London Borough of Culture

London Borough of Culture Award

The London Borough of Culture award is a competition that sees London’s 32 boroughs bid for more than £1m of funding to stage a programme of cultural events and initiatives. In December 2023, Barnet Council submitted a bid for the title of London Borough of Culture to deliver an ambitious, year-long programme of activities exploring and celebrating Barnet’s identity throughout 2027. Anchored by the theme of ‘Common Ground’, the bid set out to connect communities, elevate the borough’s vibrant grassroots offer and embed culture into the very fabric of Barnet.

You can watch our Barnet Borough of Culture 2027 bid film on YouTube.

Barnet’s bid was developed together with a Barnet Borough of Culture stakeholder group, and our local community via an engagement programme Our Barnet Canvas, which invited community members to share their ideas on transforming Barnet into a Borough of Culture. People told us that our borough is diverse but that communities don’t get the chance to mix enough. Our bid proposed knitting communities together through inclusive, shared experiences; from large scale festivals and impactful artist commissions to a youth culture archive, urban greening, and community cookouts; showcasing how culture and heritage can unify and uplift, foster connections, enhance the environment, and celebrate the common ground we all share.

Credit: Our Barnet Canvas, 2023 © Hemingway Design

Cultural Impact Award

We are delighted to be the recipient of a prestigious Cultural Impact Award from The Mayor of London. Cultural Impact Awards are granted to boroughs that bid to become the London Borough of Culture, recognizing exemplary individual projects highlighted in their bids. 

The award will enable 'Light & Flight', a spectacular audio-visual arts festival celebrating the spiritual importance of light and Barnet’s rich aviation history, to take place in Barnet in early 2027. Light shows will breathe new life into heritage aviation stories and reveal hidden depths to our communities' shared values. Art installations will transform ordinary buildings and spaces into a kaleidoscope of colour and light. Magical outdoor artworks by local, national and international artists will be inspired by our wild landscapes and flying heritage.  

The festival will be accompanied by Community Cookout, a vibrant food and drink night market celebrating cuisines and unique flavours from Barnet’s rich tapestry of communities. The programme will also feature the Postcard Project, a borough-wide participatory art project fostering community connections through storytelling and exchange, to be displayed at the RAF Museum.