First 2017 Hearts for the Arts Awards Winner Announced

London Borough of Lewisham wins Best Local Authority Arts Project encouraging community cohesion for Meet Me At The Albany.

What Next? and the National Campaign for the Arts have come together to create the Hearts for the Arts Awards, a new initiative to reward and thank Councils, Councillors and Council officers who are overcoming financial challenges to ensure the arts stay at the centre of community life.

Nominations were received for awards in four categories: Best Local Authority Arts Initiative, Best Local Authority Arts Champion - Councillor, Best Local Authority Arts Champion - Officer, and Best Local Authority Arts Project encouraging community cohesion.

The world-renowned judging panel comprised Assistant Principal (London) of King's College London and former Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Deborah Bull CBE, visual artist Bob & Roberta Smith, playwright and director David Lan, musician Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, comedian and writer AL Kennedy, and actor and director Samuel West.

Today until Tuesday 14 February a winner will be announced daily at noon for each of the four categories.

The winner of Best Local Authority Arts Project encouraging community cohesion, announced at noon on Saturday 11 February, is the London Borough of Lewisham for Meet Me at The Albany.

Meet Me at the Albany grew out of a question shared by Lewisham senior managers with two local arts partners, the Albany and Entelechy Arts: what if frail, isolated older people had the opportunity to go to an arts centre instead of a day centre? Three years later there are now over 100 isolated older people engaged in arts activity on a weekly basis. The journalist Tanya Gold wrote: 'This is either a unique experiment in provision for the elderly, if you write like a bureaucrat, or something as lovely and hopeful as a poem.'

One of our judges, David Lan, commented, "This project meets a need in an active, positive, imaginative, sustainable way."

Further details can be found at: http://forthearts.org.uk/hearts-arts-shortlist-london-borough-lewisham-meet-albany