A cultural project in Brighton and Hove dedicated to improving the lives of young people has been shortlisted for an important international award. ‘Our Future City’ is a programme working across different sectors and agendas, expecting to help 6,000 children and young people in the city over the next 10 years.
They announced they were “very excited [their] partnership has been shortlisted for a EuroCities award” at the ceremony yesterday evening. The award recognises outstanding achievements programmes and cities in three categories ‘cooperation’, ‘innovation’, and ‘participation’, in which ‘Our Future City’ was honoured for their participation.
Council leader Dan Yates said: “Brighton & Hove has an incredibly creative history, and it’s really important that our creative future is secured. That’s why we want to invest in the future and invest in our young people – developing their own creative ideas and their own creative futures.”
The collective of cultural industries includes Brighton Dome, Brighton Festival, Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, Royal Pavilion & Museums, and the University of Brighton. These main partners collaborate together to focus on enabling sociable platforms to wellbeing through arts, culture and digital experience.
Peter Chivers, head of Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, said: “We focus on developing cultural activities and engagement for children and young people. It’s about putting them at the heart of that and working as a collective, a movement, to support them.”
The programme is backed with more than £1m funding from Arts Council England, Artswork, partners’ budgets and other fundraising ventures. Phase One fo the programme started in 2015 involving ten months of conversation on how the programme can transform the lives of children, involving almost 1,000 people. Phase Two is currently underway working with health, social services, local businesses, education, and culture to reach the most vulnerable.
Culture in Brighton and Hove is inextricably linked to the community and the engagement of future generations. The influence and input from local children have designed incredible cultural opportunities for young people across the city.
For more information on ‘Our Future City’, visit their website.
