A MULTI-million pound grants package which will turn Teesside into a centre of arts, is being announced today.

Up to £10m is to be pumped into the creation of a Centre for International Street Arts in Stockton - home of the annual International Riverside Festival- and funding for a gallery scheduled to open in Middlesbrough in early 2005.

Andrew Dixon, executive director of the Arts Council in the North-East, said: "The Tees Valley has the UK's leading young people's theatre company in Cleveland Theatre Company, the best international streets arts festival in the UK and a growing reputation for its work in arts in education and public art; but we still don't have the capital infrastructure which a population this size deserves and there are too few independent arts organisations.''

He said a five-year plan would invest in new talent, new artists, new arts organisations and in new partnerships."

The Arts Council says artists in the Tees Valley will benefit from a new programme of major awards.

The package also includes funding for the Tees Valley Dance Initiative, the Cleveland Theatre Company, Darlington Arts Centre and the Arc centre, in partnership with Stockton Council.

There will be money for the riverside festival, Saltburn Artists' studios and other projects. More than £1m will be spent on encouraging the arts in the area's schools and colleges.

The programme will be unveiled at a conference of various organisations on Teesside today.