Soft Touch Arts has been creating opportunity for and changing the lives of young people for 35 years using arts, media and music. Support from Arts Council England has been vital in helping the charity to grow and develop and to continue offering exciting and engaging creative projects to young people across Leicester and Leicestershire.
Helen Pearson, Co-Director at Soft Touch Arts said: “We’re very excited and pleased to be one of 990 successful National Portfolio Organisations across the country, receiving £270,000 over three years (2023-2026). This will allow us to continue delivering our work which has such a big impact on young people’s lives”.
Peter Knott, Area Director for Arts Council England said: “Opportunities for young people to take part in the arts are key to developing the next generation of creative talent, which is why we’re delighted to be supporting Soft Touch over the next three years. It’ll be great to see our funding help young people – no matter what their background – engage in arts and culture.”
Fran Sharman, a young person working at Soft Touch in a leadership development role said: “As a young person who has both attended Soft Touch projects and been given the opportunity to work here, I’ve experienced first-hand the boost in confidence, self-belief and opportunities using the arts to engage with young people like me offers. I’m happy that other young people will have the chance to experience creativity in their lives and benefit from the kind of opportunities I’ve had at Soft Touch”.
See more on Arts Council England’s 2023-26 Investment Programme on their website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/investment23 Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. www.artscouncil.org.uk