Creative Places: Gateshead Culture Strategy

Mission

Our mission is culture for everyone, everywhere.

Vision

Our vision is that Gateshead is a significant creative and cultural hub in the North East of England where culture is born, grown, and reinterpreted for the good of our economy, communities and residents. Our focus is our home, but our impact is felt nationally and internationally.

The purpose of this strategy

This strategy is for the people of Gateshead. It is a shared commitment to make positive change through and with cultural and creative organisations. It is a strategy sponsored by Gateshead Council collectively owned by the whole creative and cultural sector. It is only through cooperation great things can happen.

Culture is not about doing nice things it is much deeper than that. It is about the identity of Gateshead, its diverse communities, its economic future and the wellbeing of its people. This strategy provides a framework through which all cultural organisations, and their partners, can work together to support the success of our borough.

A lot has changed since the last Culture Strategy. Since then, the landscape has brought great changes including the formation of the North East Combined Authority (NECA) and economic impacts in communities. These are things which the cultural ecosystem is adapting and respond proactively to, to ensure the residents and businesses in Gateshead continue to thrive.

Download this strategy as a pdf (PDF, 285 KB)

Gateshead is the entrance to the North. It is the Angel of the North. It is a constellation of communities that stretches from Chopwell to Wardley and Leam Lane, and from Blaydon to Birtley. Gateshead is a creative power surrounded by Newcastle, County Durham, Northumberland, Sunderland, and North and South Tyneside. It is global arts, community groups, and a music scene that is the envy of the country. It is sporty, crafty, and outdoorsy all at once.

It is a place where, as someone told us, "You can do things where you can't do anywhere else." 

Gateshead has enjoyed the second highest creative industries growth between 2015 to 2024 (the last year of data) in all of NECA. The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art has welcomed over 8 million visitors since 2002 and stands as testament to the power of culture led regeneration. Just down the Quays the Glasshouse attracts more than 2 million people each year for gigs, concerts, and classes. The Shipley Art Gallery whose displays and activities cement the Northeast as a home of making, industry and skilled craftsmanship.

And culture does not stop there. In Gateshead culture is not a thing that is distant, remote, or inaccessible. It is the lifeblood of the place that seeps into the life of the borough. Culture is the blue plaques that remind residents and visitors that people like Daniel Defoe and Emily Davies were deeply influenced by our place. It is the bridges that speak to our industrial heritage and connect us to other thriving economies in the North. It is the Chopwell pump track that hosted the world championship qualifiers, the Gateshead International Stadium which hosts two football teams, and it is the 117 square kilometres Land of Oak and Iron which blends nature with Gateshead's industrial past to spark new conversations.

Culture is Gateshead's people. The leading asset of our home. It is the people that run, attend, and participate in Gateshead's International Festival of Theatre. It is the Art Diamonds that run creative programmes for people across Gateshead. It is dancing in Deckham, it is the food festival in Saltwell Park made possible by volunteers, and it is Gem Arts, Orbis, the Little Theatre, and many others, that make arts accessible to everyone. It is an interior world made real through art and an exterior one celebrated through gymnastics, dancing, the football stadium, and a lineage of sporting champions.

Gateshead is hard to define because it is so much wrapped in a sprawling, public art laden, heritage packed, rural, urban, town centre, beautiful countryside, historic setting, modern outlook, place. 

It is our home and it is the place where culture is everywhere. 

This strategy is underpinned by a deep analysis of the cultural, economic, and social geographies of Gateshead, the North East, and the country. This is not because we want Gateshead to be like everyone else, we do not, it is because we want to use culture as a tool to take advantage of emerging opportunities to tackle some of Gateshead's biggest challenges.

The UK's Industrial Strategy is the central plank of the government's economic mission. It recognises the Creative Industries as a driving force of the economy with specific support for music, skills, careers, regional growth, and post-16 education. Likewise, our strategy considers how cultural organisations and the creative industries can support the economic futures of people across Gateshead.

