Arts, culture and heritage category winners

Seenaryo works in Jordan and Lebanon, two countries that host the highest number of refugees per capita in the world and where rates of youth unemployment are 46% and nearly 30% respectively.

The pandemic posed massive challenges for all charities, but when your entire service model depended on in-person tutoring and engagement, it really was an existential moment. For Services For Education, which provides music tutelage to 38,000 children in Birmingham each week, as well as running ensembles, concerts and community choirs, the first lockdown saw all its delivery channels shut off.

The impetus for LOOSE – known locally as The Studio – began in the 1990s. Residents in Halton, on the banks of the Mersey, knew that there were limited facilities for young people, but saw them gather outside pubs whenever a band was playing. This inspired the long process of creating The Studio, a space where young people, families and other charities could create and enjoy music and the arts.

Birmingham is a multi-cultural and socio-economically diverse city, yet the items in its museum venues did not reflect this, and nor did the footfall through their doors. In 2015 it secured a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop its collections to make them more representative of the city’s inhabitants and their histories. It consulted widely with a range of groups, and determined that the new collections would be co-curated with the people they would represent. The project has fundamentally changed the way the Trust operates and engages with its audiences, and provided a model for other cultural institutions to follow. A new collections development policy is now being devised with audience consultation and co-curation at its heart.

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) set up its Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network (CITiZAN) campaign to learn more about the thousands of archaeological sites that do not have any statutory protection and are threatened by climate change and coastal erosion. The project is now coming to the end of its funding agreement and has seen huge success, having delivered hundreds of events, walks, talks and training programmes

The creative:connection project, which this charity won for, was born out of the idea that disability prejudice and access to the arts are directly correlated. Creative arts charity Create felt that both disabled and non-disabled people can equally benefit from disabled people having access to the arts – as it can boost self-esteem, confidence, visibility and acceptance.

Eureka!’s Access All Areas project set out to bring more disabled children and their families to the children’s museum. Staff at the Halifax-based museum found that disabled children were often excluded from days out, simply because of poor physical access into a building or lack of support once there. The struggle to access theatre, arts, museums and leisure facilities within local communities was something Eureka! wanted to change.

The Lowry started with the Walkabout Project, which ran from 2006 to 2011, to engage with people in local community settings. It followed this up with bespoke projects aimed at targeted groups such as young carers and young people who are not in employment, education or training. Since 2011 it has worked with more than 300 vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to help them develop skills and confidence. Many of those have gone on to take part in further training.