London Borough of Culture Award
Prospectus 2023
You are currently reading:
- Foreword
- About London Borough of Culture
- Case study: culture as an agent of whole borough change
- The awards
- Case study: heritage and local stories
- The criteria
- Case study: international art and local creativity
- Preparing your application
- Case study: Seen and Heard
- Key dates
- Partnerships
- Special thanks
- More information
Foreword
Sadiq Khan,
Mayor of London
Culture is woven into the very fabric of our city. It is an intrinsic part of who we are and has a remarkable ability to inspire us and change lives for the better. Our world-leading arts and creative industries contribute £58bn to the wider UK economy every year, creating countless jobs and providing unique opportunities for artists and cultural workers.
So, I was delighted to announce that London Borough of Culture will return in 2025 and 2027, as part of our work to expand access to culture and build a better London for everyone.
Our London Borough of Culture award has shown us the genuine power of culture as a force for good. It has brought people together, given grassroots creativity the chance to shine, demonstrated how culture and creativity can unlock the potential and prospects of young Londoners, and ensured more Londoners, from a wider range of backgrounds, could get involved.
City Hall investment has been matched by an additional £19m from over 20 funders. This money is needed now more than ever as the creative industries face spiralling operating costs, soaring energy bills and the long-term impacts of the pandemic. This crucial investment is helping to reimagine places, raise confidence and create civic pride.
As people have celebrated, explored new corners of the city and experienced their own neighbourhoods as they never have before, real change has taken place. More than 3,600 young people have had career and development opportunities from mentorships to springboards into new creative careers. While hundreds of thousands of people have experienced free cultural events on their doorsteps, involving 2,200 artistic partners, 315 schools and 3,370 volunteers.
I am thrilled to invite London boroughs to bid for this fantastic opportunity and I look forward to receiving your application.
Sadiq Khan,
Mayor of London
Justine Simons OBE,
Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries
London Borough of Culture has achieved so much in the last six years. Twelve boroughs have celebrated the distinctive character of our people and our places through culture.
Back in 2017, we couldn’t have imagined how successful this new idea for London would be. It has shone a spotlight on the talent, artistry and innovation that exists in every corner of our city. It's created new partnerships between councils, artists and communities, sparking creative collaborations and bolstering much needed resilience.
The first London Borough of Culture in Waltham Forest has left a brilliant legacy, with Fellowship Square becoming a cultural hub of festivals and events, and the spectacular 950 seat Soho Theatre Walthamstow opening later this year. Brent’s year in 2020 brought youth leadership to the fore. Young residents seized the rapid shift to digital that the pandemic demanded and created the VENT podcast which reached a global audience of 13.3 million people.
Lewisham embraced cultural activism last year with a demand for action on the climate emergency. Monumental artwork Breathe:2022 by Dryden Goodwin helped push forward important conversations about air pollution and the effects it has on Londoners, created in collaboration with local clean air activists, and reaching a national audience of 15 million people.
And Croydon have got off to a flying start with their critically acclaimed opening show Oratorio of Hope and an exciting collaboration between the Museum of Croydon and National Portrait Gallery, with lots more to look forward to in 2023.
The benefits of being awarded London Borough of Culture or a Cultural Impact Award are profound. We invite you to think deeply about what culture can mean for your borough, now and in the future.
I encourage you to gather your boldest and most imaginative ideas to become the capital’s next London Borough of Culture.
Justine Simons OBE,
Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries
About London Borough of Culture
London Borough of Culture brings Londoners together. It puts culture at the heart of local communities, where it belongs, illuminating the character and diversity of London’s boroughs and showing culture is for everyone. Since its launch in 2017 it has been a catalyst for creativity across the city, brought people together in pride and celebration and provided a springboard for boroughs’ long-term cultural ambitions.
A unique combination of funding and support, London Borough of Culture enables step change in the cultural life of a borough.
