Create Sheffield 2025 Highlights
It’s been a busy year!
Create Sheffield’s core aim is to make access to creative expression for children and young people more equitable by building relationships and networks across the city. This year we’re proud to have coordinated three major events that have helped us achieve this goal.
📍March 2025: Activating Sheffield Culture for Children & Young People
Left to right - Sam Holland (Migration Matters), Lord Mayor Safiya Saeed, Grace Walker (Freelance Creative), Roger Bateman (Creative Industries Institute, Sheffield Hallam) and Dom Hislop (Slambarz).
2025 has been an exciting and hopeful year for culture in the city, with the creation of the Sheffield Culture Strategy. Arts and culture for children and young people is one of the key outcomes of the plan, and so in March we took advantage of this moment to invite the sector to come together for focussed discussion and planning. We left feeling energised about working together to turn the strategy into action!
Different stakeholders from across the city - young people, educators, community leaders, strategic decision makers, creative practitioners and health professionals - joined us for presentations, performances, panel discussions and lunch.
Building on one of the key takeaways from the event - that we need to hear directly and systematically from children and young people about what they want, and listen to what they tell us - we have been fundraising for a new project focussing on youth voice in arts and culture. Our aim is to support young people to become peer facilitators and researchers to harness the voices of other young residents - sign up to our newsletter and follow us on socials for updates on this exciting venture.
📍Summer 2025: Know Your Place - Heritage in Schools
Artist Angie Hardwick with students from Springfield Primary School
This summer we brought together local school teachers, artists and heritage organisations for a project all about children’s connection to local heritage. This culminated in a unique exhibition of drawings, ceramics, weaving, collage, creative writing and printmaking at Sheffield Central Library - all young people’s creative responses to community, history, identity and place.
Teachers from Create Sheffield’s schools network received specialist training and resources from Historic England that included aerial photos and maps of their local area that they could use in their classrooms. Children then worked directly with local artists also from our network to explore their ideas creatively and produce their pieces for the exhibition.
The heritage training was so popular with teachers that we are currently working with Sheffield Archives to apply for funding to offer more of the same for more teachers and improve access to archival material for use in the classroom. More on this in forthcoming newsletters!
📍November 2025: Discover Creative Careers Sheffield
The Careers Fayre at the Creative Organisations Showcase. Photography - Becky Payne
This autumn we curated a series of events for young people all about Creative Careers in Sheffield and beyond. As part of national Discover! Creative Careers month, we brought 11-25s and industry professionals together for activities, presentations and conversations focussed on what it’s like to work in a creative field. We worked with our wider network, including the brilliant Grace Walker, to promote the events and show young people that creative careers come in all shapes and are for everyone.
Over the three events, we welcomed nearly 350 young people, and worked alongside 80 amazing creative professionals who generously shared their time, knowledge and experiences with the next generation. Khadija sums it up well in this short clip produced by Discover! Creative Careers.
Working in collaboration with our partners across the city, we have already begun to plan for next year - we aim to fundraise for a stronger city-wide offer for young people interested in creative careers. Again, we will be sharing updates here in our newsletter and on our website and socials!
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