ARTS Council England (ACE) has this week announced its National Portfolio Organisations (NPO), with continued support promised for Gloucestershire’s strong cultural sector.

The NPO details four years’ worth of investment to a wide range of organisations, with more money than ever before allocated outside of London.

Gloucestershire has an ambitious cultural sector and the ACE investment will support and consolidate this, with total investment for 10 organisations in 2018/19 of £1,167,357.

Over four years this will be a total investment of £4.6 million for the likes of Create Gloucestershire, Prema Arts Centre and The Poetry Archive.

The South West portfolio also sees significant new investment in major urban centres such as Plymouth and Southampton, while National Portfolio organisations will be working primarily in the likes of Torbay, Weston-Super-Mare and Gloucester for the first time.

This means audiences in areas which historically have had less chance to enjoy arts and cultural experiences now have more opportunities to do so within their communities.

Pippa Jones, director of Create Gloucestershire (CG), said: “This investment is fantastic news – it will give more people in more places the chance to explore and experience what Gloucestershire would be like if arts, culture and creativity were part of everyday life, for everyone.

“CG is absolutely delighted to be selected as one of ACE’s new Sector Support Organisations.

“Working collaboratively with the new portfolio of NPO organisations and others, this investment from ACE will provide opportunities for people to get together, explore common ground and understand each other’s assets, resources and networks.

“This will create a seedbed for the sector to grow, diversify and re-imagine the arts, heritage and creative sectors in the county.”

Phil Gibby, director of ACE South West, said: “This is an exceptionally strong portfolio of organisations delivering great arts and cultural experiences to audiences throughout the South West.

“We are delighted to be able to consolidate our investment in Gloucestershire as well as to invite two vibrant, new organisations into the portfolio.

“Their commitment to developing the local arts and cultural infrastructure and networks will have a real and tangible impact on the county, giving Gloucestershire a more powerful shared cultural voice.”

However, he admitted, despite the additional funding for the South West, there is “still a significant gap between ambition and resource”.

“This means we had to make some difficult choices in the SW,” said Phil.

“However, National Portfolio organisations investment is only one part of ACE’s total investment programme and there may be other funding programmes that will be appropriate for organisations to apply to.”