It would be hard to miss some of the magnificent manifestations of cultural development in the North East of England. Gateshead Quays, unrecognisable from only a decade ago, has flourished with the arrival of The Sage, a world-class music centre, and Baltic, a contemporary art gallery. The Stirling prize-winning Millennium Bridge, echoing the curves of the Tyne Bridge, links Gateshead with Newcastle and symbolises the collaboration between the two neighbouring councils.

What might not be so obvious is a fundamental shift in cultural development that underlies the visible changes. Cultural development in the North East has been revolutionised by becoming part of mainstream thinking and policy-making. Culture is now firmly on the agenda of the Regional Development Agency One North East, the North East Assembly, Government Office and the 25 local authorities of the region. The distinctiveness and cultural identity of the region are increasingly being recognised as assets that are central to economic and spatial development, education and skills, and the building of strong, sustainable communities.

Cultural development now runs through the strategic life of the region, an understanding of the deep culture of the North East – the relationship between people, landscape, language, work, and values – informs and creates a rich context for future planning and decision-making.

Culture North East, the Regional Cultural Consortium for the North East funded by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, operates as part of the strong set of cultural agencies that make up the cultural sector at the regional level. The cultural agencies of the North East are well developed both strategically and operationally and in many cases have led national developments in their fields. The argument for culture has been well received and largely accepted in the region: it is the responsibility of Culture North East and the rest of the sector to maximise the benefits that culture can bring to the region without presenting culture unrealistically as a panacea.

The North East is often rightly cited as a leading proponent of culture-led regeneration. Culture-led regeneration projects have transformed parts of the region and play a continuing part in shifting perceptions of the region. As every English region goes down the same path, the onus is on the North East to understand the wider social and cultural as well as the economic impacts of these initiatives and also to ensure that in these projects too, the competitive advantage that accrues from distinctiveness and authenticity is respected.

Despite persistent, long-term, gloomy prognostications, there are signs that the economy of the North East is slowly picking up. This is welcome and, while no one would underestimate the importance of a more vibrant economy for the health of the region, there is an increasing appreciation in the region that the economy is not everything.

The rate of gross value added (GVA) in the South East of England may be twice that of the North East, but it does not follow that the people are twice as happy, nor is the quality of life twice as high. In fact on a number of indicators, quality of life and satisfaction is higher in the North East than in the more prosperous South. Again, it is the responsibility of all strategic agencies operating in the region to ensure that growing economic success isn’t obtained at the expense of unacceptable environmental, social and cultural cost. Knowing what is environmentally, socially and culturally distinct and valuable in the North East will help decision-makers avoid “not knowing what they’ve got till it’s gone”.

The North East is a small, uncrowded region with an impressive cultural infrastructure that includes two World Heritage sites at Hadrian’s Wall and Durham Cathedral and Castle. Another prospective site is the dual monasteries at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, a hub of western civilisation in the seventh and eighth centuries. The diversity and flux of peoples represented in The Lindisfarne Gospels, produced in the region at that time, is mirrored in the changing communities of the region today. Now as then, culture is not fixed.

The changing face of cultural development in the North East reflects the changing face of the North East itself. This is a region that is ready to embrace the new and challenging while building on and valuing the lessons and achievements of its past – a region that wants to learn from its history, not go back there.