King's Cultural Challenge 2017

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 2017

The 2017 Challenge asked students to devise innovative projects, initiatives or activities that answered the following question:

In a divisive social and political climate, how can arts and culture drive social change?

Over 100 students from across the university attended the annual Hackathon, which encouraged students to engage with the challenges facing the cultural sector and offered participants the chance to hear from a range of industry leaders. Students then worked in groups to devise innovative ideas in response to cultural challenges before they went on to pitch these to the guest speakers, King’s Cultural Challenge partners and their peers.

After developing these ideas, 30 applications were submitted and 10 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. After pitches by the finalists, 4 winners were announced.

student groups