Awards night will celebrate the best of the arts in the region

The North East Culture Awards will be presented tomorrow at Stockton's Globe Theatre. Jane Tarr (Director, Skills & Workforces, & North, Arts Council England), who will present the Arts Council Award, looks ahead to the event and reflects on a lively year

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THE North East Culture Awards offer a timely opportunity to reflect on the vital contribution of the arts to life in this region.

It's been heartening, yet again, to see how they improve and even change lives in so many ways.

And it's gratifying that Arts Council England (ACE), often with money generated by National Lottery players, has played a part.

Many creative projects have united people over the last 12 months and the boost to physical and mental wellbeing would be reward in itself, to say nothing of greater social cohesion.

But real economic benefits were confirmed in the independent Spillover Impacts Report commissioned by ACE and published in April.

A collaboration between New Writing North, one of our funded National Portfolio organisations (NPOs), and publisher Hachette UK is cited as an example of how public funding can attract private investment.

It's appropriate that the Culture Awards are being presented in Stockton, a town that's been in the spotlight.