Mr Sacha Bedding
The Annexe
It has been a difficult few years but we know the future is bright and we are focused on supporting the Cultural Strategy which is now being led by our Local Authority. Like most towns, we have wonderfully creative people. We have the amazing Northern School of Art, independent creative businesses and many local groups. Although things are tough at the moment, we want to shine a light on the importance of creativity and culture to our town’s prosperity and to our physical and mental well-being.
- The Community of Culture and Creativity is being led by the Annexe and supported by Love Hartlepool and Hartlepool Borough Council.
- We are all aware of the positive impact on creativity practices on mental and physical wellbeing, with many organisations leading the way to support well-being using creative and cultural interventions.
- Our Local Authority has recently agreed on an updated cultural strategy and we have agreed to begin a small project as a prototype to demonstrate how to develop a community of culture and creativity.
- The Wharton Trust, operating out of The Annexe Community Centre, is a small, estate based charity in the Dyke House community of Hartlepool. It will be the ideal place to deliver the prototype work. The Annexe is already a cultural organisation in its won right, it has a long history of enabling local people to play a full and active part in creative endeavours.
- The Community of Culture & Creativity recognised the lack of leadership in the creative and cultural section and of the opportunity to create the conditions where local people could be part of something creatively extraordinary.
Meet the team
Francis Cox
Love Hartlepool
Gemma Ptak
Hartlepool Borough Council