As a result of this award, five boroughs will produce a new programme of activity, which will unlock their communities’ creative potential. Councils can rethink what role culture can play in their residents' lives, young people will discover their passions, artists will share work in new ways, businesses will be supported, unexpected partnerships will form; everyone will have a chance to get involved.
There will be large-scale events with audiences in their thousands, and in-depth engagement at the grassroots. There will be moments of celebration, of reflection, and – at a time when it is perhaps needed more than ever – of collective joy.
As well as celebrating Londoners’ immense creativity, it offers opportunities to inspire civic pride and deliver positive change – across skills, wellbeing, learning, participation, climate and economic outcomes.
London Borough of Culture is a catalyst. It will have impact far beyond its delivery, with increased local arts infrastructure, stronger cross-sector and community relationships, and opportunities for leveraging new investment. It increases the profile of a borough’s cultural offer – to residents, wider Londoners and tourists alike. Moreover, it is an invitation for councils to be ambitious about the arts in their borough: embedding creative practice in their ways of working and committing to a long-term strategic approach for culture.
London Borough of Culture has inclusivity and accessibility at its heart. Whether amplifying underrepresented voices, giving platforms to emerging artists, reaching new audiences or embedding Liberty – the Mayor of London’s flagship festival by D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse artists into its activity – it recognises and represents London’s rich diversity.
London Borough of Culture encourages a broad definition of culture. There might be dancing in the streets or music-making in schools, exhibitions in shopping centres or performances at heritage sites, food-based events, poetry readings, ‘craftathons’ or gaming competitions. If it means culture to your community then it’s culture to us, too.
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What could the programme look like?
Think about how culture can best enrich your borough
Develop a plan with support from the GLA
Get more Londoners involved in creative activities
Support outstanding artists to make exciting new work
Tell the story of local people and places
Strengthen partnerships between culture, business, community and voluntary sector
Engender a borough where people are proud to live and work
Put culture at the core of local plans
Create social connections by taking part in culture
Create new pathways for young people into training or work
Improve health and well-being through arts and culture
Help create a happier borough, with a more resilient cultural ecosystem, brimming with pride and opportunity
Case study: culture as an agent of whole borough change
Waltham Forest
From the spectacular opening show in Walthamstow to children singing opera in the treetops of Chingford, a reimagined tin toy factory in Leyton to some of the world’s leading musicians playing in a circus top in Leytonstone, Waltham Forest’s London Borough of Culture 2019 was a celebration with communities in every corner of the borough.
There were over 1000 events, involving every school in the borough (88 in total) that brought an extra 500,000 people to Waltham Forest. Over £4.1 million was spent by audiences over the ten major events with 83 per cent of attendees spending money locally. 70 per cent of creative businesses in the borough reported increased revenue and 241 local businesses were commissioned.
The volunteer scheme – the Legends of the Forest – recruited 1000 people during 2019; this number tripled to 3000 during the pandemic, proving vital to the council’s COVID response, helping out at food banks, delivering prescriptions for residents and marshalling at outdoor markets. Now the number is over 4000 and continues to grow.
The impressive legacy doesn’t stop there. Local artists and creative organisations continue to flourish with the successful designation of Blackhorse Lane as a Creative Enterprise Zone – providing new affordable workspace, delivering jobs, improving skills and benefitting local communities. Waltham Forest also successfully bid to become a Creative Industries Hub, part of the Mayor’s Academy programme, offering pathways into creative careers for local residents.
Culture has been embedded in all the borough’s policies and plans, including the London Plan, which is a golden thread running through the work of the council. This has led to the redesign of Fellowship Square, a new public space with interactive fountains, free and low-cost events, art installations and performances all year round. It’s also led to the transformation of the Grade II listed Granada cinema into a brand-new 950 seat arts venue and cultural hub operated by Soho Theatre, opening later this year.
