Cornwall is to receive a £340,000 award from Arts Council England and VisitEngland that aims to put culture "at the heart of the county’s billion pound visitor economy".

The grant will help to fund a three year project to "build new partnerships that add value and appeal to visitors", bringing "sustained growth to the local economy".

The Arts Council says that "Cornwall’s key arts and cultural organisations will be working with the tourism sector to create a unique identity for the county that promotes the extraordinary cultural wealth on offer.

Adding: "Celebrating the people, the place and the weather of Cornwall in all their wildest forms, it is hoped that visitors will come specifically to enjoy the arts and culture year-round as well as attracting tourists already coming for summer holidays."

The organisations involved are:

• Cornwall Arts Centre Trust

• Kneehigh

• Miracle Theatre

• Leach Pottery

• Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange

• Tate St Ives • Wildworks

• Hall for Cornwall

• Real Ideas Organisation

• Cornwall Council

• Visit Cornwall

• CoaST – Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project

• For Cornwall Museums Partnership

The successful funding bid was led by Cornwall Arts Centre Trust. Ross Williams, Director of ACT said: "As managing partner for Cornwall’s Cultural Consortium, we are really delighted to have been successful with our bid to this scheme which will help us to put culture at the heart of the visitor economy.

"Cornwall has both a distinctive strong tourism brand and a wealth of cultural assets and activities, but until now these have operated largely in isolation from each other and we are very enthusiastic about the opportunity for our two sectors to work more closely together to everyone’s benefit.

"Our partnership includes most of the key Cornish arts organisations and museums as well as Cornwall Council, Visit Cornwall and tourism bodies. We believe that over the three year life of the project we will see significant increases in cultural engagement by visitors as well as benefits to Cornish residents resulting from the greater prosperity of the cultural sector and from economic growth spread more widely across Cornwall."