The Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge area is set to benefit from £1.8m of new Arts Council funding.
Sedgemoor is one of the areas that the Arts Council has identified as having especially low involvement in arts and culture.
The new injection of funding will go to Seed, a project set up by the Arts Council to reach people who do not take part in creative activities.
Seed is a consortium of local organisations led by Homes in Sedgemoor, which includes local authorities such as Sedgemoor District Council, Somerset Film and Young Somerset.
The group recently organised Burnham and Highbridge’s Christmas lantern parades, plus ‘Blues in The Pews’ at St John’s Church in Highbridge, and a front garden music festival earlier in the year in the two towns, alongside other events.
Director Scott O’Hara says: “We’re very excited. This means we now have funding to get us to the half way point of our 10-year plan to work with every area of Sedgemoor.”
“Everybody has creativity in them. It’s all about providing opportunities. We are now going to work with the community to create a summer festival of music, theatre, dance and visual arts in summer 2023.”
Announcing the funding, the Arts Council says the rural nature of the area, and the limited cultural infrastructure were key factors in why so few people got involved with the arts.
Claire Tough, the Chair of Seed, describes the funding as “a real vote of confidence” and “a wonderful opportunity to grow and progress our work into new areas of Sedgemoor.”
She says the grpup can now plan for more events, including an arts festival in the summer of 2023, and focus more attention on working with people in other parts of Sedgemoor.
Sedgemoor shares the £1.8m funding with the New Forest. The investment is part of £38.3m given to Arts Council Creative People and Places projects like Seed across England.
A Seed spokesman added: “We are very pleased to announce that Arts Council England have granted us an extension to our funding, ensuring the continuation of our work across Sedgemoor until March 2025.”
“Tying in neatly with our second birthday, it’s an exciting week as we receive the news of the extension.”
“This additional funding will help us continue our 10-year plan to bring creative arts activities and experiences to the residents of Sedgemoor.”
“We are looking forward to working with more communities in the district to find out what you would like to see and do, as well as continuing to deliver a varied and exciting programme of events.”
