The Difference We Make Annual Report 2023-24
Creative Lives is a registered charity established in 1991, that champions community and volunteer-led creative activity. We work to improve opportunities for everyone to be creative and, in particular, celebrate and promote people expressing themselves creatively with others, recognising the benefits this brings to both individuals and communities.
This report highlights some of our activities from the year 2023-24.
To find out more about our work, please see our website: www.creative-lives.org.
Overview
“The work you do is so needed and you offer such a refreshing voice and perspective on creative work embedded in communities. Thank you for all you do.”
Creative Network participant
Creative Lives is an enterprising operation recently reconfigured for greater success and underpinned by strong values.
During 2023-24 we developed the new Creative Lives Strategic Plan 2024-29 (subsequently launched in April 2024) which represents an important shift for Creative Lives. The plan is our response to the current fragility of society, and focusses our work over the next five years on leveraging the proven ability of local creative groups to reduce isolation, improve wellbeing, increase inclusion, and build stronger community identity and cohesion. Creative Lives aims to empower, support and connect local volunteer-led creative groups so they have the capacity and resilience to collaboratively address challenges facing their communities.
We rolled out our new programme of place-based development and support to communities across the UK and Ireland that are facing challenges, including socio-economic deprivation, discrimination or neglect, where our support has the potential to make a lasting difference. In 2023-24, we worked in Barnsley, Belfast, Bridgend, Derry, Donaghadee, Dover, Edenderry, Ely, Great Yarmouth, Leeds, Luton, Middlesbrough, Norfolk & Suffolk, Reading, and Stoke-on-Trent.
We continued our Creative Lives On Air partnerships with BBC Radio Tees, BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Suffolk. We also undertook our first Creative Lives On Air partnership with a commercial radio station, Red FM in Cork. Via this unique model of working, we’ve promoted active participation in creative activity to millions of listeners across the UK and Ireland. We’ve also produced innovative audio, showcasing new creative voices from diverse communities.
Creative Lives has been through a phenomenal transformation over recent years - and the organisation is ready for more.
2023-24
397
5,331 Participants
130
2,558 2022-23
175 Influencing meetings 114
4,498
4,106
50,188
65 grants between £10-20k distributed to groups across 25 places in England to reduce loneliness and isolation through creative activities, totalling nearly £750,000 Website users
48,109
32 seed grants distributed in Reading, totalling £16,000
Know Your Neighbourhood
“I come away feeling good about myself because I’ve accomplished something new, spent time with friendly people and also found that I can help others which has given me a purpose in life.”
Know Your Neighbourhood grantee participant
In April 2023, Creative Lives announced a major new grants scheme for voluntary creative groups in England. The scheme is part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Know Your Neighbourhood (KYN) fund, distributing funds alongside Libraries Connected and the Association of Independent Museums.
The two-year programme aimed to fund voluntary creative groups in a number of designated areas across England, to promote and deliver targeted creative activities to support people at risk of loneliness and isolation.
The particular focus of the scheme was not just on undertaking a creative activity, which is in itself highly beneficial, but on exploring ways that the activity can build connections and a sense of belonging within the community.
The Know Your Neighbourhood fund worked in a number of targeted high deprivation local authority areas in England, and commenced with pilot work in Thanet, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Stoke-on-Trent and Great Yarmouth.
Following the pilot round, where we distributed 10 grants, a further 65 creative projects across England were awarded Creative Lives Know Your Neighbourhood grants to increase volunteering, tackle loneliness, and improve community wellbeing. The grants totalled nearly £750,000 of new investment in everyday creativity.
We are delighted to be working with the DCMS and Arts Council England who have commissioned external evaluators to explore the impact of creativity, arts and heritage on tackling loneliness.
Creative Citizens
Creative Citizens is our programme of hyperlocal place-based development work.
In 2023-24, Creative Lives developed a new approach to supportin creativity, working in partnership with local authorities in communities facing economic and social challenges.
Based on the premise that creative activity is already taking place in every community, our starting point is to find, value, and celebrate existing activity before looking at how it can be supported, sustained, and increased.
