A HUDDERSFIELD publishing company has been awarded an Arts Council grant of almost £90,000.

Primary Colours, which publishes multicultural books, will work with 30 primary schools in Leeds and Lincolnshire over two years to embed cultural diversity in the school curriculum.

Marcia Hutchinson, founder of Primary Colours, said: "The company has three main objectives - to publish children's books, to work interactively in schools around the region, and to provide training for teachers on how to promote cultural diversity."

The grant will be used to create a new teaching pack to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Ms Hutchinson said: "The money has enabled us to employ staff to research the teaching pack and also to take the pack on tour to primary schools around Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire.

"I believe it is vitally important for children to understand where a lot of British wealth came from."

Ms Hutchinson said: "I set this company up 10 years ago as a parent as I couldn't find many books that featured black children.

"Although things have improved dramatically in recent years, there is still a lot to be done."

Also awarded grants in the Kirklees area are photographer Sylvia Waltering, of Dewsbury, who received £915, enabling her to attend the international photography conference in Finland, and Manasamitra, a South Asian arts organisation which received £4,980.

They will use the grant to hold workshops in Indian folk dance theatre schools in Kirklees.