Awards The Creative Lives Awards - formerly the Epic Awards - are an annual celebration of the achievements of voluntary and community-led creativity. Each year, we invite creative groups across the UK and Ireland to share their achievements with us, so we can give you a well-deserved moment in the spotlight. 2022 WINNERS We received lots of wonderful applications for our 2022 Awards and loved reading about all the amazing activities creative groups across the UK and Ireland achieved between September 2021 and September 2022. It was tough, but we managed to reduce the entries down to a shortlist of 36 groups. Our judging panels then met to choose a Winner and Runner-up from each nation, the public voted for this year's People's Choice Award, the shortlisted groups themselves voted for the Peer Award for Excellence, and our EDI (Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion) Panel choose the Celebrating Diversity Award. We then looked around the local area where this year's ceremony was taking place, and found our Local Hero in Leeds. The Creative Lives Awards ceremony was held at Aspire, Leeds on 7 March 2023, as part of the LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture celebrations. Meet our wonderful winners . . . ENGLAND WINNER - Dadesley Crafting. Based in South Yorkshire, this volunteer-run group uses craft to combat loneliness and improve mental health and well-being, with members ranging in age from 18 to 90. ENGLAND RUNNER-UP - Bristol Beacon's Different Beginnings. This wonderful project saw care leavers create their own album by taking part in songwriting, composition, design & production IRELAND/N.IRELAND WINNER - Fatima Groups United. A Dublin-based family resource centre that strives to create wider access to the arts. Tonight we’re celebrating their Dance Till Dán poetry and dance project. IRELAND/N.IRELAND RUNNER-UP - The Kindness Postbox. Based in Enniskillen, this beautiful project connects children and elderly care home residents in Northern Ireland through cards, letters and drawings that are posted and delivered SCOTLAND WINNER - Sewing2gether All Nations. A brilliant grass-roots craft group in Paisley for members of the refugee and asylum-seeker community. SCOTLAND RUNNER-UP - Newstead News. An ambitious rural community newspaper in the Scottish Borders giving dozens of villagers a chance to get involved and be creative. WALES WINNER - Oasis One World Choir. Welcoming anyone seeking sanctuary in Cardiff, this singing group uses music to transcend cultural differences and foster a sense of community. WALES RUNNER-UP - Urban Circle Newport. This fantastic youth arts organisation empowered young people to run their own Jamaican festival, breaking down barriers and prejudices. PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD - Jubilation. Almost 12,500 members of the public cast their vote in this year’s People’s Choice Award, with Bridgwater Carnival’s ‘Jubilation’ pageant cart crowned winner! A magnificent feat of creativity, engineering & community spirit. PEER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE - Mental Inkness and Bristol Beacon's Different Beginnings. Voted for by the shortlisted groups, the Peer Award for Excellence is always special as it’s validation from your peers. This year’s award is shared by digital art gallery Mental Inkness and Bristol Beacon’s Different Beginnings project. CELEBRATING DIVERSITY AWARD - African & Caribbean Elders in Scotland. A group for people aged 60+ in Scotland who get together, run events, offer each other support and celebrate the stories and culture of Africa and the Caribbean. LOCAL HERO - Angela Gabriel. For her tireless volunteering with Beeston in Bloom, Beeston Festival and more. The Awards have been running since 2010 - meet some of our previous winners here. Cricieth Creadigol Creative Criccieth Winners of the 2021 Wales Creative Lives Award, multi-art project Creative Criccieth are from the seaside town of the same name. In response to the pandemic, the community engaged with a series of projects including the creation of the Criccieth Gown of Poppies made of 5,000 poppies, and designed Friendship Benches for intergenerational connection. On winning their award, Catrin Jones from Creative Criccieth said: “I am so proud that we responded to the challenges imposed by Covid-19 with compassion, energy and vision. We reached out, through varied creative projects to involve hundreds in the community, drawing on talents from across the generations and from all the districts of the town, contributing to people’s well-being and quality of life. The response from individuals and community groups to our varied imaginative projects have been fantastic.” About the group Criccieth is a small, bilingual, seaside town on the coast of north-west Wales. In response to the pandemic, the community was encouraged to get creative through a series of imaginative voluntary-led projects. Notable creative initiatives were the Criccieth Gown of Poppies, using 5,000 poppies created by over 150 volunteers; the Criccieth Town Map, an artistic bilingual map; and Friendship Benches, in which town benches were repainted using intricate designs based on place names and local traditions. Pont yr Enfys on the Ty’n Rhos Estate is a striking large-scale installation inspired by an eight year-old boy and involving hundreds of people painting brightly coloured stones. In addition, the townscape was further improved by the creation of the Cae Crwn community garden and by the extensive planting of flowers and edible plants by the volunteers of Criccieth in Bloom. These projects have been a catalyst for very many individuals in the community to kickstart creative activity. Learn more about Cricieth Creadigol / Creative Criccieth Facebook Instagram YouTube: Commemorating Criccieth’s Contribution 2020 – VE Day YouTube: Remembrance Sunday YouTube: Cae Crwn allotment and Butterfly project YouTube: Friendship benches Town map pamphlet Learn more about the winners and runners-up of the Creative Lives Awards 2021. Manage Cookie Preferences