Manchester pledges investment in cultural organisations

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has committed to continued investment in its culture, heritage and creative organisations in a new five-year strategy.

The authority recently unveiled CreateGM, which covers how it will develop, support and invest in culture across its 10 districts.

GMCA says its mission in the strategy is to “care for and invest in our artists, audiences, heritage assets and cultural organisations, creating the conditions for creative businesses and communities to thrive and for people to enjoy, create, learn, understand and express themselves”.

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The strategy explains GCMA is part-way through a cultural funding round, after signing off a new investment approach last year worth almost £4m annually, including three-year grant funding for 40 cultural organisations across the area. 

Much of the funding is currently delivered across two streams – Spirit and Sustain – which offer grants of between £20,000 and £200,000 and in excess of £200,000. Another fund, Inspire, offering one-off development grants between £500 and £2,000 to creative freelancers and small culture, heritage and creative businesses, launched earlier this year.

The strategy says a new fund, Collaborate, available to consortia that work to deliver the strategic aims of the Greater Manchester strategy, will follow later this year.

CreateGM says GMCA will begin looking at the investment approach for April 2026 onwards next year, which it adds will be closely informed by priorities outlined within the new strategy.

“This could include clearer and more tailored support for heritage organisations and practitioners, libraries, the creative industries and organisations and individuals who do not currently access GMCA funding,” the strategy says.

News of continued support will be welcomed by Greater Manchester’s cultural organisations. Like elsewhere in the country, some locally-based organisations have experienced growing financial pressures, such as Contact Theatre, which posted an almost £1m deficit in May.

More recently, photography network Redeye, a Manchester-based former National Portfolio Organisation, announced its closure, citing a lack of funding as a contributing factor. 

Objectives

The strategy also sets out a series of objectives GMCA is committed to achieving by 2030.

These include ensuring there are clear and equitable pathways for those who want to pursue a career in culture, heritage and the creative industries, that people working in the industries are fairly remunerated for their work and that all residents are given the opportunity to create, contribute to and enjoy culture and heritage.

Elsewhere, the strategy commits to better representation of currently under-represented groups across cultural spaces, the navigation of “increasingly complex” questions around AI, freedom of speech and climate justice and improving data collection and research to better inform culture-related decisions.

CreateGM says a programme of activity will be developed each year that delivers against the priorities. For 2024/25, these activities include continued investment, developing and delivering international partnerships, advocating for culture, heritage, libraries and the creative industries’ inclusion in wider Greater Manchester strategies and supporting Bolton’s tenure as Town of Culture 2024.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham called the strategy “a bold, visionary plan that will shape our future”.

“CreateGM is not just a strategy; it is a commitment – a commitment to our people, to our shared history, and to our future,” Burnham said.

“Together, we will continue to be a beacon of creativity, culture, and heritage, with care for our people and places at the heart of everything we do.”

CreateGM follows Greater Manchester’s first culture strategy, which was published in 2018.

A report published in February found less than half of England’s local authorities have a cultural strategy available on their website.