New Year, same strong energy...

Making London fairer and more inclusive

?At City Hall, we’re working hard to make London fairer and more inclusive. With new year energy, let’s talk about:

• Leadership on the arts
• Supporting creative freelancers
• Changing the conversation on how we create a fair, diverse and sustainable 24 hr city
• Empowering Londoners to make change through our skills forum
• How public spaces reflect your stories
• Building inclusivity with London Borough of Culture.

Leadership and support

We’re looking to move culture forward, and it’s brilliant to see David Bryan CBE appointed as the new Chair of Arts Council England’s London Area Council. The Mayor appointed David to increase the reach of arts and culture in London, improve diversity and support more young people to access the arts. We’re right behind him and wishing him all the best in this vital role.

If you’re a creative freelancer, we want to hear from you! We’re working with Creative UK to understand the challenges you face. We’ll be using this information to shape industry standards and drive change – to make your working life better. Take just five minutes to fill out this simple form so that we can better help you.

Changing the conversation on 24 hr cities

When the Mayor was appointed, and appointed our Night Czar Amy Lamé , we knew little about how our city worked at night. In 2018, we published the largest data study into any world city at night… and it told us some interesting things, challenging pre-existing myths:

• 1.6m people regularly work at night, the largest group being in health and social care
• Two thirds of Londoners are active at night, doing everything from studying to playing sports and running errands
• Only 4.3% of crime at night is linked alcohol.

Using this data, Amy and the 24 Hour London team are working with local authorities to help them create dedicated, local night time strategies. They’re looking at how we tackle issues of inequality between those doing jobs at night compared to the day, including low pay and access to basic services such as hot meals. They’re also working with businesses and organisations that work at night to promote safety for staff and customers after 6pm, including through the Mayor’s Women’s Night Safety Charter.

On 19 January I joined the team and nearly 200 delegates at their London at Night Conference. There they tackled the subject of how we create a fair, diverse and sustainable 24 hour city. Watch this space for more reflections from the 24 Hr London team and look up #LondonatNight on Twitter to catch up on the conference conversations. ?

Empowering Londoners to make change

Last year our Culture and Community Spaces at Risk team ran a Skills Forum with 30 organisations from across London. The organisations were able to gain new skills, share insights and network.?Many of them are facing similar challenges and one of the exciting outcomes was to connect different groups and enable them to forge new links to share advice and resources.?

We’re now planning further Skills Forum sessions. If you’re organisation is at risk of closure please do get in touch to find out more.

London's spaces reflecting your stories

London Unseen’s season of trails, tours and events celebrated the many incredible histories of the city, as told by communities, practitioners, artists and activists. Although the public programme has finished, you can still watch some of the talks, take deep blog dives into some of London’s little heard stories and download guided walks to experience the city’s stories yourself.

This is Croydon is London Borough of Culture 2023. Historic and modern. Diverse and dynamic. Urban and green. This will be a year-long celebration and you’re invited. The full event programme will be announced in spring 2023. Get updates: on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook.

Last year, Samson Kambalu’s Antelope was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square – a sculpture of Baptist Preacher and Pan-Africanist John Chilembwe and missionary John Chorley. Chilembwe is defying colonial rule by wearing a hat in front of a white person. We’re now inviting entries to the exciting annual Fourth Plinth Schools Awards.

School students can get creative and produce a piece of art inspired by Antelope or their ideas for what they would showcase on the Fourth Plinth. Check out our website for ideas and helpful materials to help you dream. More than 27,000 London school children have take part so far. Please encourage schools you know to sign up!

So let’s all help arts and culture thrive in London in 2023. We’re looking forward to a buzzing and brilliant year ahead!

Shonagh