2 July 2021

Creativity Works is delighted to announce that it has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £7,000 for an exciting heritage project to mark its 40th Birthday.

Sarah James, Creativity Works Director said: “We are thrilled to have received this support thanks to National Lottery players. The 40th year feels like the right moment in time especially coming out of a world pandemic to share how our local community came together 40 years ago to improve conditions for local people (as they did in the pandemic) and the power of creativity to increase positive mental health – this is as important now as it was 40 years ago.”

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses on the preservation and sharing of the oral histories and memories from previous project participants, partners, artists, and volunteers from the past 40 years. Through this project funding Creativity Work’s aims to:

• Collate oral histories & memories from previous project participants, partners, artists & volunteers whose health and wellbeing have been transformed through arts and creativity.
• Use the archive material and the oral histories discovered & collected as the inspiration for a series of creative wellbeing invitations to the public and local community groups to get involved with.
• Curate a free public exhibition of our archive material demonstrating personal stories of positive change through creativity.
• Create a new online archive of the history of the organisation including free resources for other charities and artists working in the field of arts and wellbeing and socially engaged practice.

Stuart McLeod, Director England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, says:

“We are delighted to support Creativity Works for their 40th Birthday Archive Project and help them preserve and share the oral histories from projects spanning the last 40 years.

Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, Creativity Works will use the power of the creative process to make a real difference to people’s lives, draw communities together and enable more people to access the arts, ultimately improving their mental health and wellbeing.”

Creativity Works hopes that in sharing its diverse and colourful history, wealth of experience of working with a wide range of communities and, also, by acting as a social resource highlighting how society has shifted in terms of the awareness of the benefits of creativity in supporting mental health and wellbeing, it will encourage even more people to get creative.

Read the official Press Release: Creativity Works Press Release – HLF Funding APPROVED FINAL