exploring possibility through creativity and culture
The Culture Collective
The Culture Collective
The GAP’s Youth Collective for people aged 15 - 21
Join The Culture Collective - The GAP’s Youth Forum, where you will collaborate with artists and other young people to develop your critical thinking, engage in creative activities, and produce exciting cultural and community events.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to see some examples of our past projects!
What Do We Do?
We meet weekly to take part in discussions, to do hands-on creative activities, to explore art works, and dream of future we want to live in. We also eat a lot of snacks, play games and build friendships! We think a lot about social justice, and use our imagination to build community. Our projects are driven by The Culture Collective members in collaboration with The GAP. As a member you will have the opportunity to collaborate with members to design and help to run an annual summer school that uses creative activities to explore things you might not get taught in school. Past activities also include trips to galleries, running community Iftars, making zines, banner making, international exchanges and lots more. At the heart of The Culture Collective is practice of how to stay curious, and together build stronger bonds.
As Culture Collective
member Zahra put it
The Culture Collective is a small opportunity to change the world.
If you’re not sure if this is for you, why don’t you come for a trial session and meet us?
Why Join?
Make new friends
Build your creative thinking and develop your values
Add to your CV with project management and leadership skills
Learn new skills in a supportive environment
Be part of a community
Past Projects
Zine & Launch
Our first project was to create a zine that explored The Culture Collective's values and then host a launch party. Read a digital copy here.
The Other-Wise Summer School
Each year we choose a topic that we feel is important and relevant to young people's lives and experiment with the making of an inclusive, community-centred and liberatory learning space that seeks to challenge the often oppressive approach of mainstream schooling.
Debate + Create
A regular activity where we we explore questions that are important to us before making artworks in response. We felt there was a lack of opportunities to have deep discussions with our peers face-to-face in a way that allowed everyone to have their voices heard and to learn from one another by listening, as well as being able to express ourselves in creative ways.
Creative Youth Iftars
Since 2023, we've hosted an annual Iftar event during Ramadan which has invited young people to get together for connection, community and celebration.
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Trips & Visits
Occasionally we go on trips to place to get inspiration for our own projects. We've taken trips to a range of different community events and art exhibitions across Birmingham and the West Midlands, including the Coventry Biennale, Eastside Projects, Midlands Arts Centre, Grand Union, CIVIC SQUARE, and more.
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Flatpack Cinema Collaboration
We collaborated with Juwairiyyah Wali from Flatpack Festival to curate a series of short films that feature spoken word exploring themes of friendship, community spaces and relationships to the city. We showcased these films, along with a Q&A and poetry workshop with local young artists featured in the films - Zakariye, Ayan Aden, Nafeesa Hamid, Adjei Sun, Sipho Eric Ndlovu, and more.