Creative Lives Awards – Open for Entries

The Creative Lives Awards – formerly the Epic Awards – are an annual celebration of the achievements of voluntary and community-led creativity. 

Each year, we invite creative groups across the UK and Ireland to share their achievements with us, so we can give you a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

If your group did something special between September 2021 and September 2022, and voluntary participants played a key role in both planning and delivery, then fill out the online application form here or download a Word version here.

To learn more about the Awards, watch our ‘explainer video’ here:

And

to see who won last year’s Awards, and get a sense of what to expect at our Award ceremony, watch our film captured at Coventry Cathedral here.

Before filling out your form, it’s worth checking out the Rules & Guidelines for entering the Awards. And you might like to read our FAQs.

Judging

Each year, a judging panel is assembled in each nation (England, Ireland/N.Ireland, Scotland, Wales) which features Creative Lives staff and trustees, representatives from local stakeholders and previous winners. The panels choose a winner and runner-up from each nation.

All shortlisted groups can also receive votes from the public in order to win the People’s Choice Award. This is voted for online via the Creative Lives website. And all shortlisted groups are also invited to vote for one of the groups (not their own!) to win the Peer Award for Excellence.

Prizes

Winners receive a bespoke award inspired by the region our Awards Ceremony takes place in, a framed certificate, a cash prize and free access to all of Creative Lives’ future ‘Creative Learning’ online training sessions. Previous applicants have also found that being shortlisted for, or winning, a Creative Lives Award has benefitted them on funding applications and raised their profile considerably. Plus two representatives from each winning group will receive invitations to the Awards Ceremony, with all travel and accommodation paid.

The Awards have been running since 2010 – meet some of our pervious winners here.

Deadline to enter the Creative Lives Awards is the Monday 19th December 2022.