Culture Team FAQs: Your questions answered

City Hall is working to support and celebrate London’s culture, creative industries and night time economy during the COVID-19 crisis – as well as looking after its immediate resilience and longer term recovery.

• Advocacy and Intelligence through our Culture at Risk office

• Providing Funding and support opportunities

• Help Londoners to stay connected to their Culture

The culture team manages and delivers the Mayor's statutory Cultural Strategy for London. We recently launched the Mayor's strategy: Culture for all Londoners.

The strategy has four priorities:

Love London - more people experiencing and creating culture on their doorstep

Culture and Good Growth - supporting, saving and sustaining cultural places

Creative Londoners - investing in a diverse creative workforce for the future

World City - maintaining a global powerhouse in a post-Brexit world

As you can imagine, the Mayor gets hundreds of proposals for projects, products and offers of advice. All of these are very gratefully received but with limited resources, we are unable to respond to everyone's ideas in detail.

You’re very welcome to contact us but before getting in touch however, please see if it relates to the Mayor’s culture strategy and priorities.

If your idea is related to the promotion of London as a tourist destination, please contact London & Partners: [email protected] the official promotional agency for London.

Amy Lamé was appointed Night Czar by the Mayor in 2016, and was tasked with ensuring London thrives as a 24-hour city. Amy developed ‘From Good Night to Great Night’ a vision for London as a 24-hour city and champions London’s night time economy. She also leads the Women's Night Safety Charter and runs regular Night Surgeries in local boroughs.

Follow her on Twitter to stay up to date on what she is doing.

The Fourth Plinth sculptures are chosen by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group. This process takes a number of years, from a longlisting, to a shortlisting, then six maquettes for public display. Two of these are then selected to be the final commissions.



The current sculpture is THE END by Heather Phillipson.

Our current funding programme is Culture Seeds, a two-year rolling programme for funding between £1,000-£5,000 to support not-for-profit, small or informal organisations and groups.

We do not issue grant funding outside of core cultural projects that relate to the Mayor’s cultural priorities.

We also recommend contacting the relevant organisations below who provide funding for arts and culture projects.

• Arts Council England
• Heritage Lottery Fund
• Local Authorities

Also, there are a lot of creative options to explore from crowd funding to Funding Circle loans.

If you’re passionate about culture, you are in the right place. We believe London is one of the most cultural enriching and diverse places on the planet.

Culture is a cooperative, collective effort. We welcome everyone to take part in London’s culture - whether by volunteering at major events or doing a course at your local arts centre. Above all check out what’s on in London, make use get out there and experience it first-hand!

By visiting our museums, galleries, music venues and attractions, we can ensure future Londoners can enjoy London’s wealth of culture.

Here's some good suggestions to find out what to see and do in London:

• Londonist
• Time Out
• VisitLondon.com

We are a bit biased, mind. We think a career is arts and culture is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling roles you could have.

The best place to look is Arts Council England’s Jobs and Careers site, Arts Professional and Guardian Jobs is worth checking out too. If there’s a specific venue or organisation you’d love to work for, see their websites or contact them about vacancies.

Internal vacancies at the Culture team are advertised here.

You must apply to us in order to host any activity at Trafalgar Square. Please read the materials for help with your application, and complete the relevant application form

If you need to discuss your application in more detail, please contact

[email protected] or call 020 7983 4750.

Contact your local London borough council’s website or talk to your local venue.

Inspired by the UK City and European Capital of Culture programmes, London Borough of Culture is an award that will put culture at the heart of the community. In total, 22 London boroughs bid for £1.35million funding to stage a year-long programme of world-class cultural events and initiatives, and to develop a plan to make culture an integral part of the borough’s future.

On 27 February 2018, the Mayor announced Waltham Forest as the first ever London Borough of Culture in 2019 and Brent in 2020. Lewisham has been awarded the title of London Borough of Culture for 2022 with Croydon winning the accolade for 2023.

Find out more on our London Borough of Culture page.