A VISION for the cultural development of the North-East over the next 15 years is to be set out.

The Case for Culture will become a key element of North East Culture Partnership’s (NECP) plans to secure more investment in the sector.

The vision aims to demonstrate culture's role in helping to define the distinctiveness of the region, as well as boosting jobs and growth, health and wellbeing, and attracting more tourist to the North-East.

A consultation has been launched and people involved in arts and heritage have been encouraged to help shape and inform the Case for Culture proposals.

The consultation will be coordinated by County Durham's Beamish Museum.

They will be in touch with more than 20 organisations, including local cultural partnerships, universities and business networks, to start gathering views and ideas.

John Mowbray, co-chair of NECP, said: “The Case for Culture will be an important tool in supporting the North East Culture Partnership to influence key decision-makers across a range of sectors.

"It will establish the credibility, expertise and significance of the cultural sector to the economic life, health and wellbeing of the whole of the North East.”

Jane Tarr, director of organisational resilience and environmental sustainability at the Arts Council England, said: “It’s vitally important that the Case for Culture is informed and shaped by the views, ideas and ambitions of individuals and organisations right across the North-East with an interest in culture.

"This will enable the initiative to imagine what the region’s cultural infrastructure and programming might look like 15 years from now, building on the region’s strengths and all that makes the North-East so wonderfully distinctive.”

The North East Cultural Partnership is asking organisations to register their interest in the project by contacting info@case4culture.org.uk