IGNITE! IS A PROJECT WELCOMING EVERYONE, MADE BY YOUNG CREATIVES.
The project is shaped by a talented pool of 26 young people aged 13 to 30, recruited from over 120 applications to form two steering boards. Working closely with Tramshed, the council’s creative programme partner, they have helped shape the vision, voice and direction of the programme from the ground up.
Through hands-on work experience, workshops and talks with leading cultural partners, the steering boards and emerging producers have gained real insight into how ambitious arts projects are made. Partners include Punchdrunk, GDIF, sound and film artists from Greenwich University, We Are the Unheard, Accosta Dance, Sud Basu, Ardent Theatre Company and the Royal Borough of Greenwich events team.
THE IGNITE! YOUTH BOARDS
TRAMSHED
Tramshed is an arts hub and registered charity based in Woolwich, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, South East London. For over 50 years, they have used the arts to support young people and strengthen communities, increasing opportunities for creative development.
Originally founded as Greenwich Young People's Theatre (GYPT) in 1971, the organisation became Tramshed in 2019, reflecting both the breadth of their work and their permanent home in the historic Tramshed venue.
Today, they deliver performing arts programmes for young people and adults with learning disabilities, support a wide range of community groups, and present professional artistic work through our theatre and studios. Alongside our charitable programmes, Tramshed also provides flexible spaces for rehearsals, performances, community activities and corporate events.
As Creative Programming Partner for the Cultural Impact Award 2026–27, they are helping to shape innovative cultural activity across the Royal Borough of Greenwich, working in partnership with the Mayor of London and local communities.
Tramsheds' mission is to increase wellbeing by inspiring and equipping the next generation in life and creative careers, using the arts to build stronger communities.
ROYAL BOROUGH OF GREENWICH
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has been awarded a Cultural Impact Award by the Mayor of London and Arts Council England to deliver a unique, creative collaboration between the council, our resident young people and local culture and heritage organisations. The programme is titled Ignite! and will be funded by a Cultural Impact Award, a Mayor of London initiative, with additional funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the council. They will be delivered in collaboration with Tramshed, as Creative Programme Partner and the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust (RGHT), as Heritage Service Partner. It will bring young people and communities together, to imagine positive futures by telling the stories of real, local people, widen access to our heritage service, and provide training for young people to safeguard tomorrow’s creative industries.
The group will work with Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust to explore the borough’s archives through their own experiences, perspectives and creative responses. This partnership will help connect local history to the present, showing heritage as something living, shared and open to interpretation by the next generation.
Working alongside the Trust, young people will have the chance to engage with archives, objects and records that tell the story of Greenwich across time. Their responses will help surface new ways of seeing the borough’s past, while celebrating the communities, places and identities shaping Greenwich today.
Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust exists to protect the borough’s heritage and make it meaningful for everyone, with a programme that includes exhibitions, education and public activities. This collaboration gives young people a voice in that story, helping ensure the borough’s archives are interpreted not just as historic records, but as part of a living cultural legacy.