Creative Lives introduced a new consultancy approach to its place-based activity, so alongside self-initiated work in priority places, we began to pitch for tenders and carry out income-generating placed-based research in areas we had specific expertise. This work involves:
Mapping local creative groups
Networking grassroots creative groups and volunteers within communities, and linking them to the relevant local authority and other agencies
Training and development support offered to local creative groups
Seed funding distributed in the form of microgrants (£200-£300) to address barriers to participation and make groups more viable, sustainable, and effective
Broadcasting through our unique radio partnership with the BBC, Creative Lives On Air.
“It was a very positive and professional experience with Creative Lives undertaking research to support a wider piece of visioning work.”
“They are really a pleasure to work with, very professional and insightful.”
“Excellent - perfect pitched challenge, listening and diligence.”
“Working with Creative Lives provided the capacity and expertise to undertake research into local grassroots sector which otherwise wouldn't have happened.”
“It has meant we have been able to highlight the work of lots of little groups and people who have been doing amazing creative works which we would not have come across without the project.”
“Engaging organisations that we had traditionally not worked with.”
Creative Lives was successful in winning competitive tenders to conduct work for Norfolk and Suffolk Culture Board, as well as Arts Council England in the South East, Reading Borough Council and Bridgend County Borough Council.
Norfolk & Suffolk
Creative Lives was commissioned by the Norfolk and Suffolk Culture Board to map the creative health sector across Norfolk and Suffolk. We looked at need, investment, gaps, and priority areas, and developed a series of recommendations that could strengthen creative health provision.
Read the report Mapping Creative Health in Norfolk and Suffolk
Reading
Reading Borough Council commissioned Creative Lives to deliver their locally placed-based model in two wards in South Reading: Whitley and Church. We hired a local freelancer who has been supporting new and existing groups to flourish in the area. We also distributed 32 microgrants to support creative activity in these wards.
We also delivered place-based work in Middlesbrough, Barnsley and Dover (where we supported a successful arts week in a school in St Radigans, working with the Future Foundry), and we delivered events in Great Yarmouth to support creative activities to flourish.
Middlesbrough
Creative Lives carried out work on behalf of Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership to research volunteer and community-led creative activity in Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership asked us to investigate on-the-ground community arts activity to identify groups unknown to them, discover what support might be needed, test local awareness of the Cultural Partnership, and canvass opinions about its vision to make Middlesbrough the most creative town in the UK.
Read the report Creative Citizens Middlesbrough
(NB In 2024 we decided to drop the ‘Creative Citizens’ branding, and refer to these projects simply as our place-based work.)
Creative Places, Edenderry
An ambitious project putting people, place, and participation at the centre of cultural life in Edenderry.
Since 2021, Creative Lives has been working in Edenderry, County Offaly, in partnership with Offaly Arts Office and Edenderry Municipal District Council. Our work is part of the Creative Places programme supported by The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon, to create a richer, more inclusive, and more cohesive creative community in the town and surrounding areas.
Over the first three years of the project, 2,626 adults have attended activities and 936 children. There have been 144 community workshops, we have worked with 51 different artists and facilitators, and there have been six large-scale events. We have awarded six Creative Grants, seven Seed Funding Grants and three Artist Commissions. Our work in Edenderry has been truly transformative.
As one resident told us: “My biggest struggle in life was admitting that I was an artist, I found that really, really difficult. And now I love standing up in the town and saying I'm an artist.”
We worked with people of all ages and backgrounds to create a creative community in the town and surrounding areas. Our aim was to provide creative opportunities for as many community members as possible: professional artists, community groups, and individuals. The project was developed collaboratively with and by the people of Edenderry, with community ownership and sustainability at the heart of what we do together.
We ran regular creative activities, funding schemes, opportunities for artists, and community celebrations.
