London Borough of Culture – Cultural Impact Awards

New Town Culture in the borough of Barking and Dagenham continues to build connections between art, culture and frontline social care services. It is supporting artists, social care staff and carers to work together to transform care services and unlock culture.

162 social workers, 398 looked after young people and 814 adult social care users were involved in a series of projects and commissions with artists and communities, including a new series of artworks in partnership with the Serpentine Galleries, council services and community organisations.

The project secured a further £1m funding from the Mayor's Young Londoners Fund to develop a pioneering new vision for creative social work.

This work is ongoing, with more research, exhibitions, publications, tools and resources including a Creative Social Work course for social workers from Goldsmiths, University of London. All this along with residencies, training and workshops to bring together creative and social practitioners in their work and enable a creative attitude in policy and practice.

Find out more about the project in this blog.

Camden Alive captured the sights, sounds and spirit of Camden through music, dance, food, fashion, jewellery making, filmmaking, theatres, exhibitions, public and visual art. The resulting artworks and stories are showcased on the streets of Camden through augmented reality in the Camden People's Museum app.

The team built strong relationships across the council during this 18-month project, collaborating with 13 council departments. 111 artists were commissioned to work with multiple communities, 1071 residents participated in the project through artist workshops and over 54,000 people attended 494 exhibition days and 17 live events in 30 locations in the borough. Camden Alive is still working with many of these residents and communities.

The project led to the development of the Cultural Camden partnership with a mission for every resident to have access to, and participate in, cultural activities. All the deep community and sector engagement is now informing the borough's work on diversity in the public realm.

Watch the Camden Alive project trailer

CirKT created a live music circuit connecting venues, artists and promoters, building on the area's rich music heritage.

Highlights included a three-month professional development programme for 47 emerging artists and business support for 10 local grassroots venues. The project culminated in a nine-day live music festival, with 15 events providing 30 performance platforms for artists and Kingston's first music industry conference.

CirKT helped the planning team at Kingston Council to develop a deeper understanding of the complex issues faced by the borough's cultural sector, aiding positive policy shifts and bringing wider cultural and place-making aspirations closer together.

Find out more about Kingston’s project here.

ELEVATE is Lambeth's mission to support diverse talent and make sure that the borough's leading creative and digital industries are a place where everyone can thrive.

It brought together 26 partners, engaged 82 schools and 859 active participants to deliver projects including a radical careers fair designed by young people for young people, work placements in seven creative organisations, a youth stage at Lambeth Country Show, five girls' clubs in secondary schools and an incubator lab for artists and filmmakers.

ELEVATE led to the development of a Local Cultural Education Partnership and two new posts in the council to help lead the next stage of the project, which has included ELEVATE Neighbourhoods, that funded seven local organisations to run projects with 250 young people (Sep 2020 - Aug 2021).

From April 2022, ELEVATE Careers brought forward paid development opportunities for 16-30 year olds and engaged employers interested in diversifying their workforce and experiencing the value of a hyper-creative generation.

ELEVATE continues to back pioneering projects, to discover, nurture and promote creative talent.

Find out more about the project achievements and read the evaluation report in this blog.

Age Against the Machine was a ground-breaking and radical arts festival, with a mission to open up the subject of ageing in our society.

Over three weeks, 275 events by 163 partners and involving 1851 participants took place in theatres, community halls, markets, libraries, care homes, shops and parks attended by 15,398 audience members and supported by 276 volunteers.

The centrepiece was a critically acclaimed immersive theatre show called The Home devised by Christopher Green. An international symposium, that shared best practice of cultural initiatives from London, Manchester and Tokyo that support agency and active participation as we age, was attended by over 200 people from across the UK.

Lewisham built on the success of this fantastic project to bid for its round two title award to become London Borough of Culture 2022.

Read the project evaluation report

Read the Creative Ageing and the City Symposium report

Film Merton curated activities aimed at engaging and empowering local communities, promoting filmmaking and profiling Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technology as emerging creative fields.

Over the course of the project, 99 films were screened for free in public venues including a barber shop, youth centre and a car park. Merton itself starred in four short films, specially funded to showcase the talents of local emerging, as well as more established directors: Rose Gaunt-Mathieson, Peter Lee Scott, Matvi Khosho and Charlie Strank.

Peter Lee Scott's film 'His Name was Gerry' went on to win Best Director Award at the British Independent Film Festival 2020, and Rosie Gaunt-Mathieson's 'Just Delivered' won Best Romantic Comedy at the Top Shorts Film Festival 2020.

Merton established a Merton Cultural Advisory Board to lead the project, bringing together creative businesses in the area for the first time.

Find out more about Merton's project in this blog.