August 4, 2026Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and Artichoke celebrate £750,000 Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant
We’re delighted to announce the success of our grant application
The grant of £750,000 will enable a project of national significance to take place across the UK in May 2027.
Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council was selected as the national development hub for this ambitious programme, which will capture imaginations, promote community cohesion and centre the voices of our nation’s children. The new project builds upon the existing relationship between the Borough Council and Artichoke, who have produced two previous participatory projects in the borough.
In May 2022, the Miners’ Welfare Park in Bedworth was the site of David Best’s Sanctuary, an extraordinary community project that saw a national memorial to those who had lost their lives to the pandemic.
In 2024, Artichoke returned to the park with Rag & Bone’s Babylon Gamelan, an immersive sound sculpture created by artist Dave Young, which was part of the Council’s Creative Explorers programme.
For this latest project, the authority will work with us to prototype and pilot the artistic, literacy and community strands which will then be rolled out nationally. The Council will also host a peer-learning event for the other local authorities involved.
The collaboration will help build local skills, creative careers and cultural capacity, and strengthen literacy, creative confidence and civic awareness amongst the borough’s primary schoolchildren.
“We are thrilled to be able to return to Nuneaton and Bedworth with our most ambitious project to date, supported by Arts Council England. The relationships that we have built in the borough since 2022 have stood us in good stead and will help to deliver a cultural moment of national significance. This contributes to the UK’s reputation for delivering world-class public art, as well as raising the borough’s profile as an ambitious Arts Council England Priority Place. Details about the project itself will be kept under wraps but I guarantee that it will be breathtaking.”
“Receiving this £750,000 Arts Council England grant as part of Artichoke’s new national project, is recognition of the hard work the Council has put in to developing its cultural offer over a number of years. We are proud to partner with Artichoke again on a project which will raise the borough’s national and international profile and bring benefits to our local communities.”
“We are delighted that Artichoke is teaming up with Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council to bring such an exciting project to the Midlands, with the support of £750,000 in National Lottery funding. The project will build on the Creative Explorers Place Partnership, and we look forward to seeing how it will champion the place-making potential of creativity and culture through the voice of young people.”