Creative approaches to keeping our towns and cities alive

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced funding of up to £3 million through Looking After Our Town Centres, a new initiative intended to bring into use vacant premises to help reinvigorate ailing town centres. As part of a complementary set of recession-related measures, Arts Council England has announced a fund of £500,000 through the Art in Empty Spaces initiative to support artists and arts organisations to help them carry out artistic activities in vacant premises made available to them through the scheme.

There is a short guide for town centre managers and their local partners, produced by DCLG. It offers practical help in setting out how to make sure that our town centres reach their full potential, even in tough times. It also looks further ahead - so that planners, service managers and communities can develop a clear vision, and actively plan to take advantage of new opportunities.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said:
'By transforming otherwise empty town centre premises into hubs for culture and creativity, we can regenerate both the physical space itself and the hope and ambition of all those that have a stake in them.'

Please follow the links for a range of publications, toolkits and further information on 

Looking After Our Town Centres

Investing in Creative Industries? - A Guide for Local Authorities

Transforming Places: Changing Lives

World Class Places’

Lifting People, Lifting Place

Creative Cabins toolkit

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