FIGHT FOR OUR CREATIVE FUTURE

Generation Hull, the city’s Local Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP), is delighted to announce that Arts Council England has awarded funding under the National Lottery Place Partnership Project Fund. This is for a three-year programme called “Fight for Our Creative Future”, a name chosen by the young people who developed the project, providing opportunities for children in Hull to have a career pathway into creative industries without having to leave the city. 

With the current focus on Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), art and culture can be squeezed out of the academic life of our schools and this project, hosted by the Thrive Co-operative Learning Trust, will see:

  • schools and youth organisations developing their own Arts Councils in students’ own time being funded to explore all forms of art and culture

  • create safe spaces to develop skills, explore issues and showcase work with their local communities and families

  • work placements and apprenticeships in the creative cultural organisations in our city

  • opportunities for emerging and established artists in the city to forge links with school and youth settings

  • develop a children and young people focussed art and cultural strategy for the city.

In addition to the £443k grant from the National Lottery, public and private sector partners in the city have pledged a further £337k of funding, showing their commitment to developing the creative careers of our young people.  In addition, schools, creative organisations and the LCEP has committed an in-kind contribution of £180k bringing the total investment in our young people to £960k over the three years.

 Pete Massey, Director, Yorkshire & the Humber, Arts Council England, said: 

“I’m delighted that we have been able to support ‘Fight for Our Creative Future’ through our National Lottery Place Partnership Fund. Providing young people across Hull with the opportunity to pursue a career in the cultural and creative sector opens up a world of opportunity in one of the UK’s fastest growing industrial sectors.  The Place Partnership Fund has been designed to help places make a step-change in the cultural and creative lives of people in their community and I can’t wait to see how over the next three years this project will help to shape not only the cultural landscape of the city but also the future of the young people who engage with it.”

 Dominic Gibbons, Chair of Hull & East Yorkshire Creative, said:

“This is a wonderful investment in the young people of Hull and a great example of many different sectors in the city coming together to support the critical role that arts and culture play on the development of young people, whether to have a career in the arts or to become creative engineers, scientists or teachers. 

We have a great richness of cultural organisations across the city but face a significant skills gap currently and in the future in the sector.  I am delighted that our young people feel passionate about their potential careers in the creative sector and have called their project “Fight for Our Creative Future”.

For further information please contact Trish Dalby, Chair of the Local Cultural Education Partnership on 07821914272.