These new spaces will form part of a new Walthamstow Cultural Quarter alongside Vestry House Museum and William Morris Gallery.
Being the first-ever London Borough of Culture in 2019 was a watershed moment for Waltham Forest. We are using the success of the year to establish the borough as an exciting and inclusive cultural destination for residents and visitors from across the capital and beyond.
The awards
London Borough of Culture awards are funded by the Mayor of London. Awards are for revenue funding and applicants will be required to provide a minimum of 30 per cent match funding.
There are two types of awards for the London Borough of Culture:
- Title Awards
- Cultural Impact Awards
Title Awards
The title of London Borough of Culture will be awarded to winning boroughs to deliver ambitious cultural programmes across the year in either 2025 or 2027. The announcement of both years’ winners will be made in early 2024. Each winning borough will receive a £1.35m revenue grant.
Boroughs who have previously received a Title Award will not be eligible to re-apply.
Title winners will be invited to deliver Liberty, the Mayor's flagship programme for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse artists, as part of the year. Additional funds, within the region of £140,000, will be available.
Cultural Impact Awards
Cultural Impact Awards will fund smaller transformative projects across London, which enable boroughs to pilot a new creative project or idea. There will be three awards of £200,000 for projects that take place in 2026.
Boroughs must apply for a Title Award. The Cultural Impact Award is optional.
Case study: heritage and local stories
London Borough of Culture supports communities to reveal hidden histories and explore their heritage in new ways.
In Living Memory unearthed lost or untold stories to construct a new history of the borough, as told by its residents. It shed light on key moments in Lewisham’s post-war history – from the Great Flood of 1968 to the 1981 Black People’s Day of Action.
A partnership with Goldsmiths enabled close working between academic, heritage and community stakeholders to create a digital archive, and virtual museum of the borough – providing a rich resource for curious residents, local historians and researchers for years to come. A learning pack is also being created which will be used by schools across the country.
More than anything, In Living Memory allowed the people of Lewisham to tell their own histories in their own words. Over 200 stories were collected by six community-led projects.
‘Where to, now the sequins have gone?’, led by Avant-Gardening/Bijou Stories, uncovered the histories of Lewisham’s lost LGBTQ+ venues. Through the creation of a temporary queer space in Lewisham Shopping Centre, local people were invited to take part in a series of workshops and discussions, cabaret performances and discos, all while recording and exploring their heritage.
The events were attended by many of the people that used to drink in the gay bars 30 – even 40 years ago. Some had remained friends, some hadn’t seen each other for 20 years - there were tears when people saw some of the photographs that had been contributed – photos they had forgotten had existed – photos of friends we have lost.
In the same space in the shopping centre, fashion designer Joy Prime launched ‘Sylvia’s Space’, an interactive installation celebrating the life of her mother and other Caribbean women textile workers who made London their home in the 1960s. As well as historical objects, memories and photos, the installation included a contemporary making space, for creating garments inspired by Sylvia’s story.
Sylvia’s Space became a space for remembrance, healing and reflection through textiles, unearthing histories through the eyes of the forgotten couturier. The installation crossed boundaries and generations. Everyone that came into contact with it saw a part of themselves in the room, a reminder that culture and experience transcend age, race and space. The project provided a physical space for open discussions about recognising the past and how we forge collective futures.
The criteria
We’re looking for ambitious ideas that will capture the creative energy and imagination of our city. This is a chance to do something extraordinary through culture, showcasing your borough to the world.
Your proposal should clearly identify the artistic vision and ambition to deliver outstanding cultural initiatives in your local area. It should demonstrate how your programme will contribute to London’s role as a world centre for creativity and culture.
Tell us how you will celebrate your hidden gems and well-loved places and people; how you will work with amazing artists and attract visitors from across the UK and beyond; and how you will join Londoners together in collective celebration. What are the practical steps you will take to make your vision a reality?
We want bids that meet our key criteria: making an impact, celebrating creativity, deliverability, and financial management.
