Our Work Activating Young Cultural Changemakers
Transforming the lives of young people and their communities through the power of creative placemaking and youth voice.
Our Activating Young Cultural Changemakers programme empowers young people across the South of England to lead on significant creative projects in their local areas. The programme provides opportunity and support for young people to use their voice to explore and express ideas, which will be brought to life as creative projects that will have a lasting impact where they live. Young people will work directly with artists, facilitators, and professionals and receive training and development opportunities to support their futures as changemakers and cultural leaders.
Each year between 2023-2026, the programme will:
- Engage 500 children and young people from the community, schools, and underserved groups in each area in creative consultation
- Initiate conversations with young people about where they live, and feedback to our partners at local councils
- Deliver 3 significant, high quality, and Youth-Led creative projects across each area in collaboration with local artists based on the consultations
- Equip young people with the skills to become a changemaker in their community and earn digital badges in the process
This short film showcases the work that our Young Cultural Changemakers have achieved in the first year of the programme.
As this programme develops and continues to make a significant impact on young people and their communities, their dedication, passion and creativity has been recognised – Children & Young People Now have shortlisted our Young Cultural Changemakers Programme for The Youth Volunteering and Social Action Award.
We are honoured to be shortlisted – the hard work from our team, as well as the young people leading these projects deserves to be in the spotlight.
Click on each Priority Place to find out more about our work in that area.
Dover
Slough
The New Forest
The Isle of Wight
Artswork's Activate Young Cultural Changemaker programme is focused in 5 of the Arts Council England Priority Places:
This programme is in partnership with Arts Council England to deliver their ‘Let’s Create’ strategy. The strategy focuses on improving engagement in arts and culture in 54 Priority Places across the UK that Arts Council England have identified, using measures that include:
- Ethnicity and disability census data
- Engagement with arts and culture
- Measures of social and financial deprivation
- Existing local cultural strategies
Find out more about Arts Council England’s Priority Place identification process here.
Levelling Up Arts and Culture Across England
On top of our Activate Young Cultural Changemakers Programme in the south-east, Artswork have committed to levelling up arts and culture across England. We are offering our Artswork Professional Development training courses free of charge to schools, businesses, and organisations across all 54 Priority Places.
The young people who participate in the programme will have the opportunity to gain accredited and vocational qualifications that demonstrate their learning in the form of Arts Award and digital Badges.
Digital Badges are micro qualifications that upskill an individual and strengthen their applications/CV. These qualifications acknowledge the contribution that young people have made, and recognise the skills they have learned and utilised. Artswork’s Digital Badges that can be earned through this programme are:
- Community Voice
- Cultural Changemaker Explorer
- Cultural Changemaker Leader
- Creative Careers
Want to get involved?
You can find out when we are running events on our social media pages @_artswork_
If you are a young person, an artist or organisation in one of our area’s and you would like to get involved, please contact your local Creative Producer:
or for general enquiries contact: info@artswork.org.uk
