Cultures and memories

Cultures and memories

Young people reading poetry around a microphone
Routes2Roots project in Birmingham
These are the customs and traditions, skills and knowledge, passed down to us through generations.

Since 1994 we have awarded £460million to more than 24,100 community and cultural heritage projects across the UK.

What do we support?

We fund projects which help to explore, save and celebrate the traditions, customs, skills and knowledge of different communities.

This cultural heritage is sometimes referred to as intangible or living heritage. This is because it is constantly changing and kept alive when practiced or performed.

We also fund projects which document and share people’s memories. This often involves capturing oral histories and ensuring they are accessible now and in the future.

Project ideas

Our funding could help people:

  • research and share oral traditions, such as storytelling or local dialects
  • train others in traditional skills and crafts, from dry stone walling and blacksmithing to basket weaving and textile making
  • research the origins of culture, such as music, theatre or dance, and create performances influenced by past styles
  • share the history and fun of celebrations, festivals or rituals with new audiences, from games and cooking to carnivals and fayres
  • capture accounts of traditional knowledge or pass it on, such as woodland management or home remedies
  • record the stories of ordinary people through oral histories, for example about growing up, migration or work
  • retell people’s memories about a place or event, such as a long-stay hospital, the miners' strikes or the punk movement

How to get funding

If you have an idea for a project, we would love to hear from you.

An interview with a seated young women
A range of filmed interviews recorded LGBT history

Projects

Coming Out Stories

Young people captured, preserved and shared the Coming Out Stories of Birmingham’s LGBT community.

Young actor playing the part of an ice cream seller for visiting school pupils
Young actor playing the part of an ice cream seller for visiting school pupils

Projects

New Street Station history project for young people

Young people from Midland Actors Theatre joined the Library of Birmingham to explore and share the 160-year history of New Street Station.

Adults and children from the project
Participants in the Weaving Our Way Through History project

Projects

Ham weaving our way through history (heritage and media)

This project examined the social history of Forfar weavers to gain an understanding of what weavers’ lives were like and what their woven goods were used for.

Young women made vintage clothing based on the oral histories they had collected
Young women made vintage clothing based on the oral histories they had collected

Projects

Sharing the social history of women from 1900 to now

Young women from different ethnic backgrounds investigated and learned about the changing role of women over the past 100 years.

A still from The Suffragettes video made by the young participants
A still from the Suffragettes video, created by the South West Youth Parliament

Projects

Heritage Heroes of Yesterday and Today

South West Youth Parliament members took part in a project to learn about people who campaigned for change in their communities and in politics.

A group of young women standing around a table covered in old photographs
A group of young women research women campaigners in Birmingham's archives

Projects

Fight for the Right: the Birmingham Suffragettes

School pupils explored Birmingham archives to discover more about how protesters helped win women the vote.

Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda

Projects

Vivekananda exhibition on ancient Indian civilisation

The project featured a structured programme of education and training to an exhibition which has toured outside London to mark the 150th anniversary of the great Hindu philosopher and visionary, Vivekananda.

If you query is regarding our application portal, please contact our support team.