Creative Rusholme sees the potential for building on a wide range of existing cultural facilities, the many students and young people living in Rusholme together with the diverse residential and business communities, including the cultural assets embedded in the Curry Mile to build cohesion, community pride and a positive external profile.

It emerged from the Imagine Rusholme appreciative inquiry workshops of 2012 where local people dreamed a better neighbourhood.

An initial Feasibility Study, conducted by Alia Ullah, an independent consultant, was presented to a group of interested artists, residents, officers and local voluntary and community sectors in 2013. Since then, a series of initiatives have kept the flame alight, co-ordinated by Phil Barton, Elaine Bishop and Helena Kettleborough.  

Creative Rusholme has been widely supported by, amongst others:

• Schuster Road and Park Range Residents Association
• The New Apostolic Church in Rusholme
• Rusholme Councillors present – Ahmed Ali, Jill Lovecy and Rabnawaz Akbar – and past – Kate Chappell and Paul Shannon
• Many individual residents, officers and supporters too numerous to list here. 

Specific thanks for support are listed under each of the projects described.

In 2018, a group of community arts organisations convened by Creative Rusholme following a consultation meeting with The Whitworth submitted an ultimately unsuccessful bid to the Big Local Fund, with the aim of enhancing creative work across the three wards of Rusholme, Longsight and Moss Side. Find our more on Origins & Development of Creative Rusholme project page.

It is our hope that growing from the work undertaken a self-sustaining structure can evolve, driven by the local cultural anchor institutions, local residents and community organisations.