Creative Lives Awards 2022 open for applications

The Creative Lives Awards – formerly the Epic Awards – are an annual celebration of creative participation. They’re a chance for groups who get together regularly to make life better for people in their communities to have their achievements recognised and rewarded. 

Creative groups of all shapes and sizes are encouraged to enter, providing volunteers play a key role in organising, delivering and participating in the activity. A winner and runner-up is chosen by judging panels in England, Ireland/N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales – plus the prestigious ‘People’s Choice Award’ voted for by the public.  

Previous winners include a community garden in London that used hip hop to work with young people; a multi-cultural craft group in Newport that brought people together during the pandemic; a visual arts group for survivors of domestic abuse in Glasgow; and an animation project in Belfast run for and by people with learning disabilities.  

From choirs to knitting circles, amateur drama companies to photography groups there are so many ways to be creative, and the Creative Lives Awards are here to celebrate them all. 

Winners will attend an inspiring ceremony in Leeds in March 2023 as part of the city’s Year of Culture and receive a package of prizes. Previous winners have found that being shortlisted, or winning, a Creative Lives Award has had a huge impact on the group’s morale, as well as bringing them increased publicity and interest from funders.  

Here’s what one previous winner had to say about the Awards:

“It was wonderful to feel that recognition and it really did spread the word about us, almost overnight. It gave us an incredible confidence boost.”