THREE Tynedale organisations have been announced as recipients of funding from Arts Council England.
Mortal Fools, Queen's Hall Arts Centre and Bloodaxe Books Ltd have been named as three organisations to benefit from support of the Arts Council in its National Portfolio.
Over the next three years, Northumberland will see £3,871,356 invested into its cultural organisations.
Based in Ashington with an office in Prudhoe, Mortal Fools is a theatre company that strives to connect young people with performing arts.
Kiz Crosbie, Mortal Fools CEO and artistic director, said: "We're over the moon that Arts Council has added us to its next National Portfolio – a wonderful piece of news to receive in our 10th birthday year.
"As a purpose-driven organisation, we are excited to use the support from Arts Council to work alongside other sector colleagues to bring about positive change for the cultural sector – especially following the last several tumultuous years.
"We are excited to be part of bringing the Let's Create Strategy into action, particularly creating more cultural opportunities for high quality creative participation for young people that will benefit from it the most."
Mortal Fools will be awarded £180,000 every year from 2023 for the next three years, which amounts to more than £540,000.
This funding will enable Mortal Fools to increase its impact, supporting more children and young people and their wellbeing through creative interventions. As core funding, it secures the sustainability of its current project portfolio for the long-term.
Queen's Hall Arts will receive £120,321 every year for the next three years.
It received the same amount from the Arts Council in the 2022 to 2023 annual funding period.
Katy Taylor, artistic director of Queen's Hall Arts said: "All of us at the Queen's Hall are delighted to receive Arts Council England NPO funding which allows us to continue to deliver great art and culture in Hexham, the Tyne Valley and beyond. We will work with our communities to create wonderful projects, exhibitions and performances, as well as being a great space for community productions. Next year look out for our youth music festival, Hexham Pride and the return of Animating Hexham."
Bloodaxe Books, a Hexham book publisher internationally renowned for quality of literature, will receive £110,000 annually from 2023 to 2026.
The publisher received funding in the last two National Portfolios.
Neil Astley, the publisher's founder and editor, said they are 'delighted' to receive funding for the next three years.
Funding will allow them to participate in projects to increase diversity in poetry, such as publishing multi-lingual international anthologies of poets of colour.
"They're things we wanted to do but are very expensive due to copyright fees. We also have the first ever Sri Lankan poetry anthology which will be in three languages," Neil said.
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