At the centre of Creative Croydon is a group of Young Ambassadors called the Croydon Youth Arts Collective. Led by Croydon Music and Arts and Croydon’s Young People’s Specialist Programmes team, with partnership investment from the London borough of Croydon, Creative Croydon works with these young people to celebrate and advocate for the importance of creative opportunities in London’s largest borough. The group are at the heart of a developing Local Cultural Education Partnership for the borough, ensuring young people’s voices are central to the decision-making process.
The youth-led launch of the Croydon Youth Arts Collective saw over 80 people attend the event at a gallery cafe in the heart of Croydon. Attendees included local artists, young people, teachers, councillors, and parents. The young people involved designed the promotional material, promoted the event, decided upon the schedule and individual's responsibilities, set up the space, facilitated the event and presented their views. CYAC achieved their goal of having over 60% young people at the event. They went on to produce a large-scale Youth Arts Takeover at the iconic Croydon Clocktower, which hosted a day of live performances, workshops and a panel talk that showcased local talent. Over 1,000 people came to enjoy the day.
See a short film of the event here:
Creative Croydon received a commitment of £50,000 from AND in August 2015 with partnership investment from Croydon’s Cultural Growth Fund and London and Quadrant. The project has been awarded an additional £25,000 to develop the work of the local cultural education partnership up to March 2018, at a pivotal time for the regeneration of the borough.
Click here to read an update blog from 2016
Click here to read about the CYAC Takeover Festival 2017
You can also follow Croydon Music and Arts on Facebook here Twitter here: @CroydonMusicArt
Picture credit: Creative Croydon
