Gloucester City Council and Gloucester Culture Trust are receiving £100,000 from the High Streets Heritage Action Zone to bring a programme of cultural events to Gloucester city centre.
Gloucester Culture Trust will work with a consortium of local organisations like Strike a Light theatre company, to create community led cultural events in the Westgate Street area of the city.
The funding comes after the success of various pilot projects, including the ‘Interactive Archaeology’ exhibit on Westgate Street in September 2020.
Plans for the new project already include funding an artist in residence for one day per week for the next nine months, to create artworks inspired by the stories, history and architecture of Westgate Street; and the return of ‘Interactive Archaeology’ with three new pieces of artwork from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 July 2021.
The £100,000 grant comes in addition to a £1.9 million investment awarded in 2020 to regenerate Westgate Street’s historic buildings, improve the area for local people and businesses, and attract tourism.
Leader of Gloucester City Council, Councillor Richard Cook, said: ‘I am delighted that the Cathedral Quarter Cultural Consortium are sharing their expertise to develop this exciting initiative.
‘Arts and cultural events bring our historical characters, stories, and events to life for people and help us to understand and more deeply engage with our past. In celebrating this we will hopefully reinforce the importance of our historic buildings and sites and how they can contribute to well-being, sense of place and make our city even more attractive to visitors and investors alike.’
The project aims to involve local people in making decisions about all of the activities provided and is encouraging anyone with ideas to get in touch.
