Creative Citizens at Nottingham City Takeover 2019

Creative Citizens is UKNA’s Talent Development strand as part of our City Takeovers.  This was a new aspect for Nottingham 2019, for which we worked with four partners across the city to commission projects and develop new opportunities for young residents to explore and expand their creativity. These projects saw students from Nottingham Academy develop a new Hip-Hopera with the Community Recording Studio and the Renewal Trust, and members of the Nottingham Refugee Forum's youth group create an exhibition with Backlit Gallery. The commissions also encouraged young people referred through the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service to explore creative expression with City Arts, and pupils from Bluecoat Beechdale Academy and Ellis Guilford School's to develop new arts skills with Nonsuch Theatre. 

By collaborating with cultural organisations across Nottingham UKNA loved seeing participants working with inspiring  young artists from across the UK to create new and exciting work and to creatively respond to their city and their place in it. The presentation of their work as part of the City Takeover was an important opportunity to celebrate the wealth of talent Nottingham’s young people have to offer and for audiences to catch the work of the artists of the future, right there in their hometown!