“Thank you for the opportunity to paint the Cabin, I really enjoyed it, despite the cold wind! Everyone was so lovely about the artwork and they all seemed to like it. Only one comment from a young man in his 20s made me a bit sad, he said ‘It’s amazing! But too nice for this area’ as if they don’t deserve beautiful things. So thank you for giving them something beautiful, even if they don’t think they deserve it.” - Artist Sharon Regan, Creative Places, Edenderry
Creative Places, Edenderry is supported by The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon (as part of their national Creative Places programme) in partnership with a steering committee of local stakeholders, including Offaly Arts Office, Edenderry Municipal District Council, and Offaly County Council Library Services.
Creative Projects
Sanctuary Seekers
In 2023, Creative Lives was invited by Cardiff Council to estab creative group for refugees and asylum seekers in Cardiff Central Library.
The sessions were focused on providing a welcoming space to take part in creative activities, as well as opportunities to make new friends and improve conversational English.
The benefit of hosting the sessions in Cardiff Central Library is that we can link participants to other Council services in the same building, including welfare and benefit advice, housing and homelessness support, digital and language skills, thereby helping them to integrate into Welsh society.
This pilot work engaged with 137 participants, and has demonstrated considerable demand. Participants report feeling happier and more positive after taking part:
“Thank you for such a wonderful session. Who would have thought I could be so creative?”
“I was so stressed out this morning, and this is making me feel so much better.”
“I feel so lucky to have found this group. And I will continue drawing when I’m back in China.”
Mouth of the River
The Water of Leith runs through the heart of Edinburgh, flowi miles from the Pentland Hills down to the port of Leith.
RunbyCreativeLives,MouthoftheRiverwasaprojectcelebratingth lovedwaterway,hometoanabundanceofflora,faunaandwildlife,whichfor centuriesplayedavitalroleinEdinburgh'sindustriallife.
DuetotheCovid-19pandemic,theprojecthadtochangeconsiderablyfromthe plansoriginallylaiddowninFebruary2020.Howeverthedesiredoutcome-a beautifulnewsongabouttheWaterofLeithforthechoirsofEdinburghtosing -hasstillbeenachieved.Here'showitcameabout:
StageOne-Gettingtoknowtheriver
MembersofsixchoirsacrossEdinburghwereinvitedtolearnmoreaboutthe WaterofLeithviaaudiotrailsandwalks.
StageTwo-Sharingourstories
Thoughts,feelings,memoriesandanecdotesabouttheWaterofLeithwere gatheredfromthechoirmembersduringaseriesofZoommeetings,in partnershipwithsongwriterKimEdgar.
StageThree-Songwriting
Incorporatingwordsandphrasessharedbychoirmembersduringthefeedback sessions,KimwroteasongcelebratingtheWaterofLeithandwhatitmeansto people.Kimalsocreatedarangeofhelpfulresourcestohelpchoirslearnit.
StageFour-RecordingandSharing
Thefinishedsong,'TheRiverSpeaks'waslearnedandrecordedata'Comeand Sing'sessionon14October2023incentralEdinburgh.Somefeedbackfromthe dayincluded:
“Thankyousomuchforallyourhardworkandeffort-thedaywasanabsolute delightandlfeelproudtohaveplayedasmallpartinit.”
“Agreatbigthankyoufororganisingthesession.I'macarerandamhavingan extremelystressfultimeatworkatpresent.Ifoundspendingthedaylearning andsingingsuchabeautifulsongveryhelpful.”
Creative Community Boxes
Creative Community Boxes was a project providing arts and c materials to groups in community venues throughout Cardiff.
There are extensive proven benefits to communal participation in creative activities, including improved mood, increased social connection, improved physical and mental health, and skills development.
But recruiting a freelance artist to lead regular group activities can be expensive and risks creating a dependency on one person. We believe that creative activities are most valuable if they are shaped and directed by the people who take part in them.
For this project in 2023, supported by a grant from National Lottery Awards for All Wales, we placed boxes of arts and crafts materials in community venues in Cardiff.
Based on suggestions from the groups, we have provided arts and crafts materials in each venue, along with a selection of creative prompts in Welsh and English. Each box had our contact details and suggestion slips for further materials, prompts and feedback. We replenished the materials over the course of the project.
We placed 6 boxes in 6 venues for 8 different groups in Cardiff.
An estimated 317 participants took part in the project.
