Forging connections to arts & culture, for every young person

What We Do

As the city’s Local Cultural Education Partnership (LCEP), we connect Sheffield’s education, cultural, arts and youth sectors. LCEPS were set up across the country by the Arts Council in 2015 with the aim of uniting and improving cultural education for children and young people in local areas.

We run events attended by children and young people, artists and arts professionals, teachers and educators. We offer a platform for these groups to discuss and take action on topics like careers in the creative industries, Sheffield’s Culture Strategy and young people’s views on arts and culture.

We also facilitate projects. We broker introductions, coordinate people and spaces, share local knowledge and offer in-kind resources. For example, in 2025 we connected national organisation Historic England with local freelance artists and schools for a heritage-inspired project and public exhibition.

Through this activity, we work towards our mission of building and nourishing networks and connecting people who share our agenda. By bringing people together, we allow them to do more together.

Our 90+ partners collaborate with us on projects and events, but also support and learn from each other at regular networking meetings like Connecting Creatives. They benefit from our information channels: through our regular newsletters and email updates, they are among the first to know about development opportunities, funding pots, news and research. We know that our partners work in different ways, and so, whenever possible, we offer them bespoke support through 1-1 meetings.

We also commission research. We have consulted organisations like Brightbox and the Voice and Influence Team to learn more about children and young people’s views on arts and culture and how we can be more accessible as an organisation.

We deliver training and share training opportunities from third parties covering topics like gender awareness and safeguarding.

Finally, Create Sheffield is a powerful strategic voice. We advocate for children and young people - as well as arts and education professionals - in local, city-wide and regional discussions and decision making. We have helped to steer the direction of the new Sheffield Youth Alliance, for example, and we are the key network for delivery of the children and young people’s strand of the Sheffield Culture Strategy. We work with other local cultural educational partnerships (LCEPs) in the North as part of a shared practice of improving cultural opportunities for young people, and meet with them regularly for consultation and debate.