Arts and Business
Our core work involves brokering strategic relationships at all levels between the region’s business and cultural sectors. Areas of activity include sponsorship, governance, professional development and corporate social responsibility.

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Arts Council England, South West
Arts Council England works to get more art to more people in more places. We develop and promote the arts across England, acting as an independent body at arm’s length from government. Between 2006 and 2008, we will invest £1.1 billion of public money from government and the National Lottery in supporting the arts. This is the bedrock of support for the arts in England. We believe that the arts have the power to change lives and communities, and to create opportunities for people throughout the country.

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ArtsMatrix
ArtsMatrix is the continuing professional development agency for creative practitioners in the South West. We enable individuals working in the creative industries to make the most of their careers. There is tremendous creative talent in the South West. We nurture that talent and help individuals realise their potential through a programme of services that includes skills audits, seminars, professional development planning, mentoring, and online and print publications. Working through partnership to develop initiatives that improve and widen access to learning opportunities, ArtsMatrix complements the work of the region’s arts organisations, support agencies and training providers. We provide up-to-date and relevant information on career development, specialist networks, arts facilities and infrastructure, business support services, funding and learning opportunities, promoting continuing professional development as an essential part of working in the creative sector.

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Awards for All
Awards for All is a Lottery grants programme aimed at local communities. It currently awards grants of between £500 and £5,000 in a quick, simple and straightforward way. Each year, it supports more than 850 community projects with just over £3million. It aims to strengthen community activity and increase participation. These awards make a real difference to grassroots community groups and local people.

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Big Lottery Fund
The Big Lottery Fund is a new organisation that will hand out half the money for good causes from the National Lottery. We will make it easier to apply for Lottery money and will make it easier for you to see where the money goes. The Big Lottery Fund was created by merging the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund.

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Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (BCDP)
BCDP is a partnership of Arts Council England, South West, Bristol City Council and Business West which promotes long-term cultural development in Bristol. Projects it has initiated include: At-Bristol Millennium; Brief Encounters Short Film Festival; Animated Encounters festival; the Digital Arts Development Agency; Bristol Legible City. BCDP led Bristol's short-listed bid to be 2008's Capital of Culture. BCDP does not have a dedicated website but has set up project-based sites for The Great Reading Adventure (www.bristolreads.com), an annual citywide reading initiative, and Brunel 200 (www.brunel200.com), the programme of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 2006.

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Business Link
Business Link provides the information, advice and support you need to start, maintain and grow a business. It provides information and advice to help customers make the most of their opportunities. Rather than providing all the advice and help itself, it fast-tracks customers to the expert help they need. The Business Link service is a crucial part of the government's campaign to promote enterprise and to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. Business Link is available locally and quality assured regionally to clear national standards. It is primarily funded by the Department of Trade and Industry, supported by a number of other government departments, agencies and local authorities.

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Business West
Business West incorporates the Bristol, Bath and South Gloucestershire Chambers of Commerce. We are a membership organisation, offering our members exclusive benefits and opportunities to network and promote their business. Business West can help you and your company reach its full potential, by providing information and advice on international markets and people development. We also offer a range of practical training courses from management and supervision to finance, employment law and health and safety. Our aim is to help lead the development and prosperity of the West of England by encouraging and supporting a successful and profitable business community.

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Countryside Agency
The Countryside Agency is the statutory champion and watchdog working to make: the quality of life better for people in the countryside the quality of the countryside better for everyone The Countryside Agency is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). With an annual budget of around £100 million, we have over 600 countryside specialists and support staff in our Cheltenham and London headquarters and offices in every region. In the South West region, we have offices in Bristol and Exeter.

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creating:excellence. The South West Regeneration Centre
creating:excellence is all about know-how. It is one of the regional centres being set up in England to help communities and professionals understand what works and what doesn’t in building sustainable communities. It does this by promoting good practice and avoiding mistakes, and by encouraging better skills in regeneration and renewal. creating:excellence will make it easier for economic, social and environmental projects, big and small, to really make a difference by helping people get the information, advice and support they need. Networking and learning are crucial to the success of creating:excellence. The Regeneration South West Network is at the heart of creating:excellence. It enables people to learn from each other across professional, sector and geographical boundaries. Please visit our web site, or give us a call, to get involved.

