Marketing Derby has pledged £20,000 to support the city’s bid to become 2025 海角视频 City of Culture.
The city is one of eight places with a chance of taking the valuable cultural status, and will submit its formal bid next week.
Adam Buss, the man responsible for spearheading Derby's campaign, said they would need to bring in about £25 million to £40 million to support the bid, much of it coming from the city council and local business.
Should they win, he said the benefits could be worth as much as £3.4 billion – the estimated value of public and private investment made when Hull gained the status – and create maybe 800 new jobs.
The team behind the bid has been working hard to generate support, with several Marketing Derby Bondholders pledging their support.
Marketing Derby’s pledge, which will be spread over four years, is a mixture of financial and in-kind support.
John Forkin, managing director of Marketing Derby, said: “Marketing Derby is fully behind the bid to become City of Culture in 2025.
“We are delighted to make this pledge to help build the business support for the application for what we believe will be the best bid submitted.
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“We’re confident that culture will become increasingly important for our economy and offer and will play a key role in the post-pandemic recovery.”
The 海角视频 City of Culture competition uses culture as a catalyst for levelling up areas outside London and putting new parts of the 海角视频 on the cultural map.
Marketing Derby said a measure of the support Derby’s bid had was shown at a conference organised by Visit Derby, part of Derby City Council, earlier this month at Derby Museums’ Museum of Making.
Around 130 people attended the hybrid event called Culture Derby – Transforming the City Through Culture and the Visitor Economy.
It featured contributions from Mo Suleman, of Derby Museum Trust, Marketing Derby’s marketing and communications manager Andrew Lowe, Coun Ross McCristal, the city council’s cabinet member for leisure, culture, tourism and wellbeing and Adam Buss, director Culture Derby, who is leading the city’s bid.
Following the presentation, delegates were asked to complete a ‘Pledge Card’, to get behind the bid.
The pledges are made based on the bid being successful – and so far, businesses and organisations have pledged tens of thousands of pounds worth of support.
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Derby’s formal bid will be submitted on Wednesday, February 2.
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