London Borough of Culture Winners Announced
Today Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the winners of the London Borough of Culture competition. Waltham Forest will be the first borough to be awarded the title in 2019, followed by Brent in 2020.
Each winning borough will be awarded £1.35m of funding to deliver a programme of ambitious cultural activities, placing culture at the heart of communities and celebrating the unique character of local people and places.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation will work with the winning boroughs to identify programmes most appropriate for application to us.
Waltham Forest will be the inaugural London Borough of Culture in 2019. Their compelling artistic vision draws on the community’s diversity and underlines the borough’s commitment to growing its emerging cultural economy, establishing itself as a leading cultural borough.
The winner of 2020 London Borough of Culture is Brent. The voices of young people are at the heart of their plans. To widen access and participation in the arts among local young people, the borough aims to establish a new trust for delivering culture in the area; fifty per cent of the board will be both from the local community and under the age of 30. The borough will actively work with young people to explore what culture means to them and to design their London Borough of Culture programme.
In addition, six other boroughs will share a pot of £850,000 made available for the Mayor’s Cultural Impact Awards – landmark projects highlighted by boroughs in their initial bids. This ensures that as many Londoners as possible are able to benefit from this initiative.
The winners of the Mayor’s Cultural Impact Award are: Barking & Dagenham, Camden, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham and Merton.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “When I have been out and about on my visits around London, I’ve picked up a real buzz about the London Borough of Culture, with different parts of the city vying to win this prestigious title. We’ve seen in the bids that have been submitted the brilliant ambition of boroughs across the city to deliver real change in their local areas through the transformative power of culture.
London Borough of Culture is a game-changer for the capital. It will give all Londoners, regardless of background, the opportunity to enjoy the capital’s fantastic cultural riches, discover places they never knew existed and will increase the level of participation in the arts across the city – especially in outer London boroughs.
But with such high-quality bids, deciding which boroughs should win was a very difficult decision. All boroughs who have bid should feel proud of their proposals.
Huge congratulations to Waltham Forest and Brent for their superb bids. I know that both will deliver a programme of work that will benefit residents and make the whole city proud. I am particularly happy to see both bids have placed such importance on young people. It’s vital that young people get access to culture, regardless of their background, so that they can aspire to be our performers, artists, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders of the future.
All of London has two exciting Boroughs of Culture celebrations to look forward to, and I can’t wait to see Waltham Forest and Brent’s bids come to life and improve the lives of people in their local communities.”
Moira Sinclair, Chief Executive of Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said: “We are delighted to extend our congratulations to Waltham Forest and Brent, winners of London Borough of Culture 2019 and 2020. At Paul Hamlyn Foundation, we strongly believe that everyone should have access to the arts and understand its potential in helping to foster resilient communities.
Each bid brought something different and important to the table. The emphasis from Waltham Forest on non-traditional venues reaching new geographies and people stood out, alongside the realisation that capacity building and volunteering will be important.
We particularly liked Brent’s artist-led approach and the importance placed on enabling young people’s voices to be heard.
Over the coming months and years we look forward to supporting Waltham Forest and Brent in their compelling visions and to seeing positive change come to the two boroughs and across London.”