New Projects for History in the Making

Harmony Youth Project

Hidden Histories of Bolton will support young people aged 13–25 to uncover and celebrate overlooked local stories through research, oral history, and creative arts. Working with community partners and local residents, participants will create a permanent public mural that celebrates Bolton’s diverse heritage and strengthens pride in place.

Intergenerational Music Making

Young people from Cheetham Hill, Rochdale and Harpurhey will work with older residents to uncover hidden music and community stories from their streets. Together, they'll create original recordings, a free digital archive, and a permanent public marker at Bridgewater Hall, celebrating Manchester's musical roots with a special event at The Met.

WAVE Adventure

To uncover, highlight, and celebrate the rich mountaineering and related textiles history of Rossendale. A young-person-led research and design team will obtain relevant artifacts and create sustainable artwork and place markers.

Radiate Arts CIC

Hidden in Plain Sight brings LGBTQ+ young people across Cheshire together to uncover hidden local histories. Working with Cheshire Archives and community partners, they'll decide how these stories are shared through a permanent public place marker celebrating Cheshire's diverse heritage.

SICK! Productions

This dynamic, youth-led project empowers underrepresented young people in a North Manchester "heritage cold-spot" to rescue rapidly disappearing working-class and migration histories before redevelopment. Through expert training and collaboration with an artist, participants will co-create a public commemorative marker, building vital skills to move towards diverse careers in heritage.

Gaydio CIC

LGBTQ+ young people across Greater Manchester will uncover hidden local queer history by researching places, recording oral histories, and creating permanent public place markers so these stories become part of Manchester's future as well as its past. They’ll learn new audio/video skills, make new friends, and have fun doing so.

The Outdoor Collaborative

The Places That Made Us will bring young people across Oldham and Saddleworth together with local explorer Richard Glover, heritage organisations and community groups to uncover overlooked local stories. Through photography, filmmaking, and creative storytelling, they'll co-create a permanent place marker that celebrates their community's heritage for future generations.

DanceSyndrome

Our distinctive co-delivery model places a trained Dance Leader with a learning disability alongside a non-disabled professional Dance Artist to plan and lead Everybody Dance community sessions. We will work with a group of young people with learning disabilities to research Tony’s Ballroom, the history of dance in Blackburn, linked to industry, and to create a ‘Pathways to Dance’ trail in a local park.

LGBT Foundation

LGBT Foundation has extensive experience engaging lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer+ (LGBTQ+) young people in safe, inclusive, co-produced programmes.

Queer Women Making History will bring young queer women together with queer women of other generations across Greater Manchester. The group will address the gap in heritage work concerning queer women through archival research and oral histories, ultimately co-creating a public place marker and exhibition celebrating local queer women’s heritage.

Groundwork Greater Manchester

Nature Vibes: Hidden Histories of Our Place (Tameside) will bring together young people, residents, and heritage partners to uncover the hidden histories of Tameside’s green and blue spaces, creating a permanent heritage trail that celebrates local stories and strengthens community connections, seeing familiar places through fresh eyes.

Fishwick Rangers Youth & Community Development Scheme

Young people from Fishwick Rangers will work with communities, heritage, and digital partners to uncover the history of early South Asian food shops in areas of Preston. They will explore how the shops changed access to familiar foods and ingredients, share what they discover, and create a permanent marker.

Youth Borough CIC

Walls of Sound is an eight-week youth-led heritage project in Handsworth, Birmingham.

Working with Windrush elders, musicians, and community leaders, 15 young people aged 13–16 will explore Birmingham's Caribbean musical heritage through oral histories before co-creating a permanent public mural celebrating the Windrush generation's lasting cultural legacy.

Pitch 2 Progress CIC

Legacy Makers will enable young people aged 13-25 from East Birmingham to uncover the hidden history of Green Lane Playing Fields and the local community. Through research, interviews and creative activities, they will celebrate overlooked community champions and create a permanent heritage trail that shares their stories with future generations.

The National Literacy Trust

Fourteen young care leavers will create a sightseeing bus tour for Birmingham’s Number 7 bus route from residential areas, through Aston, to the Lighthouse Centre. They will research and tell the unsung histories of 7 sights along the bus route through short audio stories, publicly accessible through QR plaques.

City of Wolverhampton Council (Wolverhampton Arts and Culture)

Young researchers will explore the history of the Black Art Movement and its significance for Wolverhampton. By visiting key archives locally and nationally, and some of the artists’ studios to capture their stories, the group will co-create a mural and soundscape within Wolverhampton Art Gallery to tell these stories.

GRAIN PROJECTS CIC

In collaboration with young people from the YMCA in Stoke-on-Trent, we will make images that speak of place, identity and heritage, sharing untold visual stories and creating new opportunities for self-expression. We will use a broad range of photography and art techniques to make images together. Through this process, the city and its history will be seen through new eyes. The project will culminate in a new public art piece in the city centre.

Midlands Arts Centre

Birmingham Hallmarks will support young people from Birmingham to uncover overlooked stories of jewellery, making and belonging through heritage visits, community research and creative workshops at MAC. Exploring family objects, migration, faith, adornment, and identity, they will co-create a permanent public marker celebrating hidden histories within Birmingham’s jewellery heritage.

