£750,000 boost for Sheffield art gallery

SHEFFIELD’S Site Gallery has been awarded a grant of £750,000 for its City of Ideas project which aims to develop art and culture in public spaces.

The scheme funded by the Arts Council will create new and accessible public art commissions animating existing spaces in the city centre and opportunities for young people, artists, the digital sector and public to work together over the next three years.

The Site Gallery, in the heart of the city’s Cultural Industries Quarter, is an international centre for contemporary art and has an extensive programme of exhibitions, conferences, artists talks and festivals.

Paul Houghton, head of Grant Thornton, Sheffield and board member of Sheffield City Region LEP, said: “This is truly excellent news for Sheffield. We’re a city which has a beating heart of creativity, coupled with some great examples of collaborative cross-sector activity.

“However, it is its ambition that has won us this Ambition for Excellence funding – which means it is so much more than being about the money. A #vibrantSheffield is a city sharing knowledge and connections – that’s what ‘City Of Ideas’ is about, and this programme could be game changing.”

Laura Sillars, artistic director at Site Gallery, said: “City of Ideas embraces the power of art to connect people and to shine a light on this extraordinary creative and energetic city. We’re working with an incredible team of passionate, brilliant people to make this urban realm project take shape who are all over the moon at today’s news.”

Ms Sillars says the investment from ACE reflects the cultural strength and cross sector links in the city, between arts, business and education recently evidenced by the Great Exhibition of North bid, Art Sheffield and the current Sheffield Culture Consortium’s Year of Making.  

The project connects to the multi-million pound investment in Sheffield City Council’s Knowledge Gateway Project – an urban regeneration project within the Cultural Industries Quarter that includes millions of pounds of investment in public realm and capital projects in the area.

‘City of Ideas’ is being led by Site Gallery, in partnership with Sheffield City Council, British Council, Yorkshire Artspace, Showroom Workstation, Forced Entertainment, Artworks Sheffield, Eclipse Theatre, Doc/Fest and Sheffield Hallam University.

The team will work with Sheffield Culture Consortium, with additional funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Sheffield City Region LEP.

Activity will begin in January with the first year’s programme to be announced in the coming weeks.