Cross artform

Wandsworth is the first borough to publicly declare its intention to become London Borough of Culture 2025.

The south London borough launched its campaign to become London’s fifth Borough of Culture at the end of last week with a call to local communities to help develop a proposal for the competition.

According to a statement released by the council, if named Borough of Culture, Wandsworth will “showcase this rich cultural heritage, diversity, and creative spirit of the borough through an exciting array of artistic events, community engagements, and innovative projects”.

“We’re delighted to be going for Borough of Culture 2025 - it signals real confidence in a changing, modern Wandsworth. We can’t wait to show London and the world what our wonderful borough has to offer,” Council leader Simon Hogg said.
 
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who launched the competition in 2017, recently announced a further two iteriations of the cultural programme in 2025 and 2027.

Each host is provided funding towards a year-long programme which celebrates local culture and heritage. Current hosts Croydon launched their programme of events in March.

Boroughs applying for the 2025 edition must submit their final bid in December this year, with a winner set to be chosen in early 2024.

Scotland's arts funding body has been accused of bias toward the country's major cities.

New figures for 2022/23 show that Creative Scotland spent the equivalent of £50.85 per person on arts projects in Edinburgh and an average of £39.75 per resident of Glasgow.

Dundee – Scotland's fourth biggest city by population – received £24 per person.

However, across the Kingdom of Fife – one of Scotland's largest council areas by population – just £3.15 per person was spent.

Fife Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said that “big city bias” needs to be addressed.

He said: “The differences in spending are stark. Some variation between different parts of the country is to be expected, but if you live outside of Scotland’s biggest cities you will rightly be feeling short-changed."

He added that spending by both Creative Scotland and the tourist body Event Scotland should be reviewed.

A Creative Scotland spokesperson said: “The reach of the work through Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland extends across the whole country, and our funding routes are devised to help people from all parts of society to bring their ideas to life."

Arts projects in England have received funding to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush.

The government-backed Windrush Day Grant Scheme has this year distributed £750,000 to 45 arts, educational and sporting projects.

Awards range from £5,203 for the Brighton Book Festival to £40,000 for a festival of arts activity and month-long schools programme organised by the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, London.

The community-led initiatives will mark the Windrush 75 anniversary with events and activities between 8 June and 31 August.

The Blackstory Partnership in Birmingham will present an event at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 22 June for National Windrush Day, with performances of West Indian folk songs and the launch of the book ‘Windrush Generation – This Is Our Story’.

Other funded events include ‘Here: Windrush 75 Leeds’, a series of large-scale portraits across the city presented by Jamaica Society Leeds, and ‘Back Home’, a photographic and augmented reality project from Friction Arts at the Library of Birmingham.

Minister for Communities, Lee Rowley, said: "We wanted to celebrate the positive contribution the Windrush generation and their families bring to this country and recognise the contributions made by all British Caribbean people in our communities.

"Bringing people together is a way to ensure better understanding and social cohesion."

The National Lottery generated an 'all-time high' of £1,807m for good causes from ticket sales in 2022/23, lottery operator Camelot has announced.

This is £6.2m higher than in the previous year (2021/22) and comes on the back of annual ticket sales of £8.19bn, the second highest since the Lottery began in 1994.

The figure represents an average of £36m a week raised for projects and communities across the UK - a proportion of which goes to arts, culture and heritage projects. 

Camelot Co-CEOs, Clare Swindell and Neil Brocklehurst, said the amount raised for good causes showed "that The National Lottery is delivering for players and society in what are very challenging times".

Robert Chvátal, CEO of Allwyn, the multi-national lottery operator that owns Camelot, added: “This past year’s performance demonstrates the core strengths of The National Lottery in consistently delivering for good causes, even in an environment where consumer spending is under pressure."