CREATIVITY BOOSTED BY £3M KICK START

THE Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister, Michael McGimpsey highlighted the advantages of a unified regional Government when he announced that £3 million would be available to help fuel the drive to unlock creativity in Northern Ireland.

Mr McGimpsey speaking at the Odyssey in Belfast on Wednesday where, together with three of his Ministerial colleagues, Sir Reg Empey, Dr Sean Farren and Mr Martin McGuinness, he launched ‘Unlocking Creativity – Making it Happen’, the outcome of a consultation process which will provide an initial framework for the development of this strategy.

He said: “I am delighted to announce that my Department, along with those of my three colleagues, has secured around £3 million from Executive Programme Funds to establish the ‘Creativity Seed Fund’ to support projects which are new and innovative but which might not otherwise attract Government help.”

Mr McGimpsey explained that while the fine details had still to be finalised, it was envisaged that the ‘Creativity Seed Fund’, which would be launched in the autumn, would have three main categories to cater for different sizes and types of project.

The three main categories expected to be set up under the ‘Creativity Seed Fund’ are: An ‘Individual Creativity Fund’ for small individual or group projects; A ‘Creativity Development Fund’ for larger projects, involving one or more organisations, which would improve the creative infrastructure in Northern Ireland; and A ‘Digital Creativity Fund’ to be funded under the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Leapfrog Initiative and which would seek to stimulate creative projects which exploit or involve digital technology.

He added: “We will also be working to supplement the Government’s input to this scheme by seeking private sector support and we have been encouraged by the expressions of interest from companies, both local and from overseas.” (AMcE)