Beth Thomas outside of The Poly in Falmouth
In 2022, nearly 100,000 people identified as Cornish, triple the amount in 2011.
Now that interests in Cornish identity are on the rise, focus is falling to the organisations supporting local artists and creatives.
I sat down with Beth Thomas, from The Poly in Falmouth to understand how they support the Cornish creative scene.
The Poly is an art space with a theatre, gallery, archives, and cafe.
Beth is the Programmes and Operations Assistant.
“We do lots of community focused things’ Beth says.
She discusses the benefits of supporting community creative projects, and emphasises the importance of nurturing creativity in the local area.
“This is the first theatre they go to, a lot of kids”
To help support Cornish art, the Guild Shop stocks entirely local work to help support Cornwall’s thriving and historic arts scene.
The stock is sourced from markets, students, and members.
‘We approach people at markets, and we say: “Hey, your work looks great. Have you ever been represented by a shop?”
Cornish arts have received £21.6 million in direct public investment from the Good Growth Programme.
This has helped shine a spotlight on local creativity and fund the teaching and promoting of Cornish language, a key part of Cornish identity.
For The Poly, Cornish language is a large part of their media.
Beth looks back a few years, when ‘there were lots of big pots of money for people to create films that were in Cornish, so we saw a big influx of films in Cornish’.
If a film is made in Cornish, the filmmakers have access to funding to help the production.
Beth mentions that while there is still an interest in Cornish language films, the amount produced has ‘dropped off a bit recently because that funding isn’t there as much’
Beth hopes that the trend of shopping local sticks around.
‘It really helps the local industry, just going to local shops that you know are owned by people in town, rather than shopping on Amazon’.