Category: Talent and Business Development

Today (Tuesday 14 November) local leaders across the North of England alongside some of the leading figures in the creative industries, have come together to commit to developing a “Northern Creative Corridor” (NCC). 

The partnership is intended to unlock the huge potential of the creative industries across the North of England.  A background briefing paper written by Creative PEC sets out that potential, which could raise the Gross Value Added (GVA) economic productivity measure across the region by an additional £10 billion each year. 

This would make a significant contribution towards meeting the ambitions set out in the Government’s Creative Industries Sector Vision published earlier this year. 

Our work will be supported by a charter, which sets out the areas where local and sector leaders will collaborate in developing the NCC, including skills, finance, innovation, and communication. 

There are 25 signatories of the charter, including the mayors in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and the North of Tyne, and sector leaders including Creative UK, North-East Screen, the N8 Research Partnership universities, and Ubisoft, plus the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. 

Alison Gwynn, Chief Executive of North East Screen said: “The Northern Creative Corridor is a real statement of intent to unleash the collective power we have across the creative industries in the North. Our voice is stronger together, and we look forward to working with the wider collective creating more opportunities for our creative talent to benefit from.”

The Rt Hon Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “From the grassroots music venues that launched The Beatles in Liverpool to today’s cutting edge screen facilities in Yorkshire and Salford’s MediaCityUK, our creative industries have always thrived in the North of England. We know great things happen when creative industries work together, and the Northern Creative Corridor is going to maximise the potential of these sectors so communities across the region can benefit from new opportunities and investment.” 

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire Combined Authority said: “We are united in our shared ambition to level up our towns and cities by turbocharging our cultural offer in the North of England. The route to regeneration, well-paid jobs and happier communities lies in building better places, with creative opportunities for all at the heart of our plans for economic growth. I look forward to further collaboration across the North of England, as we unleash our full potential and drive more opportunities for creative talent to thrive.” 

Tim Davie, BBC Director-General said: “This Charter makes clear the huge scale of the economic opportunity on offer for the North. By coming together as a cross-sector coalition, we are committing to putting the full weight of the creative industries behind the Northern growth agenda – with jobs, skills, investment, and innovation as the prize. The BBC is determined to play its part to the full.” 

Andy Haldane, Chief Executive of the RSA said: “There are pockets of creative genius right across the North of England. But the potential to nurture and grow these pockets into a Northern creative supercluster, by working in pan-regional partnership, is simply enormous. Unlocking that huge potential, through practical action, is the purpose of putting together this grand coalition of leaders from the region and the creative industries.” 

Hasan Bakhshi, Director Creative PEC said: “All the evidence suggests that neighbouring creative clusters can work together in key areas like workforce skills and access to finance to supercharge growth in their creative industries. The North of England’s creative industries grew in real terms by around 23 per cent between 2010 and 2019 before the pandemic. However, despite the presence of creative hotspots like Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, the creative industries still only contribute around 3 per cent of the north’s economy, compared with just under 10 per cent in London and the Southeast. This illustrates the huge scale of the opportunity.” 

Signatories to the charter have committed to making the North of England ‘one of the best regions in the UK for creative industries to thrive’. 

Next steps will involve a series of workshops in January and February 2024, to bring together policy, business, education, and civil society stakeholders, including creative industries and arts, culture, and heritage practitioners. New policy and practice interventions will be co-designed and stress-tested across skills, finance, and innovation, to help realise creative corridors in different parts of the UK.  

The results of this activity and progress towards making the Northern Creative Corridor a reality will be reported at the time of the Convention of the North in March 2024. 

Click here to view the full list of the signatories to the charter.

Harder Than The Rock, a music documentary from North East filmmaker Mark Warmington, is one of only five projects selected to take part in the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) Work-In-Progress showcase.

The music documentary tells the story of the UK’s first reggae band, Cimarons, and follows the band in their old age as they battle to keep the Cimarons dream alive and play to live audiences again, one last time. By diving into the historical and social context that connects Ireland and Jamaica, Harder Than The Rock explores the relationship between the Irish diaspora and the Windrush generation who lived alongside each other and faced similar prejudice in London, features interviews with all of the surviving band members, a live performance of their classic hits from the 1970s and exclusive archival footage from an incredible tour.

The in-person event took place on October 7 as part of the festival’s UK Talent Days focus, in partnership with the British Council, at London’s Picturehouse Central.

The event screened extracts from each project, with an introduction from its filmmaker to an invited audience of international buyers as well as UK sales agents and festival programmers, followed by a networking event. Clips from the films will be available online for a week from October 7 via a secure platform to an invited pool of international industry professionals. All projects are still in production, or in post, from filmmakers at debut or second feature stage.

Laura Purvis, Talent and Business Development Manager at North East Screen said: “It’s great to see Mark’s hard work and brilliant ideas paying off regionally and nationally. He is definitely a one to watch!”

Other films selected for the BFI LFF Works-in-Progress showcase include The Ceremony, dir-scr. Jack King; Low Rider, dir-scr. Campbell X; Smoking Shoes, dir. David Warwick; and A Winter’s Journey, dir-scr. Alex Helfrecht.