Investing In Small, Creative Businesses Can Bring Our High Streets Back To Life


credit: Flickr

"A great deal of city center space lies vacant, but it needn't be that way."

That's the opinion of Sally Reaper, co-director of Look Again, Gray's School of Art's creative unit, in an op-ed in the Aberdeen Press and Journal.

With that in mind, Look Again and Culture Aberdeen have teamed up to transform empty shop units in Aberdeen's city center into temporary retail spaces, art installations, and pop-up shops, all supported by short-term leases.

"One of the biggest challenges small businesses face are start-up rates," Reaper writes.

"Rents are often too high, and the legalities too cumbersome.

If we are to move forward from this problem, locally or nationally, there has to be a change to the rateable value.

Only by investing in our creative communities and by developing sustainable, affordable city center living and workspaces can we provide small businesses and creatives with the opportunity to be present in our city centers."

To that end, Look Again and Culture Aberdeen are working with local creatives, freelance artists, and community groups to "recode the city center, so that community groups have a bigger role, and so that we can bring the area's soul back," Reaper said.

Read the Entire Article


Selected Grant News Headlines

A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.

Kannada Koota New York Is Reshaping Diaspora Experience: Badari Ambatti

Badari Ambatti and his wife, Roopa Hhaprakash, moved from Bengaluru, India, to Garden City Park in New York about 10 years ago, and since then, they've made a home for themselves and their daughter,...more

Australian Entrepreneur Hailed for Cleaning Philippines' Trash-Strewn River €“ but Will It Last?

"People used to go swimming in it, and then how grateful [they] are for the work that we're doing in conjunction with the government and other organizations," Mike Smith tells This Week in...more

Is Your Money Supporting Your Values? This Philly Nonprofit Helps Investments Work for Good

"No matter how hard we work, until we get our capital aligned, we're not going to fix the problems," Cory Donovan, executive director of ImpactPHL, tells Technical.ly. That's why the nonprofit in...more

Penn State'S College of Agricultural Sciences Honors Outstanding Alumni

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences recently honored three of its alumni with 2024 Outstanding Alumni Awards.Vijay Nandula, of Overland Park, Kansas, was this year's recipient of the...more

Starting with Place

If you're looking for a way to boost your community's sense of place, researchers at Gustavson University in Sweden have just the thing. They've developed a set of five principles that community...more

Changemakers Are Flocking to the New World of Eu Innovation
Foundation: Changemakers

The US may be the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide, but the European Union is No. 1 when it comes to researching and developing green technologies. In fact, the EU is No. 1 when it...more

Strengthening Climate Finance Delivery: The Path from Brazil'S G20 Presidency to Cop30

When Brazil takes over the presidency of the G20 in 2024, it will be the first country to do so from the developing world. But a new report from the Chatham House think tank warns that Brazil...more

California Doubles Down on Paid Service to Meet California's Workforce Needs

When Josh Fryday joined the California Service Corps as a 17-year-old high school senior, he never imagined he'd end up as the state's chief service officer. But that's about to change. The...more

Navigating The Data Deluge: Privacy, Ai Governance, And The Future Of Innovation

Google has a new privacy-related headache to deal with: its own self-driving car. In a blog post, the company explains that it plans to start testing its own self-driving car in the US next year,...more

Preparing Leaders for Sustainable and Equitable Business

If you work for one of the world's biggest companies, there's a good chance you've never heard of social enterprise. That's the concept of "social, social, and governance" that focuses on...more





Co-founders William Mann and David Mravyan devised the Sensimat during a mandatory project for their MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada. Sensimat is a device that helps manage and assess pressure among wheelchair users.



Federal Government Grant and Assistance Programs


Advanced Education Nursing Traineeships | Invasive and Noxious Plant Management | Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and | HIV Prevention Activities_Non-Governmental Organization Based | Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) and Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Aligned Cooperat | Public Housing Capital Fund Stimulus (Formula) Recovery Act Funded | Program of Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights | Communications Information and Assistance and Investigation of Complaints | | Site Style by YAML | Grants.gov | Grants | Grants News | Sitemap | Privacy Policy

Edited by: Michael Saunders

© 2008-2024 Copyright Michael Saunders