Creative Island Secures £704,000 To Celebrate Everyday Cultural Activity Across The Island

(c) Visit Isle of Wight

Creative Island has secured £704,000 - including £440,000 from Arts Council of England - towards a year-long series of activities designed to celebrate the Isle of Wight as a forward looking and ambitious set of distinctive communities.

A place in which young people can flourish and which nurtures creativity by everyone across every part of the Island.

A range of developments are planned over the next year culminating in a 6-week celebration in autumn 2026.

Phil Gibby, Regional Director of Arts Council South West, said:

"The Isle of Wight’s cultural ambitions are clear to everyone right now.

"From the opening of Department in Ryde, and the achievements of Platform One, the transformation of Ventnor and the wonderful carnival culture that brings the Island together, this is a place where the arts are at the heart of every conversation.

"Our investment will enable the Isle of Wight to go to the next level with its ambition; we applaud the artists, cultural leaders, politicians, and stakeholders who have done so much to make this possible."

Inspired by Marconi’s first radio message from the island, Can You Hear us? has grown out of the IOW cultural strategy, All the Wonder, and aims to build a more confident, resourceful and relevant cultural sector in which creativity is recognised as a key characteristic of the Island and central to our future growth and prosperity.

Gavin Stride, director of Creative Island, said:

"This is such a positive signal for the island, recognising as it does the remarkable creative community that exists here.

"It offers us an opportunity to demonstrate what we are capable of together.

"Our dearest hope is that this is the start of something bigger in which the wider world recognises the Isle of Wight as the special, ambitious and creative place that it is."

One of the first tasks will be to appoint a project producer and support team to pull together the threads of the programme and to ensure we make the most of the opportunity and over the coming months we will be sharing more detail of how people can get involved.