With just days to go before the winning boroughs are crowned the capital’s first London Borough of Culture, the Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a further £1million boost to the hotly-contested scheme.
The London Borough of Culture award, a flagship manifesto commitment, is a major new initiative launched by Sadiq in June 2017 which offers more than £1million of funding to the winning boroughs to stage a programme of world-class cultural events and initiatives, and to develop a plan to make culture an integral part of the boroughs’ future.
The two winning boroughs for 2019 and 2020 will now each receive an additional £250,000, specifically to help young people from diverse backgrounds get involved in creative projects.
This is on top of £1.1m already committed to each winning borough, to deliver a programme of ambitious cultural activities, placing culture at the heart of communities and celebrating the unique character of local areas. This brings the total award available to each winning borough to £1.35million1.
Twenty-two boroughs have applied to become the London Borough of Culture and the winning boroughs for 2019 and 2020 will be announced on Tuesday 27 February by Sadiq Khan at a special ceremony at City Hall.
A further £250,000 will boost the funding available for up to six exemplary projects2, bringing the total fund available for exemplary projects to £850,000. These projects were highlighted by boroughs in their bids. This ensures that as many Londoners as possible are able to benefit from the Mayor’s record investment in culture.