Gateshead is also part of the North East Combined Authority. NECA brings together seven local authorities, of which Gateshead is one, to coordinate on issues such a transport, skills, and business growth. In the broader cultural sector NECA has prioritised events, the visitor economy, creative industries, culture led regeneration, and investment to boost jobs, talent, and opportunities across music, film/TV, gaming, theatre, writing, and other creative sectors. Our own strategy reflects these ambitions and welcomes NECA as a partner in growing Gateshead's own creative industries and cultural impact.

The cultural strategy will also support Gateshead's wider ambitions. It will contribute to closing health inequalities across the Borough. Culture and the creative industries will be a key lever in using assets for community benefits. The culture strategy will help build footfall, celebrate our communities through culture, bring pride through art and public events, help rejuvenate places, and it will bring people together. It is an ambition for the future and a reminder that our shared identity has been forged by a history of industry, public art, nature trails, three registered parks, one registered historic battlefield, and framed by brutalist architecture, stained glass, and postmodern designs.

As part of this exercise, we met with creative industries, cultural organisations, council services, community groups, creative practitioners, and businesses. Across each group there was optimism that Gateshead has a bright cultural future. There was significant agreement that:

• Gateshead's communities are its leading asset
• culture occurs everywhere across Gateshead in the town, Quayside, and across its rural areas
• Gateshead's history and heritage are a key part of its cultural offer
• the borough benefits from an excellent education provision, including in further education, and it benefits from proximity to universities in Newcastle and Sunderland
• it is still financially possible to live and set up a creative/cultural business in Gateshead. This affordability encourages and nurtures creative people
• there is the basis of a strong cultural ecosystem with a range of organisations doing a range of activities for and with communities across Gateshead, everything from arts and crafts to music production
• the borough is full of beautiful green spaces with the opportunity to enliven them even further with public art, events, interactive trails, way finding, and online materials
• Gateshead has had success in running events and should be ambitious in doing more of them
• there is a strong civic infrastructure ranging from volunteers, to council owned assets, to community organisations, that work together to improve the creative life of the borough

Equally, while there is consensus that Gateshead has much to be proud of there is much more that it could be doing. Some of the areas highlighted by groups in Gateshead that this strategy seeks to address includes:

• how the council can balance its strategic support between assets of national profile, community groups, and wider budget pressures driven by growing demand for services such as social care
• maintaining Gateshead's distinct identity with a strong contribution within the North East Combined Authority (NECA)
• external perception of what Gateshead could be which does not reflect its ambitions plans or growing creative industries sector. This is both a challenge to bringing in national and regional funds and a challenge in ensuring Gateshead receives national attention
• the social and geographic isolation of some communities in Gateshead through poor infrastructure, financial hardship, and poor health. The widespread geography of Gateshead with a singular "Gateshead identity" as well as residents identifying strongly with their local area
• there is lots of culturally led community activity but less of a sense that communities come together across the borough
• a challenge in accessing resources necessary for organisations to flourish including buildings, cash, infrastructure, materials, and public attention
• ensuring that the basics are right including clean streets, safety and access to good services, as a pre-requisite for building a thriving cultural economy

The future is bright but there is no doubt that the present is difficult. The council's overall funding settlement is thinly stretched between its statutory obligations, and many cultural organisations are already doing so much with very little. However, there are new opportunities for investment from NECA, an opportunity to leverage more funding into local communities, and there is the opportunity to leverage cultural organisations and creative industries in supporting the growth of the economy and improving health and wellbeing.

In a time of financial pressures, it's crucial that investment in attracting events, organisations, government and regional investment, and interest in Gateshead, benefits the whole of Gateshead.

Our mission is that culture should be available everywhere across Gateshead.

Our vision is that Gateshead is a significant creative and cultural hub in the North East of England where culture is born, grown, and reinterpreted for the good of our economy, communities and residents.

