Mansfield has entered a fourth year as an Arts Council England (ACE)-sponsored National Portfolio Organisation after the council formally accepted a grant extension of £618,063.
Over the past three years the council’s NPO funding has allowed to bring world class cultural experiences and events to a much wider audience with ticket sales growing year-on-year from 95,893 in 2023 to 112,821 in 2025.
January and February in both 2025 and 2026 also recorded the highest numbers of first-time attendees with 8,047 recorded in February this year. Targets for the year ahead include trying to improve on that figure and trying to reach a greater number of younger audiences.
Cllr Stuart Richardson, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Growth, said: “This funding from Arts Council England has brought immense cultural benefits to Mansfield over recent years.
“It has allowed us to be much more ambitious and imaginative in the way the arts and culture can be shared and enjoyed by many more people and we hope this funding will help open more doors to local people and that the events, and cultural experiences we are able to stage spark creative curiosity that can lead people down all kinds of career and artistic pathways.”
Among the NPO sponsored events in the coming year are Mansfield Carnival and next year’s FireLight Festival.
The new ACE funding will help support the eight strands of work that have been developed over the past three years.
They include:
• Priority Communities. This strategy supports vulnerable and disadvantaged people to participate in cultural activities. They include Make a Start which helps people over the age of 65 take part in chair-based exercises, arts and crafts and singing in community settings, and Out of the Box, which enables neurodivergent adults to learn theatre skills.
• Learning Together. This scheme supports family learning and builds relations with schools and colleges.
• New Talent. This initiative supports emerging artistic talent and allows for a team of Associate Artists to be supported within Cultural Services.
• Diverse Careers. This project provides opportunities for young people to build professional cultural skills via programmes such as the Technical Academy or support the development of people in the creative sector.
• A Relevant Collection. This strand of work will build on the conservation efforts and digitisation of Mansfield Museum’s collection and pave the way for exhibitions to show the collection in new, engaging and relevant ways.
• Natural Futures. is a programme of climate themed events as well as environmental auditing of assets.
• Mansfield and the World. has allowed for and will continue to allow for the programming of large-scale events and increase the quality and ambition of the artistic programming through partnerships that ensure diverse communities can be reached and represented.
• Inclusive Audiences. The strategy aims to increase reach wider and more diverse audience demographics across north Nottinghamshire.