Creativity gets a leg up in Bristol
April 18, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Innovation | TrackbackBristol has taken an important step towards securing its place as the most creative city in the UK, outside London.
A £6.4 million investment from the South West of England Regional Development Agency, announced today, will help grow creative talent in the city. Home to some of the world’s leading creative producers including Aardman, Endemol, RDF TV and BBC Natural History, Bristol is already a hotspot for creativity.
The Agency’s investment will create a new fund to support the creative media sector in Bristol and enable Watershed to buy its home, the historic dockside E&W sheds. This gives the successful media centre long term stability and the chance to grow its dynamic community for creative businesses. Over £300,000 per year in surplus rent from other businesses in the buildings will be ploughed into the new fund to invest in areas such as skills, development, networking and innovation.
Phil Stenton from Hewlett-Packard Laboratories comments:
"The Watershed is an exceptional home and hub for creative networking in Bristol. It provides an effective venue rich in skills, perspectives and enthusiasm for companies, colleges and local communities to explore new ventures together. The news that the Watershed will have a greater capacity to weave its creative and cultural connections is exciting for us all."
A Creative Industries Partnership will be set up to advise on the new fund. Membership will include Watershed Arts Trust, the South West RDA, Bristol City Council, representatives from the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol, leading creative media companies and other stakeholders.
Comments
[…] Then me. The last time I stood on the Purcell Rooms stage was for John Peel’s Meltdown in 1998 with a post-rock industrial ensemble. I discussed South West RDA’s investment in Watershed Media Centre to create an endowment fund to benefit creative businesses in the city for the next 112 years (a real investment of up to £50 million). More on that here. […]