Our strategy is built around four key pillars:

1. Civic, community and grassroots leadership: Culture happens everywhere across Gateshead. It is in libraries, community halls, the high street, the countryside, and on bridges. It is the thread across the borough that binds people together. The driving forces behind the creation and delivery of the strategy are our large cultural organisations, grass roots community groups and freelancers whose collective strength is leadership of place.
2. Identity: Gateshead has a strong identity of place as a borough made up of urban and rural communities who identify strongly with their neighbourhoods. This sense of identity creates significant opportunities for pride in place and a celebration of cultural assets strengthening community cohesion.
3. Economy: The culture and creative industries are one of Gateshead's strongest economic sectors, accounting for approximately 15% of all enterprises and generating an estimated £318m in direct and indirect impact for the local economy. Culture and creative industries have a key role in creating jobs, attracting visitors, and opening up new opportunities for residents across Gateshead.
4. Health and wellbeing: Culture contributes significantly to the health and wellbeing of our residents. The benefits of connecting people through culture are multiple. Culture activities support healthier lives, reduce loneliness, and allow people to express themselves through creativity.

Pillar 1: Civic, Community and Grass roots leadership

Funding: Funding is the single largest challenge that many local cultural organisations and creative industries face. It is the barrier that prevents them from doing the things they would like to do and the thing that prevents infrastructure bodies doing all that they would wish to. Funding alone does not solve every problem, but it does allow organisations to do more brilliant things.

The funding challenges operate on three distinct levels. There are the visibility problems associated with funding. This is the awareness of what funding is available, the criteria in which it can be applied for, and the awareness of the great work that is going on in Gateshead for external funders. There is the problem of how funding geographies overlap with Gateshead working between regional and national funding. There is the capacity problem of supporting organisations to build internal resources to attract new funds.

Our work will therefore work on all three levels at once. Our plan is ambitious but organisations in Gateshead deserve that level of ambition:

• Streamlining: We will make more visible the pots of funding that communities can apply for through a single communication outlet. This will be curated and widely shared so organisations do not miss out on funding they could otherwise apply for. Should any discretionary council funding arise criteria will be made visible, winners will be celebrated, and the outcomes will be evaluated to support greater use of funding in the future.
• Attracting new funds: We will work with Gateshead's cultural and creative leadership to continually make the case for creative investment in Gateshead. Through engagement with community groups, cultural organisations, businesses, and partners, we will develop a series of fundable propositions across national and regional priorities in skills, the visitor economy, and culture led regeneration. We will also work in partnership in driving the case for further culture investment in the region including in the maintenance of our nationally leading assets.
• Capacity building: We will work with our external partners to provide support for business development and fundraising. Through leveraging community expertise, support from our partners, and making the most of existing expertise, we will provide masterclasses, business advice, and fundraising guides.
• Internal positioning: In order to embed culture across the borough we will continually look at how culture can be integrated into emerging plans in regeneration, investment, health, and skills. This will foreground the diversity of our communities and be attuned to their needs.

Pillar 2: Identity

Gateshead is locally excellent and internationally known. To us, there is no distinction between being community led and being world-class. Our work deserves to be celebrated, and our communities should be front and centre of all that we do.

• Gateshead 2028: In 2028 we will launch a borough wide festival of culture to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Angel of the North. The Borough of Culture initiative will be a year-long celebration of events, displays, music, theatre, crafts, volunteering, and community engagement. It will be the year we shine a light on everything we do.
• Communication: We will revisit our communication strategy to place more emphasis on showcasing work going across the borough. We will investigate whether our approach to place-based marketing is making the most of our cultural landscape, we will share the success of our creatives, and advertise our broad national and local events offer, to ensure we are celebrating Gateshead's distinctive offer.
• Inclusive, community led events: Supporting community led events, engaging groups across the generations, will continue to be a core part of Gateshead Council's work. We will ensure we are building inclusive approaches to sharing work, engaging with the broadest range of Gateshead's citizens and letting others know about its impact. We will enhance our approach to evaluation to help make the regional and national case for further support.

Recognition: We are proud of our creative industries. We can attract global musicians, international events, and world-famous sports, and we want to ensure this not only puts Gateshead on the maps but lights up our wider place.

• Place activation: The benefits of the events in Gateshead should be widely felt. Learning lessons from the likes of Taylor Town in Liverpool which generated commission for local artists, additional tourist visits, and attention on the place, Gateshead will bring together its key partners around large events to help bring a spirit of celebration and ensure the benefits are widely felt.
• The Gateshead Mirror: Gateshead benefits from global arts and performance and local talent. As part of the integration of culture in our place we will work with partners to commission public art that reflects and reinterprets new exhibitions in Gateshead. This will support artists, drive interest, and support the careers of new and emerging local artists.
• Investment: We will work with businesses in Gateshead to drive investment into the creative industries. Building on the density of businesses in the Quayside and town centre we will support the continual development of inward investment prospectuses using Gateshead's land assets, clusters of businesses, and access to talent, to drive further investment.

