The winners of this year’s Young Creative Awards 2024 have been announced to the public during a live awards night at the Nottingham Playhouse...
This year marks the 16th edition of Nottingham’s much-anticipated Young Creative Awards, which are open to anyone aged 11 to 24 who lives, studies or works in Nottingham, across ten creative categories.
Trustee Andrew Tucker said: "The standard of art and creativity that we’ve seen submitted to us this year is genuinely exceptional. We believe that Nottingham is the only city in the UK which runs a big annual creative awards night like this for our young people, and we really couldn’t be prouder to help the next generation of imaginative talent take the first steps in their careers."
The event was hosted by award-winning journalist Geeta Pendse, who has worked with the BBC and Sky and featured a keynote speech about creativity from Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, mum of the superstar Kanneh-Mason family. Category judges this year included reams of industry talent like screenwriter William Ivory. Winners received free ‘Affinity’ design software from sponsor Serif, as well as an invitation to future YCA events, masterclasses and development opportunities.
The YCAs are diverse in both entries and entrants. Here are 4 of the 33 talented award winners:
- 12 year-old Isaac Marette was one of the youngest winners, blowing the judges away with his precocious thrash metal track.
- 15 year-old Anya Bansal picked up an award for Creative Writing, conjuring up a vividly–realised account of her grandfather’s journey from Bombay to Naples to Nottingham. Meanwhile, 18 year-old Namaa Raoof had masterfully drawn her own grandfather, his face fused creatively with the contours of a map - she won an award for Visual Arts. (Below, left).
- 23 year-old Isobelle Farrar won a Visual Arts award too, weaving a jaw-dropping tapestry version of the Greek myth of Meleager.
YCA Winners and highly commended nominees receive extra support in their creative development in the months and years after winning their prizes: Liss Cooke, for example, won a Fashion & Textiles YCA in 2018 and has gone on to design a dress for Beyonce.
At this year’s awards night, 2023 Music winner Serena Jasmine gave an exclusive performance of her song ‘Olive Branch’, having wowed audiences at Hockley Hustle and Rock City. These opportunities were organised by Young Creatives Nottingham.
Young Creatives Nottingham is the small independent charity who run the Young Creative Awards. The charity offers developmental opportunities in its structure: two past winners, Andrew Tucker and Kate Wand, now sit on the board of trustees.
Bridie Squires performed on the night, too, leading a group of Year 9s from Bluecoat Aspley Academy. Their piece was called ‘Word Play’ - throughout this year Bridie has delivered a series of YCA workshops to build poetry skills and a sense of confidence in performing. After winning in 2014, Bridie has had a fantastic career as a writer and creative practitioner, going on to work as the editor of LeftLion magazine, to write a show for national BBC radio, and set up the local spoken word and poetry GOBS collective.
‘The Young Creative Awards,’ says charity trustee Andrew Tucker, will continue to be a beacon of positivity in the calendar for years to come - demonstrating why Nottingham is one of the best places for artistic development in the country.’
Find out more about the Young Creative Awards
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