The Thames Estuary will be seen as an area of opportunity, nationally and internationally, where ambition, vision and strong partnerships align to help our cultural sector to flourish and thrive.

Building on our existing research, pilot projects and the investment secured over the past 4 years, we will ensure that our region has highly visible and sustainable new spaces for cultural production. We’ll develop models to provide space for cultural production, delivering training to increase skills, capacity, knowledge and networks to manage spaces effectively. We will use our expertise to develop projects and to secure investment, building and strengthening relationships and delivering cross-sector training.

The cultural sector will have the skills to grow and sustain their activity, becoming resilient, connected organisations. Our professional cultural sector will generate new ideas, work in partnership and have access to finance to grow their businesses. We’ll support and deliver projects including hubs for performance and createch, testing makerspaces and markets and shape leadership training on business models to encourage growth.

Our Place campaign will deliver regional and national impact as well as strengthening international links, learning from and with others. We will contribute to thought leadership through events and roundtables with developers and investors on culture as a driver for social and economic change.

With creative production placed at the heart of communities, creative industries will become more visible to young people giving better understanding of the opportunities for employment and routes into them.

All of this together will ensure the Estuary has the human and physical cultural capital that it needs for the creative industries to thrive.