Music Community Research in Berwick
Mapping a future for Berwick’s music community
Music is an essential part of Berwick-upon-Tweed’s culture and identity. Drawing on the town’s unique location as the northernmost town in England and just 4km from the Scottish border, Berwick’s music community – both in the town and its surrounding areas – comprises traditional Northumberland folk, choral, and brass bands, right through to contemporary singer-songwriters, dance, rock and experimental.
To ensure the much-loved music community in Berwick and its surrounding areas continues to flourish and grow, we want to map what it looks like today so we can seek investment for its future.
How to get involved:
- Take part in our online survey: Share your thoughts and feedback through our online survey. You’ll be asked about relationships, collaboration, challenges, and opportunities for improvement.
- Join one of our in-person events: Check back soon or follow our social media for more information on these events.
- Take part in a conversation with someone from the Index Music team: Focused discussions offering a relaxed space to share honest thoughts, feedback and ideas. To find out more about these sessions, please email hello@indexmusic.co.uk.
Who can take part?
To make sure we understand the full breadth of Berwick’s music community, we want to hear from as many people as possible. You might run a venue in the town, take photos at gigs, make artwork for bands, or simply pop along to a live gig once in a while – everyone’s opinion matters. And we’d love to hear from people who live and work in the town, as well as people from the surrounding areas. We know the music community stretches far beyond the town itself.
To get a real understanding of the music ecosystem in Berwick, we’d love to hear from as many people as possible. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a full-time musician or someone who enjoys live music once in a while – if you’re passionate about creating a thriving music community across Berwick, please take part.
What we want to achieve
By understanding the strengths and challenges of Berwick’s music ecosystem, we can seek out ways to make it stronger. We know a thriving music community is based on collaboration, trust, research, and accessible opportunities, which is why we’ll be exploring ways to address:
- Connectivity and networking
- Venues and performance opportunities
- Financial barriers and funding issues
- Social barriers and inclusivity
- Geography/transport barriers
- Local community challenges
- Time constraints and capacity
By understanding how we address these challenges, we can seek out funding, resources and interventions to support the growth of Berwick’s music scene and ensure its long-term future.
What happens next?
Most recently, we completed a research project looking at the music community of County Durham. The final report shares the voices, experiences and insights of local musicians, promoters, educators and music lovers, highlighting the strengths and challenges within the community and offering practical recommendations to support its growth and sustainability.
Once we’ve wrapped up the chats, summarised the surveys and analysed the data, we’ll do the same for Berwick. We then share our findings with the hope it reaches people who need it – to influence, shape and support the future of music across the North East.
You can find out more about Index Music and read its County Durham Music Report here
About Create Berwick
Create Berwick aims to make Berwick one of the most distinctive, must-see cultural destinations in the country. We’ll achieve this by investing in the arts, creativity and culture.
The North East Combined Authority (North East CA) has designated Berwick as one of only three Culture and Creative Zones (CCZs) in the region. A CCZ is a designated area set up to support people and grow businesses working in the cultural and creative industries, with the ambition to provide a supportive and attractive environment for cultural and creative businesses and people to locate, start-up, grow, and flourish.
The North East CA was formed on 7 May 2024. It is led by Elected Mayor Kim McGuinness and the Cabinet and covers the seven local authority areas of County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.
Around £1.5m has been provided by the North East CA to kick-start the Berwick CCZ (now called Create Berwick) over five years from 2022/23 to 2026/27.
These initial resources will help lever in additional funding to invest in activities to support the growth and sustainability of the cultural and creative sector. Create Berwick will provide an inspiring and thriving working environment for creative people, a must-see destination for visitors, and a vital local asset shared by all of Berwick’s residents.
Create Berwick is funded by the North East CA and Northumberland County Council.
It is led by a small team at Northumberland County Council, supported and guided by an advisory group made up of people, creatives and artists from all over Berwick and North Northumberland.
