The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced the winners of his first ever Culture Seeds Awards, recognising the significant positive impact local community culture projects have on the capital.
Ten winners from across the city were presented with the Mayor’s inaugural Culture Seeds Awards last night, which highlighted how culture can bring Londoners together and empower communities.
The projects are among the individuals and small organisations across London that have benefited from Sadiq’s £1 million Culture Seeds fund, which aims to help Londoners of all backgrounds to access the city’s cultural riches and explore their own creativity.
The award categories shone a light on the creative projects that have received support from the Mayor’s Culture Seeds fund. They ranged from awards for projects that were created by young people, awards for projects run by volunteers, to awards for culture projects that support people to explore art and music.
The inaugural awards took place at City Hall to recognise the outstanding work of these community culture groups in bringing people together, increasing skills and knowledge, and introducing people to creative opportunities in their local area. Examples of the range of projects that were celebrated at the awards event include a needlework workshop telling the stories of African and Caribbean communities, theatre workshops with asylum seekers, music for people in care homes, and a visual arts project for young people in the school holidays.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I want to congratulate all the winners for their excellent work – you are proof that culture can benefit us all. Culture has the power to bring communities together and gives young people positive opportunities to discover their creative talent and to achieve their ambitions. Culture can be a powerful tool to steer young Londoners away from crime and criminal gangs and towards education and employment. I’m determined that all Londoners have the opportunity to gain from the benefits culture can bring to their lives, which is why I have invested in Culture Seeds, so that our small grants that can help make a big difference.”
The full list of winners are:
Community Creator Award: Creating Ground, Building Bridges project, Greenwich
Culture United Award: Sonja Camara, Sewn together African and Caribbean Commemorative quilt project, Haringey
Opening Up Culture Award: Women’s Lounge, Aspirations project, Greenwich
People-Powered Culture Award: The RecordShop, Haringey
Culture and Wellbeing Award: The Spitz Charitable Trust, Islington
Making History Award: Korantema Anyimadu, her Black Hair and Heritage photography project, Waltham Forest
Made for Young Creators Award: Sir Hubert von Herkomer Arts Foundation, Camden
Made by Young Creators Award: Club Soda, The Soda Beats Band, Croydon
Picture Perfect Award: Restorative Justice for All, Southwark
Picture Perfect Award: Made in Merton, Merton
Notes to editors
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About Culture Seeds
As part of the Mayor’s commitment to support culture in all corners of the capital, Culture Seeds allocates funding for community-led arts, culture and heritage activities on a rolling basis, with grants available from £1,000 - £5,000 until May 2020.
To date, more than £400,000 has been awarded to more than 90 projects across 30 London boroughs. Almost half of the groups and projects supported by Culture Seeds are based outside of central London.
Examples of great ideas and projects that Culture Seeds has funded include a comic making project exploring gang culture, a photography project for young people excluded from mainstream education, visual arts workshops in Kensington and Chelsea for volunteers who helped the local community in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower Fire, music and singing in residential care homes in Redbridge, a creative industries summer school and a music project for young people with learning disabilities.