Arts and Crafts Swap
We know that some people struggle to afford new art supplies, while others may have spare and unused materials at home. So in one venue, we set up an Arts and Crafts Swap.
We are extremely grateful to National Lottery Awards for All Wales for their support for this project.
My Creative Life
Creative Lives celebrated the publication of a new poetry coll created as part of our My Creative Life project in Northern Ire
My Creative Life was a poetry and photography project celebrating creative groups across Northern Ireland. After a series of poetry workshops in 2023, in February 2024 we launched a new poetry collection, Mostly Questions About Butterflies, at events at Donaghadee Library, the Black Box (Belfast), and Derry Central Library.
Mostly Questions About Butterflies includes 70 poems from My Creative Life participants, and was supported by poetry facilitators Amy Louise Wyatt, Abby Oliveira, Colin Hassard, and Judith Lowans Thurley; publication designer and illustrator Elly Makem; and project photographer Bernie McAllister.
Mostly Questions About Butterflies
Hi Butterfly, Where did you come from?
Where do you live?
You come from somewhere. You like to visit gardens.
Where did you get your beautiful colours? What is it you like about flying?
What do butterflies eat?
You seem to rest on trees.
Your colours are like the rainbow. I would like to know what butterflies eat.
Christine Synnot
“The workshop was empowering and gave me the confidence to write poetry.”
“It was helpful to have my poem edited, receive fantastic feedback and have open discussions with the group.”
“I want to practise poetry in my life now for creative and wellbeing purposes. It has ignited a passion in me.”
Explore the collection, MostlyQuestionsAboutButterflies.
My Creative Life was funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Creative Lives on Air
Creative Lives On Air is a dynamic partnership between Cre and BBC Local Radio stations. It shines a spotlight on every through local radio, boosting wellbeing and reducing isolation.
In 2023-24, we continued to develop work with BBC Radio Sheffield with two new priorities: to celebrate Black creativity in Sheffield and highlight creativity and wellbeing in Barnsley. We also continued to work with BBC Radio Tees focusing on Middlesbrough, Whitby and Easington. We also worked with BBC Radio Leeds to celebrate the LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture.
Via this unique model of working, we’ve promoted active participation in creative activity with approximately 1,027,000 weekly listeners across England. We’ve also produced innovative audio, showcasing new creative voices from diverse communities.
Creative Shout Out
Creative Shout Out started in October 2023 and was funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, to support Black grassroots creativity to thrive in Sheffield, led by Creative Lives in partnership with BBC Radio Sheffield.
Using our existing Creative Lives On Air model, Creative Shout Out promoted the variety of creative threads that run through Sheffield's Black communities, through broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield. We also ran a series of events including networking session, podcasting courses, and textile workshops. The project culminated in an explosion of creativity at Sheffield Cathedral in the form of a fashion show.
BBC Radio Sheffield featured fashion entrepreneur Paris Hendricks from The Creative Hub and poet laureate and filmmaker Danae Wellington.
Lift the Lid: 23 Voices
In 2023, we co-hosted two 10-week courses for 23 participants aged 16-25, supporting them to build skills and confidence in journalism and podcasting. Lift the Lid: 23 Voices encouraged the young people to create their own media about the culture that matters to them, focussing on self-expression and exploration of Leeds 2023 Year of Culture.
“I'm receiving fantastic work into my inbox every day. I can't stress enough how much you all have come together to make a great team, teaching people new skills, supporting them to produce such amazing work. I would recommend each of you to work with."
- Feedback from Megan Hydes at LEEDS2023
Northern Souls - Going Down the Welly
Born out of a partnership between Creative Lives and BBC Radio Tees, funded by Historic England, Going Down The Welly captured memories of Easington Welfare Centre, or The Welly as it’s affectionately known to the residents of Peterlee in County Durham. It also highlighted its importance as a hub of creativity and social interaction today. The Welly provides a piece of vital history, and the stories from the pit, the miners, and the volunteers showcase how necessary groups like this are for capturing shared history in a creative environment.
