I left Arts Council England in 2013 and set up the The North East Culture Partnership (NECP) as a P/T job share with my colleague Jonathan Blackie. NECP worked to bring together practitioners, local authorities, universities, colleges, businesses and voluntary organisations across the North East of England to champion, promote and support the arts and heritage sectors in the region and internationally. The NECP was launched in 2013 to support and develop the North East’s cultural offer. We expanded to include colleagues Teresa Kirby, Peter Bromley and Ruth Robson and worked with our board members to make the 'Case for Culture' and to build upon the commitment and enthusiasm of the region for its arts and heritage, champion its development, and proactively support economic, social and creative growth in the North East.
The Case for Culture (C4C) was launched in 2015 as a statement of ambition and was created from our consultation with over 1000 people within the culture sector itself, it built on the strengths of the region’s diverse communities and highlighted opportunities for much needed investment in arts and heritage in the North East of England. NECP worked to bring the sector together through thematic sub-groups including: International, Heritage, Universities, Children and Young People, Creative Health, Regional Culture Partnerships and more, and NECP organised annual forums which were the biggest cross practice gatherings of the sector.
Our tenure at NECP coincided with challenging economics conditions at a national level which saw the North East region lose European Funding after Brexit, reduced culture funding due to austerity and then the impacts of the Covid lockdown, In 2022 we published one of the first Covid Recovery plans for the culture sector and a Refreshed Case for Culture. Our research showed that the culture sector has proved to be extraordinarily resilient despite an ongoing imbalance of national investment.
NECP's funding ceased in 2025 and we look forward to the North East Combined Authority announcing their plans to support and develop culture.
