YMCA Sutton Coldfield has been awarded £7,582 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Heart of England Community Foundation – ensuring that creativity plays an important role in local community celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will ensure that thousands of people from communities all across England will have the opportunity to take part in exciting creative events – all in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. From puppetry and story creation, through to making crowns, carnival and art trails, there will be a huge range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved in.
YMCA Sutton Coldfield will work with FOLIO (Friends of Libraries in our) Sutton Coldfield and Photographer Kate Hollingsworth on an exciting intergenerational project. From Polaroid to Smartphone will bring together younger people from YMCA’s Youth Club along with older people from FOLIO’s Elderberries group to curate library materials from the 1950’s (the decade of the Queen’s Coronation). Kate Hollingsworth will then lead on photography workshops for the Youth Club and the Elderberries to take photographs in and around the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield in the Queen’s Jubilee year. These photographs, alongside photographs of the library materials from the 1950’s will then be used to create an exhibition in Sutton Coldfield Town Library. The exhibition will launch on Saturday the 11th June and will welcome visitors over the following week.
Made possible thanks to National Lottery players and administered by UK Community Foundations on behalf of the Arts Council, the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will support a huge range of projects throughout England. 44 community foundations have been awarding grants across the country.
Rachel Dutta Choudhury, Bid Writer, Fundraising and Development Manager at YMCA Sutton Coldfield said: “We are thrilled to have been awarded this funding. Our intergenerational project, in collaboration with FOLIO and photographer Kate Hollingsworth, will enable the younger and older people engaged with the project to creatively capture Sutton Coldfield as they see it. The exhibition; “From Polaroid to Smartphone”, will give participants a voice enabling them to feel valued, engaged and involved as active participants in their local community.”
Darren Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England said: “The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund is a wonderful example of our ambition to give everyone the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts, culture and creativity – made possible thanks to National Lottery players. This June, we’ll see communities across England coming together to celebrate a historic milestone for this country. I’m excited to see these projects brought to life in villages, towns and cities across the country as our wonderfully creative communities celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”
Rosemary Macdonald, CEO, UK Community Foundations, said: “For community foundations, people and places are the priority and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is a unique opportunity for people to get together and celebrate in their communities. We are proud to have connected Arts Council England with local organisations whose imaginative and exciting projects and collaborations with professional artists will bring communities together to enjoy marking this milestone moment in our history.”
Tina Costello, CEO, Heart of England Community Foundation, said: “It’s fantastic to be part of this wonderful opportunity to provide funding to local groups in the West Midlands and Warwickshire during this once in a lifetime event. I’m so excited to see these wonderful projects in June! This year will be a great year for cultural celebrations in the region, as we are host to the Coventry City of Culture and the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.”
HM The Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in 2015. Her reign has been marked by a commitment to public service, reflected by her extensive programme of engagements at home and abroad, and support for over 600 cultural organisations, charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations.
