Creative Lives Awards

Celebrating the achievements of community-led creative groups

The Creative Lives Awards celebrate the creative groups that enhance people's lives in villages, towns, and cities across the UK and Ireland. Since 2010, we've invited community-led groups to share their activities and achievements, so that we can give you a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.  

Our Award winners all use creativity to bring people together. Groups might take part in singing, dancing, painting, crafting, performing, playing music, or any other creative activity. All of them provide vital opportunities for people to find community, express their creativity, make friends, learn new skills, boost their wellbeing - and have fun together!

The 2024 Creative Lives Awards are now open for entries!

Learn more and check your eligibility

Please read our rules and guidelines, and check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), before you start filling out your application form. 

Enter the Creative Lives Awards

You can either complete your application form online, or by downloading the form and returning it to us via email at [email protected]

The closing date for applications is 11.59pm on Monday 13 May 2024.

Please get in touch at [email protected] if you have any further questions, if you need further support completing your application, or if you need any of the information or forms in a different format. Good luck!


A Celebration of Humanity

Want to learn more about the Creative Lives Awards? You can read about some of our previous winners below and the wonderful work they do, or check out a list of our recent winners here. We hope they will inspire you to tell us all about your group!

Art for All

Pre-pandemic, a local community art group in rural South Norfolk used to meet up regularly. The group was friendly and accessible to people of all ages and abilities who were experiencing social isolation, and participants could take any craft project along to work on whilst enjoying the company of others.

In March 2020, when the group could no longer meet, ‘Art for All’ was born. Using Zoom, and the help of a professional artist volunteering their free time to support the attendees, the project was led by user feedback each week. 

The session supported long-term mental health needs and connected with an art group in the Hebrides, to take advantage of the online possibilities and exchange beyond the immediate community. As lockdown eased, a new project 'Holding Hands' was started across Norfolk: 

"People draw and decorate or add words to an image of their own hands, on a large continuous roll of paper, with each hand touching the last, making a symbolic end to the period when we were discouraged to touch." Pam Spicer, Art For All

Learn more about Art For All

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