Pillar 3 : Economy

The data gathered as part of this project demonstrates that Gateshead's creative economy is robust, it is growing faster than many parts of the North East, and around 15 per cent of all enterprises in Gateshead are based in the creative industries.

The benefits of a thriving creative industries are manifold. They attract people to a region, they create jobs, and the crowd in agglomerate economic benefits through tourism, employment, and business creation. Through econometric analysis as part of this programme we estimate that creative industries create around £318m of direct and indirect benefits to the local economy. This does not include all of the enormous savings to the public sector through wellbeing and community services.

Gateshead's economy has a number of large cultural organisations and a number of smaller grassroots organisations. This strategy aims to ensure the largest organisations succeed so their benefits can be widely felt while boosting the work of smaller organisations - working together through place leadership. At the same time, our goal is to cluster in new businesses and funding.

• Creative industries and Culture Partnership: Gateshead Council will work in partnership with cultural practitioners, creative industries, businesses, land a cross-section of community organisations to deliver this strategy. A portion of their work will be working together to find opportunity to share skills, bring in investment, and develop shared programmes of work across the borough.
• Regeneration: There are significant numbers of empty spaces in Gateshead. Aligning with the existing Asset Management strategy Gateshead Council will work to signpost to appropriate spaces, redevelop spaces for communal and cultural use where appropriate.
• Events and place: Gateshead will continue to prioritise the attraction of events and heritage assets as a key driver of economic activity. The creation of cultural growth events and borough-wide activations will drive visitors, create opportunities for freelancers, and engage the local residents. We will work with businesses in key areas across the borough to run an events programme and placemaking campaigns. This will be focussed on driving footfall through music, food, dance, crafts and events events. Collectively, Gateshead will also promote its cultural assets through a place-based-marketing programme that shows its relationships to its partners in the North East.
• Ambition: "The place where you can do anything.": This was a quote from a student who found Gateshead as the home for their art. It was a freedom to express, to try, and to work with others. We want to scaffold their success and grow more artists in the borough. This means continuing with our high-class community work out of libraries and it means the support for community groups referenced throughout this strategy. It also means actively seeking regional investment for new models of skills programmes that support our cultural organisations to support the success of artists through experiential learning and community work. It means that we will actively seek out organisations to come to the borough and bring new employment and engagement opportunities with them. And it means continuing with tailored support where working with our businesses, education partners, and civic leaders, we will provide support for organisations to start-up, scale up, and grow through business advice, networking, and mentoring.

Pillar 4: Health and Wellbeing

Cultural and creative organisations play a key role in the health and wellbeing of the people of Gateshead. They are a key tool for bringing people together inclusively, they improve the mental wellbeing, and they are a key point for communities to connect.

Our ambition is for culture to be widely available because its benefits are enormous. In order to achieve this we will:

• Prioritise art and artists: We will leverage regeneration funding to support public art and wayfinding. This will encourage more people to explore more of Gateshead, help regenerate areas of the borough, and support local artists.
• Investment propositions: Gateshead will collect more data and insight into community led events. These will then be collated thematically into a single database to allow greater sharing and cases for funding. This will help to support the sustainability of the existing wellbeing benefits of culture in the borough.
• Sports- Gateshead Council will continue to work with local sports clubs, sports businesses, and owners of assets, to promote Gateshead as a destination for sports.
• Cultural pop-ups: Gateshead Council will support local arts organisations and artists to display their work across the borough. These kind of pop-up interventions may be one-offs or occur as part of programmed events like food-markets as means of ensuring the wellbeing benefits of culture are widely felt.
• Partnership working: In line with best practice from the Arts Council we will work with partners across the health system to develop interventions in health and wellbeing. We will seek strategic support and funding with likes of the NHS, National Lottery, and social prescribing organisations.

