King's Cultural Challenge 2016

Background

The King's Cultural Challenge is an annual event where all students at King's are invited to submit ideas to respond to or answer a key challenge facing the cultural sector in the UK.

From hundreds of entries, 12 finalists are selected by a panel of experts from our four participating cultural partners, the V&A, the Roundhouse, The Southbank Centre and the Royal Opera House.

The finalists receive coaching and their ideas are developed to a stage where they are then pitched to four senior figures from our cultural partners in front of a live audience. Four winners are selected from the 12, and each winner is offered a paid internship with one of the four partners to work to develop their idea and receive invaluable work experience.

Cultural Challenge 2016

Students were asked to design an innovative cultural project or programme that addressed the 2016 Challenge question:

'Your cultural utopia: how can cultural organisations inspire, transform lives and influence the world over the next decade?'

Students from across the university attended a 'cultural hack' event, during which students heard from experts and leaders in the cultural sector and were asked to think in depth about the challenges facing arts, culture and wider society.

Of the many applications from students from across the Arts & Sciences, Law and Health Faculties, 11 finalists were invited to pitch their cultural ideas to an expert panel of King’s Cultural Challenge partners, the Southbank Centre, the Roundhouse, the Royal Opera House and the V&A, in the hope of winning one of four paid internships with the cultural organisations.

The evening was hosted by Rob Grieg, Director, Parliamentary Digital Service and a member of the King's Circle of Cultural Fellows. After pitches by the 11 finalists, 4 winners were announced, with an additional prize awarded to Tamara Tubb, for the best presentation of the evening.

King’s Cultural Challenge 2016 winners

Cleo Anderson, Department of European and International Studies for STEAMboat: an idea to make use of local cultural spaces to teach STEM subjects and to make available an online repository of resources to help teachers integrate arts into their teaching.
Amber Boothe, Dickson Poon School of Law for Rift exchange: an idea to develop immersive virtual reality computer games where the gameplay takes place within digital versions of real world cultural spaces.
Eva Nelson, Department of Political Economy, for Bring your own art room (BYOA): a project to bring amateur creative spirits into a national cultural institution by establishing a 'bring your own art' exhibition space.
Anaelle Prioux, Department of Liberal Arts, for A night (class) at the museum: a collaboration to deliver evening language classes for non-English speakers using cultural spaces as interactive learning environments.