A charity has proposed a new writing centre in the north of England to train up a new generation of talent and redress the balance of publishing power from London.
ADVERTISEMENTA bid for the first National Centre for Writing has been made by New Writing North, an arts charity based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. The call comes alongside the change in government in Britain after the Conservative Party was removed following 14 years of rule.
The £14 million (€16.67 million) plan seeks £5 million (€5.96 million) from the government through its Cultural Development Fund. If given, the centre would train up a generation of writing talent in one of the country’s most deprived cities in the north-east, away from the cultural and economic centre of the country in London.
“For too long, the North's creative talent has been overlooked and dismissed. Almost the entire British publishing industry is based in London, and decision-making centralised in the capital,” North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said.
If the plan comes into action, New Writing North will collaborate with Northumbria University, as well as some of the UK’s biggest publishers such as Hachette UK, Faber & Faber and Simon and Schuster.
“The cultural industries already play a huge role in our regional economy and this is growing. This investment would help revitalise the region, attract inward investment and help train and develop a new generation of local talent,” Claire Malcolm MBE, CEO of New Writing North said.
He continued: “I want young people here to be able to grow up to be publishers, writers, and creatives without presuming that they need to leave the North East to achieve their ambition.”
The UK’s creative industries are one of the most profitable per capita of any European country with the publishing industry alone contributing £11 billion (€13.10 billion) to the economy. Music contributes a similar figure to the publishing industry. Film, TV, radio and photography contribute nearly double that value to the economy at £21 billion (€24.76 billion).
Through supporting writers, the centre aims to create new opportunities in the nation’s creative industries, including “publishing, film and TV, audio, gaming, music, theatre, communications, news, and media and developing areas of innovation in VR and AI”.
Locating the scheme in the north-east is also intended to creatively revitalise one of the poorest areas of the UK. In the same press release that announces the plan, it points to the shocking figure of a quarter of children in 89% of north-east constituencies are growing up in poverty.
For a country as wealthy as the UK (6th highest global GDP) to have such stark poverty in regions beyond the south-east and London necessitates huge structural changes to reduce inequality. Many are hoping the incumbent Labour government will deliver on these needed changes, with this initiative from New Writing North representing that desire in the creative industries.
“It's time to abandon tired perceptions and the decades-long control over funding and powers which stifles the nation's creative potential. Talent is classless, but not everyone gets the opportunity to develop it,” McGuinness said.
“The North East is a powerhouse of creativity and culture and as mayor, I have made commitments to build our economy around creative industries, writing, publishing, and film. Doing so will transform people's life chances, unearth hidden talent, and ensure our creative voice is heard on the national and world stage,” she continued. “Establishing the Centre for Writing in the North East is a vital first step to make that happen.”
