Welcome to ChalleNGe Nottingham

Art of Belonging is a city-wide programme that seeks to welcome refugees and asylum seekers in Nottingham. The Art of Belonging Pledge has now been signed by 14 arts organisations and we have a growing network of creative practitioners who are being supported to facilitate sessions with new arrivals. From partnership projects with NEST (the Nottingham Education Sanctuary team) and arts venues, to the Refugee Roots regular creative programme and collaborations with Nottingham Playhouse, NAE and more - there are many ways you can support this work and get involved. 

We're delighted to be working in partnership with schools, communities, arts partners and our two Universities to celebrate our diverse languages and dialects in Nottingham. 

Thanks to funding from NTU, 8 partnership projects have been supported to explore new partnerships between arts organisations, schools and community groups to highlight and celebrate Languages within their work.

We are also excited to be the Community partner for a Co(l)laboratory and welcome Jack Benjamin as our PhD researcher. 

Child Friendly Nottingham is a city-wide partnership programme to put children's rights into practice. Lots of organisations are supporting children and young people to have a meaningful say in local decisions, services and spaces. Training and resources from UNICEF are available for teams and organisations to get involved.  

Over 9000 children and young people collaborated to choose 3 'badges' (areas to focus on) which are: Safe and Secure; Education & Learning and Healthy. 'Equal and included is the golden thread, linking all our work together.  

Every year, we work in partnership with Catherine Kirk from Nottingham City Council on developing a collaborative schools project and resources for RSE day - a national celebration of RSE (Relationships and Sex Education). This year, the theme was 'Embracing Change' and we commissioned illustrator Hannah Sawtell to run schools workshops and design 6 postcards that were distributed to every school in the city. Check out the new website the Achieve Well Team, led by Catherine Kirk. 

Connecting Notts is a Young Creatives Network - that brings together 16-15 year olds from ChalleNGe arts and community Partners to regularly meet, influence and plan events for young people. 

Facilitated by ChalleNGe and Upstart Projects (who also run Voice Mag) members of Connecting Notts meet monthly (usually Mondays from 5-7pm) and plan 4 events a year for young people across the city, to better connect, network and shape arts opportunities for young people.

We believe that art opportunities should be on every child's doorstep, in neighbourhoods, schools and parks - as well as within the fabulous arts venues of our city. So we have been delighted to work in close partnership with Bulwell Arts Festival (hosted by One Vision Partnership) and Bilborough Arts Festival over the years - supporting local creative activities in community centres, schools and libraries in the run up to their annual Art festivals. Huge congratulations to Nicola Curzon and the OVP team on a fabulous Bulwell Arts Festival 2024. We love working with you!