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Raheem Sterling Foundation and NPG launch youth engagement programme
Collaboration will support 30 young creatives learn new skills
The National Portrait Gallery and the Raheem Sterling Foundation – a charity set up by the English premier league footballer to foster social mobility – have launched a new creative youth engagement and skills development programme for 2023.
Making of Me will support 30 young people from London learn new skills that will help them progress into future creative careers. Led by a dedicated project manager, the programme will consist of 12 workshops and masterclasses combining photography and portraiture.
Participants will produce a piece of art by collaborating with photographers, filmmakers and digital producers to explore themes of self-identity, representation, place and community.
“The National Portrait Gallery is delighted to be working in partnership with the Raheem Sterling Foundation,” said Liz Smith, the director of learning and engagement at the National Portrait Gallery, which is closed until 2023 for a major building transformation.
“Initially delivered in Raheem’s home borough of Brent, our new partnership will offer opportunities for young people to learn new skills by working in collaboration with artists and makers. Making of Me will provide the project participants with access to the gallery’s inspirational collection, as well as exciting and creative opportunities within our sector.”
The young people participating have been chosen within the Ark Academy Network. Their work produced during the Making of Me will be displayed at the gallery when the building reopens.
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Clive Ellington, the chair of trustees for Raheem Sterling Foundation, said: “Social mobility, education and employment make up the foundation’s three pillars, and this project is a perfect fit for what we are aiming to achieve – helping to expand horizons, raise aspirations and create opportunities for the next generation.
"It’s important for us to keep developing innovative and engaging projects that will help encourage young people, support them to realise their full potential and give essential life lessons to help them grow, personally and professionally.”
The foundation was launched on 16 November 2021 by Sterling to “educate, empower and inspire young people to become better prepared for the future and to embrace opportunities to achieve greater social mobility”.