The Young Creative Awards, an annual competition for young creatives living, working or studying in and around Nottingham, has returned for its sixteenth year, with entries now open...
Launched by the Young Creatives Nottingham charity, the awards seek to shine a light on young talent from across the city, and are open to anyone aged from eleven to 24 years old.
This year, organisers will be accepting entries from 4 January until 11.59pm on 15 March 2024.
Entrants will be able to submit work across ten categories including photography, music, film, fashion and textiles, creative writing, dance and visual arts.
Winners and runners up will not only receive a range of prizes, but also benefit from mentoring, work placements and professional development opportunities.
Since its launch in 2009, The Young Creative Awards has served as a springboard for some of Nottingham’s most talented individuals, with previous winners and runners up including the likes of Nottingham poet, playwright, performance artist and producer Bridie Squires, singer-songwriter Rob Green, and artist Aimee East who made it to the finals of BBC’s Best Young Artist competition.
Commenting on this year’s awards, Nigel Cooke, chair of the Young Creatives Nottingham, said: “Nottingham is a city brimming with creativity and talent and that’s never been more true than among the younger members of our community.
"When we first launched The Young Creatives sixteen years ago, we made it our mission to champion and celebrate young creative talent in all its forms, and our annual awards are a key part of that.
“For us though, it’s not just about being able to recognise the top talent we have here in the city, but our awards also provide vital opportunities for young people to develop their passion and kick-start their creative careers.”
The Young Creative Awards 2023 welcomed hundreds of entries, who were judged by a panel of judges from across Nottingham’s creative industry, before the winners were crowned during a virtual awards ceremony.
However, this year marks the first physical award ceremony since before the pandemic, during a glittering event that is set to take place at Nottingham Playhouse in May.
Nigel added: “This year is a very special one for us as it sees the highly-anticipated return of our physical awards ceremony which is always a fantastic evening, and a real celebration of some truly incredible talent. Each year we’re always blown away by the calibre of entries we receive, and as we launch entries for 2024, we look forward to getting the chance to see even more incredible creativity from Nottingham’s gifted young people.”
The Young Creative Awards mark just one of a number of ways Young Creatives Nottingham helps to support the creative community. Over the course of the year, it also helps nurture and support the next generation of writers, artists, musicians, designers, actors, architects, entrepreneurs and thinkers through workshops, events and more. It also strives to inspire and help young people to find ways into education, training and employment.
The headline sponsor of this year’s Young Creative Awards is, for the fifth year running, Serif, the Nottingham-based creators of the award-winning Affinity creative software.
Category sponsors are Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, FABRIC, maber, Nottingham College, Nottingham Music Hub, Nottingham Trent University, STENCIL and True Story. LeftLion and the University of Nottingham are also supporting as award partners.
To qualify for entry, creatives must be living, studying or working within the Nottingham Urban Area which includes Nottingham City, Arnold, Beeston, Carlton, Clifton, Eastwood, Hucknall, Kimberley, Ruddington, Stapleford and West Bridgford.
Entrants are able to enter as an individual, a group, a class, study group or club.
You can find out more about entry criteria, or submit an entry, here
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