To make an amazing impact you will consider the following:
- Identifying need
Every borough is different! We want to know the story of your borough, what is special about it, the people and places; your communities and cultural sector. What challenges are you facing, what is the need for investment in your borough, and how will being London Borough of Culture help address this. We’d like you to tell us about your existing cultural offer and how it will be transformed, not just during your year, but in the years to follow. - A catalyst for change
London Borough of Culture is a chance to realise your creative aspirations and have a lasting impact on people, communities, neighbourhoods and organisations. We’d like to know what journey your borough will take and how local people and organisations will lead this change. What will success look like for your council, your residents, businesses and cultural sector? How will you thread access and inclusion throughout your whole programme and ensure it is environmentally sustainable? - Engaging young people
Children and young people should be central to your programme. We’d like to know how they will be involved in planning, developing and delivering your programme. What will you do to ensure your young people are supported and have agency? What opportunities will be available for young people to develop new skills and realise their potential? How will you identify and engage with children and young people from diverse backgrounds, including those who are D/deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse?
- Be creative
Be bold and creative. We want to see that you have a strong artistic vision and leadership. We want you to think about the brilliant artists and creative organisations not only in your borough, but across the UK and the world, that can help you tell your stories. What are the big ideas that reflect your borough’s cultural ambition? What are the amazing performances, acts and events that you want to bring into your borough that will reflect your borough’s cultural ambitions? - Be ambitious
London Borough of Culture is not about business as usual. Proposals must show an appetite to make lasting change for people and places. We’d like to see strong creative collaborations with artists and arts organisations that are locally rooted but have the potential to develop regional, national and international dialogues and profile. What are the core pillars of your programme that will raise awareness? How will your creative programme have local, national and international reach? - Be authentic
What’s unique and distinct about your local area? Try and paint a true picture of the people and places you’d like to highlight and the stories you will tell. How will you reveal the great work that artists do locally which is often under the radar? - Be connected
Create opportunities for and with people from different backgrounds to collaborate, join in and share experiences. We want to know how you will include people who might otherwise miss out on cultural opportunities. - Celebrating your heritage
Heritage can mean many things to many people; it could be the untold stories of your communities, buildings, or green space in your borough. This is a chance to unearth and share your borough’s hidden heritage and diverse history. - Liberty Festival
Liberty is the Mayor of London’s flagship programme celebrating D/deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse artists. Delivering Liberty will be a key component of the title award. We want to hear about your creative ideas and the artists and organisations you will work with to deliver the festival.
- Good project management
You should have a clear governance structure, sound delivery mechanisms, and a skilled, supported team with the capacity to lead the programme. We need to know that you will be ready and prepared to deliver your programme. - Model partnership working
Tell us how you will develop new partnerships or enhance existing ones. We’d like to hear about your key partners and how the programme will benefit them. - Communications planning
You will be developing an ambitious, creative programme. We want to know how you will ensure reach across multiple audiences. How will your residents, businesses, children and young people, cultural sector, people with access needs, the wider population of London and those beyond hear about your programme? Tell us how you will develop and deliver a robust communications plan covering press, marketing and stakeholder management, and ensure it is properly resourced. - Meeting equality aims
Your creative, ambitious programme will be authentic because you have ensured that all the voices in your borough are involved. Tell us how you will engage with underserved communities in the development and delivery of your programme. How will you ensure the programme is accessible to all your residents and communities, and delivers a safe, supportive, and non-discriminatory environment? - Monitoring, evaluation and shared learning
To ensure you achieve the change you want to make, we’ll need to see a clear plan for how you will monitor and evaluate your programme. This should be one of the largest creative programmes that your borough will have delivered, so think about how you will share the story of the impact of your year with a wider audience. - Legacy
London Borough of Culture should be seen as a springboard to a longer lasting creative programme. We want to know the changes you would aim to see in your borough three, five or ten years after the award. Tell us how culture will be embedded throughout your council after the year and in the development of council policies. - Environmental impact
The Mayor has an aim to achieve a net zero carbon status for London by 2030. Your programme will be truly inspiring, and we want to know it will be produced in an environmentally responsible way and your events are delivered sustainably. We want to know that you have thought through your programme delivery and considered offsetting biodiversity impact and green travel plans. What networks will you engage with and how will you monitor the environmental impact of your programme?
- Financial planning
We want to see a comprehensive, realistic and viable budget that will enable you to deliver your programme. You will need to show how you will monitor your budget during the development and delivery of your programme. We’re aware that elements of your programme may change during the period between announcing the winning awards and delivering the programme, so whilst your bid will need to give confidence about your planning, you will not be expected to go into a granular level of detail. - Match funding
We will need to see a detailed fundraising plan illustrating how you will attract appropriate funding to deliver the programme. Tell us about the sources of funding you will explore; this could include sponsorship, ticket income, council funding, donations and public or private funding. Remember you will need to raise at least 30 per cent match funding.
Case study: international art and local creativity
London Borough of Culture has brought world-class international art to London’s boroughs and provided a global platform for local creativity.
By fostering connections between boroughs, local and national arts organisations and international partners, London Borough of Culture has enabled collaborations that match the incredible creative ambitions of Londoners.
Sun & Sea was a mesmerising performance staged on an indoor beach. The show played out on a loop over several hours as the performers sang on themes of climate change and our relationship with our planet. Presented as Lithuania’s national entry for the 2019 Venice Biennale, Sun & Sea received the festival’s top award, the Golden Lion.
Through a partnership with Serpentine Galleries and LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre), the internationally acclaimed show made its UK premiere at the Albany as part of Lewisham’s London Borough of Culture year.
Sun & Sea has been a fantastic collaboration between LIFT, We Are Lewisham and Serpentine Galleries... We are grateful for the opportunity to present the UK premiere of this historic and timely performance, and to do so with partners that have enabled us to engage with communities beyond our gallery walls.
The international and local combined as hundreds of local people volunteered as performers bringing the beach scene to life, alongside the international opera singers. Some of these volunteers formed a community choir. Everyone involved received the accolade of being part of Time Out’s top London theatre experience of 2022, while the show’s sold-out run brought visitors from across the capital and beyond to Deptford.
No Bass like Home, a heritage project celebrating Brent's reggae revolution of the 1960s and '70s, was another successful project. It featured a seven-hour online festival showcasing reggae culture and featuring performances by Julian Marley, The Cimarons, Janet Kay, General Levy, Big Zeeks, and Brent's Reggae Community Choir. The festival connected Brent's musical heritage to a global story, with live link-ups from Florida and Kingston, Jamaica. No Bass Like Home created a new model of online festivals in Brent and highlighted the borough's contribution to reggae music on an international level.
In Waltham Forest's London Borough of Culture year, Africa Express: The Circus brought together outstanding local musicians and renowned international performers such as Rokia Traoré, Django Django, Joan As Police Woman and Moonchild Sanelly. As part of the build-up, multi award-winning local musician and convener of Africa Express, Damon Albarn visited his former school, George Tomlinson Primary School in Leytonstone, to encourage and inspire the young students to improvise and create new music.
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Preparing your application
How to apply
Please visit our Become a London Borough of Culture pages for:
- the full Application Guidance
- further resources that can support you to develop your proposal
- information on how to access the online application portal (opens July 2023).
The Application Guidance includes the full set of questions that will appear in the application form, as well as prompts under each question to help shape your responses. This will enable you to prepare your answers in advance of accessing the application portal.
The deadline for applications is 12pm on 30 November 2023.
To apply you must have support from your Borough Leader and Borough Chief Executive, evidenced through letters of support.
