31st January 2023
Golden Thread Gallery is delighted to be able to share the news that we have been shortlisted for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Award for Civic Arts Organisations 2023.
We are one of 10 organisations from across the UK shortlisted for the prestigious award, which celebrates arts organisations putting co-creation with their communities at the heart of their work.
Hundreds of organisations submitted applications to the initiative, but just ten have been shortlisted. The Award offers a total of £150,000 prize funding, one of the largest amounts for an award in the arts sector.
GTG Deputy Director Sarah McAvera says: “For a growing arts organisation like the Golden Thread, an honour like this is a huge boost! Co-creating with communities here has become integral to what we do. We plan to continue developing new links and partnerships to co-create supportive and empowering projects through art.”
The Gulbenkian Foundation is dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. This Award places a spotlight on organisations that are helping communities thrive, even in the most challenging of contexts – whether by igniting joy, hope, compassion, and energy, improving wellbeing, forging new connections, or developing solutions. Recipients will be outstanding examples of how arts organisations can work in and with communities to address their needs and concerns, deepen relationships, and use arts and creativity to enable positive change.
The judging panel is chaired by Baroness Bull CBE, Crossbench Peer, House of Lords. She says: “Reaching a shortlist of ten from such an exceptional pool of applicants was no easy task and I’m hugely grateful to our panel of judges who approached the challenge with both wisdom and generosity. The panel was impressed by the innovative approaches to co-creation and the range of activities of all the organisations it considered, but selected the shortlisted ten because they offered outstanding examples of how creativity can bring diverse groups of people together to address community needs and enhance lives. While it remains a challenging time for arts organisations and for the communities they serve, these inspirational stories give us hope for new, inclusive and sustainable models of cultural participation.”
The shortlisted organisations will now go through a second stage of assessments and panel interviews, before the final winners are chosen and announced in late March.
You can read more about the award here.
Wish us luck!
Golden Thread Gallery is supported by:
