In partnership with the University of Northampton and supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, applications for the Heritage Futures Elevator – one of the strands of the wider Heritage Partnerships Project – close at 5pm on Thursday 21^st September 2023.

Led by Bedfordshire’s Arts & Culture Projects team, the Heritage Futures Elevator is a programme that looks to promote the visibility of heritage practitioners and the heritage of Luton to broader audiences, whilst supporting the development of the existing Heritage Skills Hub across both Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.

To learn more or apply for one of the places on the programme, you can get in touch by emailing the team on: culture@beds.ac.uk

Applicants can submit their bid to become one of six Luton-based heritage practitioners or organisations looking to extend their pre-existing heritage activity to a wider audience and promote the distribution of their heritage work both regionally and nationally. The 6-month project will also provide mentoring and business support, as well as opportunities to lead training for fellow practitioners and local educators.

Jitty Marwaha, Cultural Programmes Officer at the University of Bedfordshire, will lead on this project and commented: “We are looking to our local community to step forward and lead the way in stimulating interest in the unique heritage of Luton as part of the Heritage Futures Elevator programme. Understanding heritage and preserving it shows how our lives are woven into it. It then reinforces our futures, leading to the carving of our future as a diverse community; what will the future of Luton’s heritage be?”

Heritage Futures Elevator will then unite with Northampton's Heritage Impact Accelerator programme to mentor Northampton’s practitioners and run shared events for audience engagement.

^{*Images credit: Greta Zabulyte}