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

"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.

Community Foundation Celebrates 100 Years of Local Impact by Looking Ahead ...
Foundation: Lancaster County Community Foundation

In 2024, Lancaster County, Pa., will celebrate the 100th anniversary of a group of "visionaries" who "came together to shape a better future for Lancaster County," says Sam Bressi, president and CEO...more

Golfers Support Swings Fore Strings to Raise Money for Student Music Program

If you're looking for a good time while raising money for a good cause, try golf. The Salvation Army in Virginia Beach held its annual " Swings Fore Strings" fundraiser on Saturday, hoping to...more

Self-Love Comes At A Cost: Zainab Patel, Entrepreneur &Amp; Trans Activist

"Many of us, at some point in time, have been told in our lives that we are unloveable. By our parents, partners, husbands, children, friends, or society," says transgender activist Zainab...more

Grant Funding to Bolster Operations at 17 Southern Indiana Nonprofits
Foundation: Community Foundation of Southern Indiana

"When you see the kids interacting and them building communitythat's what it is," says Camp Quality Kentuckiana executive director Eddie Bobbitt. "It's bigger than fishing and pie fights." The...more

Madison Visionary Partners Awards 5 Community Impact Grants

The Alzheimer's Association's Forget-Me-Not program has a new toy in its arsenal: fidget blankets. The Madison Hospital in Alabama has received a $2,500 grant from the Huntsville Hospital...more

Maui Adult Day Care Centers: Caring and Trusted Resources for Maui'S Family Caregivers and Kupuna
Foundation: Hawaii Community Foundation

If you're in your 60s or older and looking for adult day care in Maui, you're in luck. The nonprofit Maui Adult Day Care Centers lost its West Maui Center in the Lahaina fire last August, but...more

U.C. Berkeley Ai Alumnus Extends Invitation to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg to ...

Peter Kessler graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in chemical engineering, and now he's working on an AI invention that "stands on the brink of the educational...more

How This Big Arts Show Across 18 U.S. Locations Can Help Health
Foundation: Kresge Foundation, Tow Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies

"There's no real reason why the arts, health, and science shouldn't be much more highly integrated," says Lear deBessonet, a Tony-nominated theater director and co-director of the One Nation One...more

Portsmouth Abbey School Junior to Travel to Washington, D.C., to Compete in the Poetry Out ...

A 16-year-old from Rhode Island is headed to Washington, DC, in April to compete in the Poetry Out Loud national finals. Jennifer Shon, a junior at Portsmouth Abbey School, won the state...more

Sowela to Offer Evidence-Based Culinary Medicine Program -

A Louisiana community college is adding a new concentration to its culinary arts degreeand it's all about health. Sowela Technical Community College's new Culinary Medicine Concentration blends...more





Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.



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