NOTTINGHAM Contemporary has been awarded a "sizeable chunk" of a £5 million fund to help young people in the city become more involved with the arts.
The money has been made available through a national arts programme called Circuit and will be used to reach as many as 3,000 young people aged 15-25 years in Nottingham over four years.
The Contemporary is one of six organisations involved across the UK. It hasn't yet been disclosed exactly how much of the £5 million the gallery will receive.
Nottingham Contemporary director Alex Farquharson said: "We'll know very soon – it's a sizeable chunk. It's a really tremendous opportunity is what I can say now. It will be a really valuable investment."
Circuit will be officially launched in April 2013 and is the latest in a series of grants given by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which has given a total of £200 million over the past 25 years.
The foundation was established by publisher and philanthropist Paul Hamlyn in 1987.
At the core of the Contemporary's Circuit project, 80 young people will act as peers to other youngsters to ensure the project reaches as many people as possible.
The gallery already has a youth group called Get Involved 17, but this will be on a much larger scale.
"It will enable us to reach many more young people," said Alex. "Our existing work with young people was a major factor in us winning the bid.
"There's a big digital component to this programme of work, so it gives us resources to work in new ways with a larger number of people and there will be continuity in the great work we've already done."
The project will incorporate a festival in 2015 or 2016, which the young people will design and organise themselves.
Much of the project will focus on working with youngsters from more deprived areas of the city.
Kay Hardiman, head of learning at the gallery, said: "There are many children in Nottingham who come from families who might not have the means to pay for them to have music lessons, or they might not feel comfortable taking them to a cultural or artistic venue.
"Art builds up young people's confidence and gives them the ability to fulfil ambitions. There are so many difficult situations they're facing both socially and economically – the horizon is looking bleak for many of them and, yet, if they can get involved with artistic projects, then we can start to develop their confidence."
The funding will allow the gallery to do more work with local community groups including BEST (Broxtowe Education Skills and Training), which aims to improve employment prospects in Broxtowe; NGY myplace, which offers young people a creative space in the city centre; and Meadows Youth Centre, a youth group which aims to stop young people getting involved in antisocial behaviour.
It's hoped Circuit will not only give young people in Nottingham a creative outlet but also change the negative stereotypes of young people today.
Kay said: "We already do a lot of work as part of Get Involved, which is fantastic, but this kind of money will allow us to increase that by 100 per cent. The funding allows such an incredible amount of new work to be done with young people."
