York Civic Trust, working in partnership with Make it York and partners across the city, has been awarded £249,999 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver the York Trailblazers project.
Trailblazers will be an exciting and inclusive city-wide programme of events and activities across 2023 – 25, celebrating York’s heritage. Shaped around significant anniversaries, Trailblazers will inspire residents and visitors on York’s collective history and empower new generations to create and discover new interpretations of our heritage.
The activities funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund will enable York Civic Trust, Make It York and partners to uncover lesser-known heritage stories of York through workshops, sculpture trail, community grant funding, partner events and marketing.
York Civic Trust and Make It York will develop and deliver the project together, leading on their areas of expertise within culture, community and heritage in York. A mix of 40 organisations, from small voluntary groups to big institutions, supported York Civic Trust and Make It York’s bid to make Trailblazers a reality. The project is made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players.
Andrew Morrison, Chief Executive Officer at York Civic Trust, said: “Our project York Trailblazers will be a fantastic opportunity for people to discover and celebrate the heritage stories of people who are important to their communities. The National Heritage Lottery Fund’s support of our project is an incredible boost and will enable the project to reach out to all parts of the city.”
Helen Apsey, Head of Culture & Wellbeing at Make It York, said: “A huge thank you to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and to all the organisations who have come together to support our bid – we’re absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the funding for York Trailblazers. It will make such a difference, and enable Make It York and York Civic Trust to develop a really meaningful celebration of our history and heritage across 2023 – 25, working with partners across the city, and engaging with residents, schools and community groups. We’ve got a lot of activity planned, so watch this space!”
Anne Jenkins, Executive Director of Business Delivery at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “We are thrilled to be able to support York Civic Trust and Make It York in celebrating and exploring the significant heritage that their city is home to. Thanks to National Lottery players, this project will allow local communities to delve into the varied history of their city and help others discover stories they haven’t heard before. York is home to fascinating heritage and we know it is a great way of bringing people together and creating a sense of pride of place, that in turn can deliver much wider benefits, and we’re excited to see how this project achieves just that.”
ENDS
For more information:
Livvy Golby-Kirk, Marketing & Communications Officer at York Civic Trust
Sarah Foster, Communications Manager at Make It York
Notes to Editors:
About Make It York
Make It York’s purpose is to develop and promote the city and its surroundings – nationally and internationally – as a vibrant and attractive place to live, visit, study, work and do business. Its mission is to grow the economic prosperity and wider wellbeing of York and its citizens. In practice, this means delivering a range of projects and programmes based around our corporate strategic priorities.
These are:
- City positioning and profile-raising
- Ensuring an exciting city centre
- Delivering the city’s ground-breaking Cultural Strategy
About York Civic Trust
York Civic Trust is a membership organisation open to all who wish to protect and enhance York’s architectural and cultural heritage, to champion good design and to advance the high place which York holds amongst the cities of the world. Founded in 1946, it has the key objectives of “Promoting Heritage—Shaping Tomorrow” at the heart of its work. Since an extensive conservation-repair programme in the 1980s, the Trust has restored Fairfax House on York’s Castlegate to its former grandeur. It is one of England’s finest Georgian townhouses and now a museum and offices of the Trust.
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by The National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
Since The National Lottery began in 1994, National Lottery players have raised over £43 billion for projects and more than 635,000 grants have been awarded across the UK. More than £30 million raised each week goes to good causes across the UK.
