Ten local businesses have been selected to receive a total of £250,000 from the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) Vibrancy Fund.
With the Derby businesses still recovering from COVID-19 restrictions, the scheme was devised to encourage thinking around creating positive experiences when visiting the city centre, to improve the city reputation and to rebuild footfall above and beyond pre-pandemic levels
City businesses were invited to apply to the grant scheme with proposals to deliver a project that would contribute to the vibrancy of the city. Applications closed on Monday 6 September and an assessment of the bids made the following week. Grants of varying amounts have now been awarded to the ten businesses who best met all the criteria.
The grant awards have been made to: Amy Vallance, Anvil Gallery, Artcore, Baby People, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Cubo, Deda, Derby Theatre, Marketing Derby and Quad.
The organisations will now start work on a wide range of projects including city promotion, working with local artists, creative public realm works such as street canopies and lighting schemes.
Councillor McCristal, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, Leisure, Culture and Tourism said:
I am delighted by the response we had to the Vibrancy Fund. We received a large number of really good quality applications and the team had a really tough task in narrowing down the bids.
We will now start the process of bringing these projects to fruition and visitors to the city will start to see some changes fairly quickly as the projects must be completed by February 2022.
Vivek Malhotra, Interim CEO, QUAD said:
Thanks to the success of our ARG application, we are looking forward to playing our part in adding vibrancy to the city centre and transforming some of the city’s most iconic landmarks through cutting-edge projection mapping. Here at QUAD, we’ve created many magical projection-mapping experiences using hired-in equipment at a significant expense. Now that we as a city have this equipment, we can animate our spaces, bringing joy and amazement to people. We’re so grateful for the support.
Amy Vallance, Local Artist said:
I’m so excited to be a part of making our city a more vibrant and exciting place to visit through colour interactivity. With this opportunity it will give me the chance to further my creative ideas and show Visitors of Derby that our city is the new place to visit for art and culture