“Rachel, I listen to you on a Sunday and always like how open you are to everything. I’ve heard you interview people from different backgrounds and religions and you always want to learn. Thanks for respecting the pit and what it meant to us. This is brilliant!”
Creative Networks
Our Creative Network online discussions continue to bring people together to learn from, share with, and inspire each other, with expert insight from guest speakers.
Some Creative Networks act as peer support groups, meeting regularly to explore different issues affecting a particular artform, geographic area, or demographic. We also hold one-off discussions sparked by a timely theme, such as artificial intelligence, cultural ecology, and the basics of setting up a creative group.
“This is the first time I've heard of Creative Lives, and I'm delighted to know there is a way I can connect with others across the UK who are focussing creatively on social inclusion.”
- Creative Network Tackling Loneliness
Creative Network: BIPOC Community-Led Creatives Support Group is a monthly online support group for everyone in the Black, Indigenous, and people of colour community to share stories and ideas, focusing on collaborative creativity.
"I am grateful that there are closed spaces for Black and Brown communities to support each other and know what's happening with different creatives. It's nice to go to an exhibition where the artist looks like me. It's good to support each other."
“Thank you for creating this space. It is so needed. There aren't many spaces like this in Scotland for BIPOC creatives.”
A Creative Network on Cultural Ecology and Social Wellbeing in January 2024, featured Mark Stern and Susan Seifert from the Social Impact of the Arts project (SIAP) based at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Mark and Susan joined us live from Philadelphia to talk about their work. SIAP is a research group established to ask questions and develop methods to explore the impact of the arts and culture on urban communities. SIAP's research focuses on the relationship between the arts and community change, with a particular interest in strategies for neighbourhood revitalisation, social inclusion, and community wellbeing.
Total number of people who attended Creative Networks: 478
Policy & influencing
“I’ve just read Common Ground: Rewilding the Garden and it is brilliant, both in its findings and its methodology. I am a massive fan of open conversations and have long found them the best way to get to the nuanced, complex, often messy but ultimately real truth of what is happening in a community. I’ve always struggled to articulate it in a way that doesn’t get dismissed as ‘just a conversation’ and you’ve done that so well. I’m sure I’ll be referencing it forevermore.”
- Natalie Querol, Senior Project Manager, Place, Arts Council England
Creative expression in all its forms is a fundamental part of being human. Creative Lives works with communities, organisations, policy-makers, funders, and creative individuals as a voice for positive change, to improve and expand the landscape in which creative participation can take place.
Community Spaces Forum
In October 2023, in a partnership with Making Music, Creative Lives helped to establish a new national Community Spaces Forum. The Forum’s bi-annual meetings bring together representatives of venues used by community groups to discuss the challenges groups face in finding appropriate affordable spaces for their activities and the challenges faced by many of the venues they use.
The members of the Community Spaces Forum include national organisations representing village halls, religious buildings, schools, community centres, scout huts, little theatres, arts centres, grassroots music venues, pubs and local authority-owned venues. The Forum has identified the need for better matchmaking between groups looking for venues and venues with unused space; the need to develop better understanding of the particular requirements of different types of community groups and different types of spaces; and the need to work together to influence relevant legislation and regulation.
Everyday Creativity Research Network
Creative Lives is one of the partners in the Everyday Creativity Research Network, led by the University of Brighton, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. During 2023-24 the Research Network ran sandpit events on the role of Everyday Creativity in creative research methods (at the University of Brighton), the role of everyday creativity in relation to place (at Edge Hill University) and Everyday Creativity and wellbeing (at Brunel University London).
Funders
We are extremely grateful to the following funders for their support for our work throughout the year.
The British Science Association
Reading Borough Council
Leeds 2023
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
Arts Council England
Creative Scotland
The Arts Council of Ireland
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
The Arts Council of Wales
National Lottery Awards for All Wales
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Scottish Community Alliance
Rethink Ireland
Offaly County Council
Photo credits
Creative Lives Charity Limited is registered in Scotland as Company No. 139147 and Charity No. SC 020345.
Registered office: The Melting Pot, 15 Calton Road, Edinburgh EH8 8DL.
Creative Lives acknowledges funding from Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Wales
