursary scheme, graduate start-up packages, and a creative business skills forum for Higher and Further Education. In total, 53 creative businesses will benefit directly over three years.

 

Creative Industries Manager Clare Hudson said: “This is fantastic news. We’ll be working with everyone from performing artists to film-makers to web designers. The most important thing is that almost all the funding will go straight to the businesses in addition to one-to-one support from our new business adviser.

“Added to our Arts Council England funding we have a really effective package of support available for small creative businesses in this area’.

 

Previous Development Bursary winners have found the experience to be extremely beneficial. Gillian Heggs, of Inspiring Words Copywriting and Training, was a 2005 bursary winner. ‘The Creative Leicestershire Bursary was fantastic for me and helped my profitability and the growth of my business. I’d been established for about six months and needed a website to publicise my copywriting training courses and to help promote my brand. The Bursary not only paid for that but also for a projector to use on my courses. There was more to the bursary too I had some really useful marketing support. It’s just a shame I can’t apply again!’

 

The development of the Creative Leicestershire programme ties in with the recent launch of Creative Britain - the new national strategy for the creative sector released jointly by 3 government departments.

 

For more on Creative Leicestershire see www.creativeleicestershire.org.uk <http://www.creativeleicestershire.org.uk/>

The Creative Britain document is available on www.culture.gov.uk <http://www.culture.gov.uk/>