Skip to main content

Ignite Creative Futures for Young People

Back to review

Ignite Bursary Programme

The Ignite Bursary Programme provides financial support to help young people who are experiencing hardship or challenging circumstances to grow their artistic knowledge and skills – potentially leading to studying creative subjects or pursuing a creative career.

Young people were invited to apply for up to £500 for something that could support their creative pathway. In the first round 47 bursaries were awarded, totalling £21,600 of financial support for young people in the city, for artforms including music, visual arts, theatre and performing arts, photography and videography.

A purple rectangular speech bubble containing a quote in white text that reads: 'Wow...what a great opportunity. Thank you again, this will help so much for his tools for learning. I am so grateful.'

Many [young people] face financial barriers that limit their ability to develop their media skills…this bursary has provided them with the opportunity to invest in essential equipment, enabling them to create their own content, strengthen their portfolios and gain valuable hands-on experience. As a result, they feel more confident in their abilities and more inspired to pursue their creative careers.

Programme Leader, Sunderland College

Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival

Citywide Programme

The culture Start team were delighted to support Sunderland Culture’s annual celebration of young people’s creativity through Bright Lights Youth Arts Festival in February.

This year, for the first time, six pop-up events engaged 88 young people at The Flatts Youth Centre and Silksworth and Farringdon Youth and Community Centres, in partnership with Communities and Youth Almighty Project.

Small clay sculptures sit on top of a piece of beige cloth on a wooden table. A child's hands can be seen shaping some clay to the right.
Zoom picture 1 of 3
A child with long light brown hair, wearing a blue fury jacket, sits at a wooden table drawing on a large piece of paper. At the top of the frame you can see an open laptop and a short, black tripod.
Zoom picture 2 of 3
A hand with pink painted nails reaches toward a Numark DJ controller sitting on a white table. The device has two circular jog wheels, multiple black knobs, sliders, and buttons with some red lights. Several cables connect the controller to other equipment. A laptop is partly visible on the right side of the image.
Zoom picture 3 of 3

Back to review