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Creative Partnerships
Creative Partnerships works to reinvent the possibilities of creativity in learning whilst placing education at the heart of the creative and cultural industries. It is not a funding body but aims to establish genuine collaborative partnerships to enable the development of programmes that reflect the interests, specialisms and shared vision of those involved. Creative Partnerships is working in a joined-up manner in the south west region, with the original Phase 1 pilot areas of Cornwall and Bristol now joined by Plymouth (Phase 2) and the Forest of Dean (Phase 3). Creative Partnerships, with 36 areas now running across England, is funded by DCMS and DfES and delivered by Arts Council England. Creative Partnership Cornwall & Plymouth - Plymouth Office: 9 Creykes Court, 5 Craigie Drive, The Millfields, Plymouth, PL1 3JB Telephone 01752 225806 Fax 01752 225769 Creative Partnerships Forest of Dean: Carlson Suite, Vantage Point Business Centre, Forest of Dean, GL17 0DD Telephone 0159 4546 555 Creative Partnerships Bristol: Second Floor, Royal Oak House, Royal Oak Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4GB Telephone 0117 9897742

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Creative Skills
Creative Skills provides professional development support for practitioners from creative industries in Cornwall. We offer free information and advice, Training Needs Analysis service, business support, training courses and funding for individual development programmes. Creative Skills is part of Arts Centre Trust Ltd, Registered Charity Number 292138.

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English Heritage (South West)
We exist to: - ensure future generations can enjoy England's historic environment, both through preserving our own sites and more widely by providing advice and assistance to others. - encourage people to understand, value and care for and enjoy England's historic environment, both through our own sites and wider programmes of education and outreach. - ensure that changes to England's historic environment enhance and protect it, both directly through our role in the planning system and indirectly through influence and persuasion.

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Environment Agency
The Environment Agency employs 11,000 people in a head office, 8 regional offices, 26 area offices and 5 specialist national centres in England and Wales. It has an annual budget of about £640 million which is made up of government grants, European Community funding, and income from licensing and regulatory activities. Our society is not kind to its environment or the wildlife that lives in it; industrial, commercial and agricultural activities have taken their toll on the land, water and air, as has sprawling urban development. So our job is to recover the environment from excesses of the past, ensure that present day activities are conducted in such a way that the environment can sustain itself – we call it sustainable development – and protect and enhance the environment so that future generations can enjoy a better quality of life than we do. For details of some of our activities in your area and more general information about what we do please visit our website.

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Equality South West
Equality South West is the UK’s first regional equalities and diversity body. We started work in March 2005 supported by the South West Regional Development Agency and Government Office for the South West. Working with partners across the region we aim to tackle discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, faith, gender, race and sexual orientation. We are supporting dedicated regional networks for each of these six strands. Equality South West is also working with other groups for transgender people, asylum seekers, migrant workers, gypsies and travellers. Our work covers policy development, best practice, awareness raising, training and research. We aim to work with our networks and partners in all of these areas.

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Faithnetsouthwest
faithnetsouthwest is a regional partnership that supports faith groups engaging in social or community activity in the South West region.

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Government Office for the South West (GOSW)
GOSW is an outpost of central government. From our offices in Bristol, Plymouth and Truro we represent the work and interest of several Government departments: Department for Transport (DFT) Department for Education & Skills (DfES) Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Home Office (HO) Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Department of Health (DOH) Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) – of which we form a part This means that we are well placed to tackles issues that cut across the boundaries of more than one Whitehall department and as part of central Government, we also help inform the development of departments’ policies from a regional perspective. Government Offices are charged with working with regional partners and local people to help deliver the Government’s central aims – to achieve high and stable levels of growth and employment, and build an inclusive and prosperous society that can develop in a sustainable way.

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HERDA South West (Higher Education Regional Development Association – South West)
HERDA-SW is the association of HE institutions in South west England. Our vision is to be an effective and proactive association of Universities and Colleges which work together and individually to make a significant contribution to the academic, economic, social and cultural development of the South West. The aims of the Association, defined in its constitution, are: • to extend HE’s contribution to sustainable regional development and competitiveness • to influence and shape the social and economic agenda of the South West region by appropriate joint action

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Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) gives grants to support a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom. The Fund enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From our great museums and historic buildings to local parks and beauty spots or recording and celebrating traditions, customs and history, HLF grants open up our nation’s heritage for everyone to enjoy.