Applicant support programme
We offer a wide-ranging programme of support to help you develop your application. All aspects of the support programme are free and available to every applicant borough. These includes:
- Engagement events: regular in-person sessions to share best practice around essential elements of a bid such as accessibility, legacy planning and fundraising.
- Consultancy: independent experts in large-scale artistic programming to work with you as a critical friend, mentor and facilitator.
- Small development grants: small grants to pay for additional expertise, such as in partnership development, governance and business case support.
- One to one advice: the London Borough of Culture team is on hand to answer your queries. We will meet with every applicant borough and can provide feedback on draft bids. We can also help broaden your networks, for example, connecting you with cultural organisations and practitioners.
- Technical guidance: support in using the online application portal.
Selection process
Applications will be assessed by a panel of senior GLA officers. Comments from our Strategic Partners’ Board, made up of strategic partners including major funders, will also be considered. A shortlist of applicants will then be invited to interview. The final decision will be made by the Mayor of London. The winners will be announced in early 2024, after which formal grant agreements will be put in place.
Application assessment
We will score your application according to its performance against the four criteria below. Please see the Application Guidance at Become a London Borough of Culture for detailed information on the criteria and scoring system.
Case study: Seen and Heard
Young people leading change in public spaces, Brent
Part of Brent 2020: London Borough of Culture, the Seen and Heard project saw young people affect genuine and lasting change in London’s built environment.
Addressing concerns raised by young people during the development of Brent’s London Borough of Culture bid – that they are being squeezed out of local public space – the project set out to put young people in the driving seat of urban design. Starting locally, their work has now influenced policy across the capital.
In partnership with London School of Economics (LSE), Metroland Cultures and the developer Quintain, young people joined public space design workshops and reflected on issues and opportunities they'd identified within nearby Wembley Park, and redesigned local spaces to put young people’s needs at their heart.
Committed to making real-world change, the group set out a suite of policy recommendations and a youth charter, demanding that young people are given a greater role in the planning and design of public spaces. These were presented to local and regional planning bodies for feedback and advocacy. A passionate online petition for the recommendations to be adopted garnered 200 signatures.
The campaign was heard in Brent and beyond. Locally, a new space designed by the young people opened to the public in late 2022. A space ‘to do nothing’ for community gathering, rest and play.
Meanwhile the Mayor of London’s new Public London Charter – which sets out rights and responsibilities for the users, owners and managers of public spaces – specifically references Seen and Heard and its recommendations. The result? All new developments must now consider young people’s needs and consult meaningfully with locals in the design and delivery of public space.
The project is now being recognised on both a local and international basis: it’s been nominated for a People’s Choice Award in the Brent Design Awards and shortlisted in the pan-European Eurocities Awards.
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22
young people participated in workshops about the principles, practicalities and complexities of public space design.
Key dates
Application guidance available
Applicant support programme
Online application portal opens
Application deadline
Assessment
Interviews and final decision-making
Winners announced
Delivery of Title Award
Delivery of three Cultural Impact Awards
Delivery of Title Award
Partnerships
Strategic Partners’ Board
Our Strategic Partners’ Board supports the development of a strong and well-connected London Borough of Culture programme.
Our strategic partners are:
- Arts Council England
- City of London
- Libraries Connected
- Heritage Fund
- City Bridge Trust
- Historic England
- London Councils
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation
- The Linbury Trust
Special thanks
London Borough of Culture would not be possible without the support and dedication of many people.
Thank you to all the councils, cultural and community organisations, artists, creative practitioners, participants, funders and supporters who have or will contribute to the programme – ensuring it delivers the greatest impact for London’s culture and communities.
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More information
All application documents, including this prospectus, are available to view and download at Become a London Borough of Culture.
If you need more information or have any queries, please contact us on: [email protected]
London Borough of Culture team
Greater London Authority
City Hall
Kamal Chunchie Way
London E16 1ZE
@LDN_Culture
#MyLocalCulture
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