(DRAFT to be further developed with stakeholders and partners)

This framework sets out how the priorities within Creative Places: Gateshead's Culture Strategy will be progressed over the first three years of delivery. It phases strategic actions across years 1 to 3 and illustrates where events activity supports delivery.

Events included below are indicative and demonstrate how cultural activity can support health and wellbeing, local economic impact, social value and the profile of Gateshead at local, regional, national and international levels. Delivery will continue to be shaped through co-creation with partners and communities and is subject to approval, funding and capacity.

Year 1: Foundations and visibility (2026-27)

Pillar 1: Civic, community and grass roots leadership

Pillar 2: Identity

• improve visibility of cultural funding opportunities through clearer communications
• strengthen communications to support Gateshead's cultural identity and visitor experience
• support community-led cultural activity, with improved evaluation and storytelling
• deliver civic milestones celebrating Saltwell Park, Gateshead Central Library and the Millennium Bridge
• Pride in Place Impact Fund - programme delivery
• expression of Interest for UK Town of Culture bid 2028

Indicative events:

• Saltwell Park 150th anniversary programme
• Millennium Bridge 25th anniversary celebrations
• Neighbourhood-based parks and community events
• SHAPE Youth Festival

Pillar3: Economy

• begin establishing a Culture and Creative Industries Partnership
• deliver culture plan and regeneration plans
• pilot events-in-places activity to support footfall for local businesses
• continue attracting and supporting major cultural events as drivers of economic activity
• Pride in Place Impact Fund - programme delivery

Indicative events

• Baltic Square summer programme
• Gateshead Sculpture Festival
• World and local food event
• Christmas programme and festive activations

Pillar 4: Health and wellbeing

• continue support for public art and creative activity in public space
• strengthen links between culture and wellbeing outcomes
• improve data capture on community-led and participatory events

Indicative events

• SHAPE Youth Festival
• Project: Play
• Art Diamonds (older people's programme)
• Reading and creativity celebrations

Year 2: Growth, participation and investment (2027-28)

Pillar 1: Civic, community and grass roots leadership

Pillar 2: Identity

• expand community-led activity across more neighbourhoods
• strengthen place activation around cultural activity
• grow recognition of Gateshead's creative practitioners and grassroots organisations
• Pride in Place Impact Fund - programme delivery

Indicative events

• expanded neighbourhood parks programme
• Gateshead Arts Trail
• nature connections and outdoor cultural activity
• continued civic and seasonal programming

Pillar3: Economy

• formalise cultural governance through the Creative Industries and Culture Partnership
• develop fundable propositions for regional and national investment
• expand events-in-places activity with local businesses
• strengthen place-based marketing within Gateshead

Indicative events

• expanded Baltic Square programme
• MakerPlace Fair
• Sculpture Festival (established annual footing)
• pilot "Light up Gateshead" programme

Pillar 4: Health and wellbeing

• continue to deepen partnerships with health, education and voluntary sector partners
• develop shared approaches to measuring wellbeing impact
• embed culture within broader prevention and wellbeing agendas

Indicative events

• expanded SHAPE Youth Festival
• Project: Play (expanded)
• Art Diamonds celebration

Year 3: Scale, profile and legacy (2028-29)

Pillar 1: Civic, community and grass roots leadership

Pillar 2: Identity

• deliver large-scale, borough-wide cultural celebration
• position Gateshead confidently at regional and national level
• celebrate major civic, heritage and cultural milestones

Indicative events

• Angel of the North 30th anniversary programme
• Tyne Bridge Centenary
• Gateshead Arts Trail (expanded)
• borough-wide cultural celebrations

Pillar 3: Economy

• deliver a major flagship cultural festival at scale
• drive cultural tourism, footfall and spend across the borough
• strengthen Gateshead's reputation as a place for creative growth and innovation

Indicative events

• major Arts, Culture and Innovation Festival
• world food and music programme
• nature and outdoor cultural programme
• expanded Light up Gateshead

Pillar 4: Health and wellbeing

• demonstrate long-term wellbeing, social and economic impact of culture
• embed cultural delivery into ongoing regeneration, health, and economic strategies

Indicative events

• SHAPE Youth Festival (expanded)
• winter cultural programme and Christmas offer