Culture, creativity and heritage makes Torbay a better place in which to live, work, learn and visit. Torbay Culture was set up with support from Arts Council England to provide strategic leadership for the local culture sector, and progress the cultural strategy which is focused around people and place.
TORBAY CULTURE’S WORK
We want culture, heritage, and creativity to be high quality, valued, sustainable, and embedded across all parts of life.
Two central programmes of work are progressing the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) programme, focused around the Paignton Picture House; and delivering the Torbay Local Heritage Grant Scheme.
A third, larger-scale, and longer-term programme of work is that of being a Heritage Place as announced by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in October 2023. That is a10 year investment partnership approach which will be transformational for heritage in locations across the United Kingdom.
Torbay’s selection as one of the first Heritage Places was determined during 2023, in collaboration with the team at the Heritage Fund working closely with the then Executive Director here and Torbay Council colleagues, and informed by Data for Heritage Places which uses insights into heritage, society and investment.
Torbay’s Cultural Development - Paignton Picture House is supported with almost £3m investment from the CDF, a Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) fund, managed by Arts Council England; and Future High Streets Fund investment of almost £1.9m from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC). You can read more about this here. We will be updating the website with more details in due course. Keep up to date with our news pages.
We created the Torbay Local Heritage Grant Scheme which is possible thanks to investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The first round of grants was awarded in September 2023, with future rounds during 2024/25. This dedicated webpage has all the details about the scheme, the criteria, how to apply, and where to get advice in advance of applying.
EARLIER ACTIVITY
During 2020-22 our focus was on supporting culture recovery and providing strategic leadership in Torbay. This includes activity funded by the government’s Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage.
During 2017-20, much of our work was Torbay’s Great Place Scheme. This major programme totalled £1.6m, of which almost £1.2m was investment from the Heritage Fund and Arts Council England, and supported by Historic England. This is the first time there was national multi-agency investment for culture and heritage in Torbay, and the evaluation in 2021 is important as it informs our future activity and approaches.
Torbay Culture delivers impact by:
developing partnerships to influence strategic planning and decision-making
supporting cultural practitioners and venues to continue their work, develop and grow
spotlighting the positive aspects of Torbay’s arts, culture and heritage
focusing on legacy and sustainability in all our projects
sharing our learning as we work towards our long term vision.
Take a look at this simple guide to Torbay’s Great Place Scheme
All Great Place Scheme projects were grouped under our four priority themes below:
CREATE TO RECOVER
During 2020, Torbay Culture initiated a programme in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by Arts Council England
TORBAY GREAT PLACE SCHEME
Visit the Knowledge Share part of the website to download resources, including the Torbay Scheme evaluation, individual project reports and case studies.
The national evaluation report of the Great Place Scheme (England) can be found at the links below: