Skip to main content

Building confidence and aspiration in young people

Sunderland Culture Annual Review 2025-26

We are committed to enabling and encouraging creative expression in children and young people with consistent and varied programme of free and low-cost activity across the city. We are also investing in the futures of Sunderland’s young creatives, providing opportunities, platforms and skills development that has allowed a new generation to explore a career in the arts.

Culture Start

Culture Start’s Creative Sparks after-school clubs and holiday activities are delivered in partnership with community organisations and Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) providers, ensuring children who face the greatest barriers can access creative opportunities outside of school. Creative Sparks delivered over 280 artist-led sessions this year, encouraging children to try something new and be inspired to explore their own creativity in a safe and inclusive environment.

Also part of the Culture Start programme, Future Creatives supports young people to explore pathways into the creative industries and see themselves as active contributors to Sunderland’s Cultural life. Launching last year, the community has grown to 175 members and has provided a series of events and workshops to help them build their skills and confidence while connecting with professional artists. Activity so far includes a Dance Bootcamp with Southpaw Dance, a two-day Music Production workshop with Ken Masters, performance opportunities at Summer Streets Festival and trips to see hit shows at Sunderland Empire.

An adult and three children gather around a desk setup to view a laptop screen. On the left, an adult with glasses, a beard, and a red t-shirt sits smiling beside an open laptop. Standing opposite them, three children look towards the screen, with one holding a plush Knuckles toy and another standing beside a camera mounted on a tripod. Coloured pens lay on the white table in front of them.
Zoom picture 1 of 3
A musician with long wavy hair sings into a microphone on a stand while playing an acoustic guitar in the foreground. In the background, a banner displays a purple circular logo reading
Zoom picture 2 of 3
Zoom picture 3 of 3

Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival

Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival returned for its fifth year, celebrating the creativity of young people across Sunderland. This multi-artform festival showcased an exciting programme spanning performance, visual arts, music, and digital work, providing a platform for emerging talent to share their voices and ideas.

Taking place across Arts Centre Washington, Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, and city-wide locations, audiences were invited to engage with work in a range of artforms and take part in free workshops.

This year, we developed our SEND strand with the first Highlights: Disability Arts Exhibition, supported by Autonomy, alongside two SEND takeover days providing creative opportunities for neurodivergent young people in an inclusive environment.

Bright Lights continues to champion participation, diversity, and ambition, placing young people at the heart of the cultural programme. Its fifth anniversary marked both a milestone and a reaffirmation of its importance as a key fixture in Sunderland’s cultural calendar, celebrating the next generation of creative talent.

‘I draw all the time but this is the first time my work is being shown publicly and its crazy- really cool!’

Participant

A group of young people and staff pose together on a stage for a group photo. In the centre foreground, two official guests wearing formal ceremonial chains stand beside a performer dressed in a yellow banana costume. Behind the group, a large screen displays a blue graphic reading
Zoom picture 1 of 3
Participants sit around tables in a brightly lit hall decorated with fairy lights, decorating white paper lanterns during a workshop. In the foreground, people sit in chairs with their backs partially to the camera as they paint and assemble colourful designs onto round lanterns. A stage with dark curtains is visible in the background under blue-lit ceiling beams.
Zoom picture 2 of 3
A live band performs on stage under dramatic blue and white spotlights. In the centre, a lead singer sings into a microphone, flanked on the left by a singer gesturing with raised hands, and on the right by a musician playing a bass guitar. A drummer is seated at a drum kit in the background.
Zoom picture 3 of 3

Creative Careers

In March, we worked in partnership with InspirED Sunderland Cultural Education Partnership, Culture House Sunderland and Music Connects Sunderland to deliver a citywide Creative Careers Day, strengthening pathways between education and the creative and cultural sector. Supported through funding from the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority and the Culture Start programme, the event brought together 157 students from schools across Sunderland to explore the breadth of opportunities available within the creative industries.

The day connected young people directly with creative professionals, employers and organisations, helping to raise aspirations, challenge perceptions of creative careers and develop a greater understanding of the skills, routes and opportunities available locally. Speakers including Marie Nixon (Sunderland Empire) and Kema Kay (actor and musician) shared their personal career journeys, while organisations including Into Film, Southpaw Dance, The Fire Station, Sunderland Empire, alongside artists Kerry Cook and Hannah Graham, showcased the diversity of careers within Sunderland’s cultural sector.

Speak Up

Between 2023 and 2025, the Speak Up programme has supported building confidence and aspiration in young people across Sunderland, empowering more than 500 pupils from five secondary schools to explore important issues through creativity. Pupils from Barbara Priestman Academy, Beacon of Light, Hetton Academy, Oxclose Academy and Thornhill Academy took part in weekly creative sessions alongside more than 25 artists.

Delivered in partnership with the National Theatre, Sunderland Culture and Sunderland Empire, the programme culminated in June 2025 with the vibrant Can You Hear Us Now? takeover event at Sheepfolds Stables. More than 120 young people showcased their work through artwork, live podcasts, film, animation and interactive workshops.

Participants confidently shared perspectives on identity, community, mental health and the environment, with a youth-led Q&A panel sparking meaningful dialogue with community leaders. One of our Speak Up participants, Oliver represented Sunderland at the National Theatre’s Speak Up: Arts Everywhere Symposium.

A crowd of people wearing matching pink t-shirts sit at wooden tables during an event, displaying excited and surprised facial expressions. Near the centre, one person raises a fist high in the air in celebration, while others hold their hands to their faces or look on attentively. Green and pink bunting hangs strung across the exposed brick wall in the background.
A performer wearing glasses, a bright orange hat, a white polo shirt, and dark trousers holds an orange hula hoop up in front of themselves with an expressive facial expression. In the background, other participants wearing pink t-shirts hold hoops against an exposed red-brick wall featuring windows and display boards.

Speak Up celebration event at Sheepfolds Stables. Photography by Von Fox.

Sunderland Culture Annual Review 2025-26