Press release: Support Northern Powerhouse culture this Christmas, minister says during Coronation Street trip

Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry today (Friday 8 December) called on communities to support local cultural institutions over the festive break as he visited the Rovers Return set of Britain’s best-loved soap.

Jake Berry walked the famous cobbled street and met the cast and crew of Coronation Street in Manchester to mark Northern Powerhouse Culture Week, and celebrate over 57 years of the household show being broadcast to the nation.

During the trip he threw the spotlight on how government investment is supporting cultural institutions across the North of England, and urged people to get out and celebrate their local highlights.

Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry said:

I can’t think of a more perfect way of marking Culture Week than visiting the set of one of the world’s most iconic TV shows – made right here in the Northern Powerhouse.

As well as being an economic powerhouse, the North of England is also a cultural powerhouse, with hundreds of the country’s best museums, art galleries and other cultural organisations on people’s doorsteps.

Over the festive period, I’d encourage people to try something they haven’t before. From Liverpool’s Albert Docks to Newcastle’s Discovery Museum, let’s enjoy some of the most iconic, well-known and well-loved places the Northern Powerhouse has to offer.

Cultural funding

As part of its commitment to ensuring that the Northern Powerhouse continues to blaze trails in arts and culture industries in the UK, the government has invested:

• £13 million to the Hull City of Culture 2017
• £20 million for the Great Exhibition of the North and for a Northern Cultural Regeneration fund to pave way for future cultural investment in the Northern Powerhouse
• £78 million for the Factory Manchester – Manchester’s new theatre and exhibition space
• and from April 2018, an additional £170 million, or 75% of the Arts Council’s lottery funding, will be invested outside of London, which means an additional 31 cultural institutions and organisations in the North will receive regular government investment

During the visit, the minister also visited the Manchester Museum, which has benefitted from £5 million of government funding, to hear about exciting plans for a new South Asia gallery. This will draw on some of the best of the national collections from the British Museum to engage with the city-region’s diverse communities and tourists.

Culture Week (4-8 December) showcased the amazing talent and industry throughout the North from sports and the arts, to the media and music and film industries. The themes for week included:

• sporting culture – Monday
• arts culture – Tuesday
• exhibiting culture – Wednesday
• media culture (TV, film, gaming) – Thursday
• music culture – Friday

Visit @NPHinfo on Twitter for more information or search #CulturedNorth.

The week coincided with the announcement of 11 bidders for the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund – a £15 million government investment to help build a lasting regional legacy from the Great Exhibition of the North.