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MLA South West
MLA South West is the strategic development agency for museums, libraries and archives in the region. We are part of the wider MLA Partnership with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the eight other regional agencies. Together we work to improve people's lives by building knowledge, supporting learning, inspiring creativity and celebrating identity. The Partnership acts collectively for the benefit of the sector and the public, leading the transformation of museums, libraries and archives for the future. We receive core funding from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

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Play England South West
Play England aims for all children and young people in England to have regular opportunties for free, inclusive, local play. Play England provides advice and support to promote good practice, and works to ensure that the importance of play is recognised by policy makers, planners and the public

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Public Art South West
Public Art South West is a development agency which takes a leading role in co-ordinating a range of strategies for public art development in the South West. It is funded by Arts Council England. Public Art South West works in partnership with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors. It welcomes collaborations and works closely with artists, architects, developers, local authorities and all those concerned with the quality of our environment. It aims to create opportunities for artists and craftspeople to contribute to the built and natural environment, through initiating and supporting projects which encourage quality and innovation in regard to the concept, context and medium used. PASW’s website Public Art Online is for anyone involved in public art whatever their discipline and whether new to the field or experienced professional. It contains practical guidance, case studies from around the world, a links section, news, information and current research, and covers all aspects of working with and commissioning artists, whatever the context.

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Regional Infrastructure For Social Enterprise (RISE)
RISE is the voice for South West social enterprise and supports the development of sustainable social enterprises in the region. RISE is a membership organisation open to anyone interested in the social enterprise agenda in South West England. RISE runs a Business Advice Network to facilitate learning and information sharing between social enterprise advisors and general business advisors. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the RISE newsletter or would like information about other RISE activities please do contact us

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South West Forum
South West Forum was established in 1999 to ensure that voluntary and community organisations have a strong and effective champion at regional level. The Forum's key role is to be an active and dynamic influence in the region ensuring that the voluntary and community sectors are genuinely engaged in developing and influencing policy. Working closely with regional bodies, including the Regional Assembly, South West Regional Development Agency and Government Office South West, the Forum seeks to raise understanding of the importance of the voluntary and community sector to the social and economic life of the region. The Forum is giving a high priority to developing strong communication and feedback links between its members and representatives on regional bodies. The Forum has a particular interest in tackling disadvantage and promoting social inclusion and sustainability. South West Forum is: A regional Champion for voluntary and community groups An advocate for social change A network for sharing information, promoting good practice and encouraging partnership.

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South West Observatory
We were set up by a partnership of regional bodies to share the production, analysis and dissemination of intelligence and research related to regional policy in the South West of England. The South West Observatory is made up of five thematic modules, seven local intelligence networks and a coordinating core unit. Funding for the South West Observatory is provided by a range of partners. The Core Unit is funded by the South West Regional Development Agency

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South West Observatory Environment Module
The South West Observatory Environment module brings together the knowledge, expertise and concerns of many organisations to provide an overview of the environment in the region and to help inform Regional action.

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South West Observatory Skills & Learning Intelligence Module (SLIM)
The Skills and Learning Intelligence Module (SLIM) exists to bring information and intelligence on skills and learning to policy makers and practitioners across the South West. As a 'module' of the South West Observatory, our aim is to enable programmes and projects that promote skills and learning to be informed by the best available evidence. Our website provides access to growing archives of labour market research, networks, data, news and good practice, and information about us. If you have difficulty finding the information you need, please call our Helpdesk on 01392 264850.

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South West of England Regional Development Agency
The South West Regional Development Agency was established in 1999. Our most important role is to ensure the long-term economic success of the region, by promoting the right skills among its workforce, the most innovative businesses, and a high quality environment.

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South West Protected Landscapes Forum

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South West Regional Assembly
The South West Regional Assembly is a partnership of councillors from all local authorities in the region and representatives of various sectors with a role in the region's economic, social and environmental well-being. It covers an area of 23,829 square kilometres from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire to the Isles of Scilly, and represents a population of almost five million.

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South West Screen
South West Screen is the Regional Screen Agency leading the development of film, television and interactive media in the South West. Our objectives are: to develop a strong infrastructure and sustainable future for the region's media businesses; to develop talent and invest in the professional talent of the region's workforce; to increase access to media product; and to promote the region's assets and encourage more inward investment.

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South West Tourism
South West Tourism is a partnership of private enterprise and both local and central government. We work to encourage the promotion and development of tourism in Bath, Bristol, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire

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Sport England (South West)
Sport England (South West) is one of nine regional offices and our vision is 'Making England an Active and Successful Sporting Nation'. During the production of a National Framework for Sport and a Regional plan for the South West we have explored many key issues relating to increasing and widening participation in sport, reviewing the impact of sport on the health of the nation, educational standards, social inclusion, economic development, community cohesion and other policy areas. The purpose of Sport England is to provide strategic leadership for sport and working with our partners to create the right environment for people to start, stay and succeed in sport at every level.

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