You are likely to find a piece of Yorkshire in homes across the world, whether it’s Brontës on bookshelves, the Arctic Monkeys playing on radios or York’s own Dame Judi Dench and Bridlington’s Charlie Heaton on televisions.

It’s surprising that of 42.6 million tourists who visit Britain each year inspired by cultural exports, just a fraction of them visit our county. Yorkshire has such an exciting arts and cultural scene as a draw for visitors, alongside its vibrant towns and cities, National Parks and breathtaking coastline.

Events like the Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards help us to champion our creative sector and show us why we should foreground Yorkshire’s amazing world class artists and cultural organisations.

One of the most influential artists of our time, Bradford’s own David Hockney, showcased Yorkshire’s landscape on the world stage. In a compelling juxtaposition of landscape and art, visitors to Yorkshire Sculpture Park can see sculptures from world-famous artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Damien Hirst, and Henry Moore nestled within its scenery. This internationally-significant visual arts space, which is Europe’s biggest sculpture park, is here on our doorstep.

placeholder image — Pete Massey shares his expert insight

The UK’s theatre sector is world leading and our theatres in Yorkshire contribute significantly to this status. Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre has led the way with its national and international productions by the theatre’s own Alan Ayckbbourn. Leeds Playhouse’ production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe toured the UK before transferring to the West End. Sheffield Theatres are the second biggest source of West End transfers outside London.

They have produced international hits including Life of Pie and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie which both transferred to the West End and Broadway and toured globally, and with the latter becoming a BAFTA-nominated film. Our public investment in theatres across Yorkshire is supporting the production of internationally-celebrated work that helps to shape our global reputation.

Yorkshire is continuing to seize the opportunity to demonstrate its cultural expertise through international collaborations. In recent years we have had several outstanding cultural events taking place across the county: Leeds 2023, Rotherham’s Children’s Capital of Culture and Bradford UK City of Culture, all with cultural programmes that featured collaborations between local and international artists. Our festivals have continued to attract international interest from visitors and dignitaries: the Spanish Consul General attended the recent York Early Music Festival and the Swiss Ambassador attended the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to see the collaboration between Switzerland and Britain, highlighting again the international significance of our cultural sector here in Yorkshire.

Across Yorkshire we also continue to see a crossover between the creative industries and our publicly funded cultural sector, such as the use of digital technologies to expand audiences. Northern Ballet’s digital adaptations of its ballets 1984 and Victoria, which were broadcast on the BBC and in cinemas across the country, helped them to reach a wider national and international audience. The Brontë Parsonage’s support of Emerald Fennell’s adaption of ‘Wuthering Heights’ attracted thousands of new visitors to the museum in Haworth.

As we mark 80 years of Arts Council England investing in arts, culture and creativity we have been reflecting on how nearly a decade of public investment has shaped the lives of people and the places they live, work and visit.

Yorkshire continues to be a cultural hub, with one eye on its creative heritage and another shaping its future. I’m proud that we can celebrate again the amazing work of our cultural organisations through our support of the Yorkshire Post Tourism Awards. We need to continue to nurture our cultural sector so that visitors can continue to discover and rediscover our incredible creative landscape.

Pete Massey is Director, North Partnerships & Place, Arts Council England.