Over the past year, Creative Black Country has been celebrating ten years of creativity, community and collaboration across the region and one of the highlights of our anniversary programme has been the Bostin News zine series.

Creative Black Country has been awarded £999,999 as part of Arts Council England's largest ever Creative People and Places (CPP) Portfolio, which sees £42 million invested in 45 programmes from 2026–29.

On World Octopus Day (8 October 2025) guests gathered at the Black Country Living Museum for the world premiere of Black Country by the Sea, a new, fun, mockumentary film and video game by artist Alex Billingham.

In a leafy corner of Willenhall Memorial Park, something quietly powerful has been growing. What began as a casual conversation during a walk through Fibbersley Nature Reserve has blossomed into a vibrant writing group rooted in creativity, community and connection to place.

In 2024, Creative Black Country solidified a meaningful partnership with whg (Walsall Housing Group) to launch a new artist-in-residence initiative. Hosted across their recently opened over-55s wellbeing schemes, Lockside Pointe in Walsall and Nightingale House in Wolverhampton…

Fundraising Fellowship Scheme 2025 is OPEN for applications. Find out more and how to apply here.

From May 2024 to May 2025, Art Road Trip – the National Gallery’s travelling art studio – visited 18 locations across the UK. In March 2025, the colourful mobile studio rolled into the Black Country for two lively weeks of creative activity in Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Happy Black Country Day! To celebrate, we've handpicked some lovely events taking place across our mighty fine region over the next week (and a little beyond) for you to enjoy...

Making our Mark is now underway in Walsall. At the beginning of July we met some of members of he first five groups who have received the project’s small grants.

We wish to work with a Walsall-based heritage, community, or creative organisation to undertake a new commission exploring Walsall's shared heritage, though we welcome applications from the wider Black Country.

CBC’s Fundraising Fellowship Scheme 2024/25. Find out what this year’s cohort got up to…

Walsall is a place rich with stories—of traditions passed down through generations, of communities shaped by migration, resilience and creativity. Now, a new opportunity is opening up for local groups to shine a light on their own unique histories through Making Our Mark, a community-led heritage project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

We’ve certainly had an impactful and fun start to 2025, marking our 10th anniversary, kicking off two major new projects, continuing with our Creative Communities strand of support and sharing our latest series of short films.

What does the future of creativity across the Black Country look like to you? As we turn 10 we wanted to see what our friends, associates and colleagues across the borough thought.

As we take time to mark Deaf Awareness Week (5-11 May), we want to acknowledge the value of listening, learning and growing in our approach to accessibility and inclusion. At Creative Black Country, we are still on a journey, and we are grateful to those who walk alongside us and support us in doing better.

Celebrating 10 Years: The power of creative partnerships. U Island CIC and arts organisation Juneau Projects worked with families from Russian speaking countries as well as Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and the UK to create imaginative sculptural birdhouses telling their stories of migration to Birmingham and the Black Country and sense of home.

We're incredibly proud to announce that Desi Pubs, one of our landmark Creative Black Country projects, is featured on the BBC's beloved travel series Great British Railway Journeys, airing today on BBC Two.

From audience surveys, utilising post-activity evaluation forms, organising reflection meetings, and focusing on case studies to showcase the program's diversity our evaluation is not merely a reporting exercise but a tool for continuous improvement.

Through the Desi Pubs project, we worked with six landlords and artists to create bespoke artwork, portraits, stained glass, mosaics, and handcrafted pub signs, telling the extraordinary story of migration, survival, love, and foodone pint at a time.

Behind every great community project is a creative adviser - someone who brings expertise, fresh ideas and the confidence to make things happen. At Creative Black Country, we believe that supporting community groups with creative guidance leads to stronger, more impactful projects.