Arts Council funding helps Mansfield reach new audiences

The NPO status, approved in 2022, means the council has been awarded more than £1.7m from Arts Council England (ACE) to deliver creative and cultural activity in the community.

The grant has been used to provide various projects at Mansfield Museum and Palace Theatre.

These funds include new creative partnerships, collaborations with community groups and welcoming new artists to take residency in the town.

To be eligible for the funds, the council had to demonstrate it could contribute strongly to the ACE Let’s Create project, a 10-year vision that allows everyone to experience high-quality cultural experiences in England.

Since the grant was awarded, the council’s cultural services have:

• Run over 100 events, including shows, workshops, touring artworks, creative learning activities, family workshops, exhibitions, performances and educational activities
• Sold over 3,254 tickets and have achieved a cumulative attendance of over 230,000 people across events in the museum, theatre and across Mansfield.
• Consistently engaged with audiences who are less likely to access arts and cultural experiences nationally, with five per cent of people attending a particular kind of cultural event for the first time.

Surveys of audiences have demonstrated that people attending for the first time were most likely to be aged 45 to 49 along with significant increases in attendance from people over 40, especially age groups 55 to 59 and those aged over 74.

The most common age group among audiences has been 35 to 39 in the past year.

Eight out of ten attend with friends or family and are local to Mansfield.

There has also been success in reaching more audiences among people who identify as deaf, disabled or neurodivergent.

Coun Stuart Richardson (Lab), portfolio holder for regeneration and growth, said: “We cannot stress highly enough how crucial this ACE funding has been in providing exciting cultural opportunities in Mansfield.

“NPO status has improved the quality of life of our residents by enabling high quality culture to be enjoyed locally and by greater and more diverse audiences.

“It has also provided possibly life-changing opportunities for people interested in making a career within the arts sector, and positions Mansfield as a centre of cultural and creative development and excellence in north Nottinghamshire and change perceptions people have about this district that take it well beyond the idea of Mansfield as a former mining town.”

In a report to the council’s overview & scrutiny committee on February 27, Sian Booth, cultural services manager updated councillors on how the council was meeting its service delivery obligations attached to the NPO status,

She said: “We are well on target to meet our cultural obligations as a NPO holder.

"The third quarter of the year has seen notable progress in our commitment to the ACE investment principles.

“In the final quarter we aim to focus on the need for our work to be artistically dynamic particularly in relation to priority communities and ensuring that our work is even more inclusive and relevant to a broader demographic.

“In the past year, we have been especially effective in improving the health and wellbeing of highly vulnerable and often isolated communities in a range of projects and initiatives.”