Breakout Youth

Our project will focus on young people exploring the history and evolution of safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people in Southampton. Partnering with John Hansard Gallery (JHG), young people will create a history of LGBTQ+ in Southampton and create pieces for an exhibition at John Hansard Gallery in 2027. The final creative piece will be a permanent marker in JHG.

Making Space for Craft Ltd

Twenty young people from Leigh Park will uncover the hidden history of the toy factories that shaped their community. Through making, gaming, photography, and conversations with former factory workers, they'll create a permanent interactive sculpture celebrating a history they believe everyone in Leigh Park should know.

The Devonshire Collective C.I.C

People in Eastbourne still say “don’t go east of the pier”. They mean the Devonshire Ward. Eight paid young researchers from the ward will find out where the warning came from, reclaim what is great about their neighbourhood, and answer with permanent public artworks on Seaside Road.

ExploreTheArch

We will highlight trailblazing women in the 1066 story who are overlooked or only depicted with heads bowed. Focusing on the achievements of females born 1000 years ago, particularly as young adults, we will depict them with ‘Heads Held High’, supporting us in holding our heads high with confidence and pride.

StoneMind Education CIC

Young men aged 18–25 from Hastings and Eastbourne will uncover overlooked local history, learn traditional stone carving and co-create a lasting public place marker. StoneMind will lead the heritage craft, with voluntary youth-engagement support from A Band of Brothers and workshop space offered in principle by Making It Out.

Artswork Ltd

The Dover District Bestiary will bring together young people from the Dover District to uncover overlooked local histories. Working with Artswork, Maison Dieu, Dover District Council, and heritage partners, they will create artworks, stories, and a permanent place marker celebrating the people, places, and heritage that shape their communities.

Pakistan Youth and Community Association

This project will engage youth aged 18-25, including NEET and girls from minority ethnic communities, to explore the local history of Highfields through recording stories and memories. Together, they will create a public storyboard to show Muslim contributions and influence on Highfields outlook over the past 50 years.

Our Big Picture

Grimsby is known as a 'Forgotten Town' - hit hard by the collapse of the fishing trade and written off ever since. Our young people want to ‘Flip the Narrative’ by building and sharing an alternative map of Grimsby town, mixing the heritage they feel is important with community nostalgia and hopes for the future.

2Funky Arts Ltd

2Funky Arts will research and celebrate Leicester’s Sound System heritage from the 1960s onwards. Working with local young people from diverse and low-income backgrounds. Sharing fascinating stories and creating inspiring content. Building a strong community legacy through a public exhibition, place marker, and online sharing of heritage interviews.

Soft Touch Arts Ltd

A celebration of Leicester’s food scene and an exploration of the relationship between food, immigration and youth culture, and its impact on young people’s lives and the city’s development.

Orchestras Live

A musical and environmental story-telling project enabling young people from Doe Lea, Bolsover to explore the overlooked history of their local river. They will build a willow sculpture where locals can access the young people’s new co-created soundscape, celebrating the river’s ecological heritage and what it means to them.

Nottingham Studios (PRIMARY)

Off the Map will support young people in Nottingham to lead research into overlooked local histories, including Goose Fair, Showmen communities and the city’s dyeing heritage. They will help choose an artist and co-create permanent public artworks for Primary’s garden and playground, making these stories visible to wider audiences.

GemArts (Gateshead Visible Ethnic Minorities Support Group)

GemArts will support young people in Gateshead to explore overlooked histories of arrival. Working with local communities, they will research stories, create artwork, and lead public activities, resulting in a permanent place marker celebrating the resilience and cultural contributions of the global majority to the town’s heritage.

Jack Drum Arts CIC

Young people from rural South West Durham will explore traditional folk songs, uncover overlooked local history and research stories from their communities. They will create original songs and music videos inspired by their findings, celebrating local heritage, amplifying underrepresented voices, and creating new creative interpretations of the places and people that shape their communities.

Northern Heartlands

This project supports young people in Shildon, ‘cradle of the railways’, to tell the stories and heritage of their town and help shape its future. Together they’ll create a banner housed at Shildon’s Railway Institute and an accompanying sound trail, which will grow as future generations add their voice.

Mortal Fools

Ashington is known for its mining roots and footballing successes, but young people living in the town want to know what else is special about their town. This project seeks to explore Ashington’s rich cultural history, inspiring community spirit, and hidden heroes using music, theatre and visual art to bring them to life.

Fotonow CIC

Young people from Stonehouse and Plymouth city centre will explore Plymouth's cinema heritage with Fotonow and Plymouth Arts Cinema through archive research, oral histories and creative media. Their work will culminate in permanent heritage panels installed at the Millennium Building and a public exhibition at Fotonow's gallery in Plymouth City Centre.

Creative Tendring

We will bring together young people from Clacton and Jaywick with heritage experts and artists to uncover local stories. Through research and creative activities, they will decide which histories matter to them and how they are shared, strengthening connection with their heritage – building relationships, local pride, and a lasting legacy.