City-wide arts collective Stoke Creates has been awarded charitable status.
Since 2021, the organisation has brought together artists, creative industries, local authorities and businesses, injecting around £2 million into arts projects and securing funding from Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund, UK Shared Prosperity Fund, Know Your Neighbourhood and philanthropic initiatives including The Big Give and Stoke100.
In June, Stoke Creates worked with Stoke-on-Trent City Council, funded by Arts Council England and private donors, to stage The People’s Parade, which saw around 1,000 participants, including schools, youth groups and performers, take part, drawing thousands of spectators to Hanley.
The ‘cultural compact’, which also spearheaded the campaign that saw Stoke-on-Trent awarded World Craft City Status, previously operated as a Community Interest Company.
Carola Boehm, chair of Stoke Creates, said: “Everything we aim to do is purely for the public benefit. We rely on excellent partnerships and networks to do the work, pulling together input from partners in education like Stoke-on-Trent College, or partners in heritage like Middleport Pottery and Re-form Heritage.
“We are all about making our brilliant arts sector the best it can be, and celebrate the world class expertise we have locally in companies such as the British Ceramics Biennial, the New Vic Theatre, Restoke, The Portland Inn Project and Claybody Theatre.
“The move to become a charity means that more funding opportunities to support local artists and organisations in their work will be open to us, which will certainly help us with our mission to advance arts and culture further in the city so that Stoke can realise its potential as a creative city. We are looking forward to an exciting future.”
Executive Director Susan Clarke added: “A key role of Stoke Creates has been to contribute to local, regional and national strategy for arts and culture, which has enabled the infrastructure required for all art forms to thrive.
“Now, it is really quite exciting to move into charity status as we look to create even more ambitious and impactful activities and programmes. The creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK and account for the same amount of national turnover as the retail sector, so we want to position Stoke to take advantage of this continued growth.
“The opportunities for creative careers are not just local but are global and we want to see young people and creative entrepreneurs from the city grow into these opportunities on a world stage.”
