Seaside lights plan to inspire and drive inward investment into region

All eleven Local Enterprise Partnerships from across the Northern Powerhouse Region were invited to bid for a share of the new £15m Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund, and in York, North Yorkshire and East 
Riding, six projects have been narrowed down to one bid to go forward.

The bid chosen to go through is for “Constellations: Illuminating the Yorkshire Coast”, and it originated from the Scarborough Creative Driver Partnership, made up of a number of cultural organisations in the area.

The installations are proposed in the following locations:

Whitby – Old Swing Bridge

Scarborough – Art Gallery down to Rotunda and the seafront

Filey – The Brigg/New Visitors Centre

Bridlington – Garrison Square

Withernesa seafront

Hornsea seafront

The fund aims to create a legacy from The Great Exhibition of the North which will happen next year, and is to raise aspiration, pride and visibility as well as strengthening communities and provide cultural activity for people in places of least engagement.

Local Enterprise Partnership Board Member Richard Shaw said: “A vibrant and visible culture is critical to making a case for enterprise, inward investment and for making great places – which we know the Yorkshire Coast already is – even greater.

“If “Constellations” captures the imagination of the Government’s decision makers for the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund, it will give a real boost to the Yorkshire’s Coast’s economic regeneration that the area truly deserves.”

The successful projects will be announced in March.