Culture House project provides opportunities for Sunderland creatives

Talented creative businesses and individuals in Sunderland are being invited to get involved in a project being delivered by one of the city's most exciting new developments.

Culture House Sunderland is delivering taster sessions across the city between January and March, giving a flavour of the activity that will be on offer at the multi-million-pound venue when it opens later this year.

All of the programme partners are North East based, with the majority of them Sunderland organisations.

Ten partners have been commissioned, delivering dozens of events for residents across the three-month project.

One of those partners is The Art Room, Sunderland, which is delivering two projects for 11 - 16-year-olds exploring the link between technology and fashion, including creating a garment to be displayed in an exhibition at the Keel Square Pavilion.

Kerry Cook, art teacher and owner of The Art Room, said: "I am delighted to be delivering sessions as part of this project.

"As well as running classes for the Culture House at my city centre studio, I am also able to get out into other areas of the city and reach people who might not normally engage with arts and culture.

"It's great to see local creative providers being given the opportunity to deliver additional projects for local people; it is great for the area's cultural ecosystem."

The taster session activity will range from fashion design to craft and conversation sessions and sustainability workshops to script writing courses - giving a glimpse of the variety of activity that will be on offer when Culture House Sunderland opens its doors.

Culture House Sunderland has been able to work in partnership with regional organisations thanks to funding from the UK Government through the Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

Cllr Beth Jones, communities, culture and tourism portfolio holder at Sunderland City Council, said: "The project aims to develop and test new activity that will lead to a year-round programme of fun, creative and exciting projects when the venue opens in autumn this year.

"It's important to us that the communities in Sunderland and beyond have the chance to try this activity and share with us what they want to see from Culture House in the long term, which we wouldn't have been able to do without this funding.

"Through UKSPF, we have funded Sunderland-based creative businesses and individuals to work with us on this programme of workshops and events, as well as having brought in regional sector leading organisations to work in the city."

The project forms part of a wider partnership initiative, with other cultural partners in the city, to

diversify the cultural offer and to boost engagement in culture, creativity and heritage activities. It is supported by the UK Government via Sunderland's UKSPF programme, managed by Sunderland City Council on behalf of the Sunderland Partnership.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK. Sunderland was allocated £14.9m of UKSPF to invest over three years. Following consultation with local stakeholders, priority interventions for support were identified to maximise outcomes for Sunderland's residents, communities, and businesses, with funding to support activities under three main themes, communities and place, local business and people and skills. 

Culture House Sunderland - The National Centre for Creative Smart Cities - will be a multi-purpose cultural venue based at the heart of Keel Square. The venue will be home to the City Library, and will be packed with dynamic, digitally powered, interactive and educating features, with a year-round programme of fun things to do and see.

More information about the sessions can be found at https://culturehousesunderland.co.uk/jan-marchprogramme/