We are excited to launch today two new programmes: Metroland Young Associates, a paid creative career development opportunity for young people in Brent, as well as Metroland Cohort: Peer-to-Peer, a programme to support visual artists in the borough through bursaries and professional development.

Metroland Young Associates is an alternative education programme for up to 20 young people in Brent, aged 18-24, to develop their skills and access opportunities to enter paid employment in the arts and creative industries. This is a structured programme of training, mentorship, and opportunities to develop and deliver artistic programming. It will grow a cohort of young people who can become the future leaders, creatives and team of Metroland Cultures and other arts and culture organisations in Brent and beyond.

Metroland Cohort: Peer-to-Peer, a ten-session group learning and bursary programme, aims to provide artists in the borough with financial support alongside peer-to-peer learning and professional development. It hopes to support artists to sustain and grow their practice, while plugging them into the creative ecology of Metroland Cultures and the borough of Brent.

Initially established to deliver Brent 2020, the London Borough of Culture, Metroland Cultures will continue to deliver a programme of activity that will facilitate and build collaboration between artists and communities in Brent. We will do this through a rotating annual summer programme of visual arts and music festivals; an annual paid training programme for young people living in Brent that will inform our programming and organisational development; an artist development programme offering paid bursaries and professional development; and a strand of programming and learning opportunities that will explore approaches to artist and community collaboration.

Key to this is delivery of the second edition of the Brent Biennial, which takes place from 8 July – 11 September 2022 and is curated by Eliel Jones and a new curatorial committee consisting of three invited artists: former Brent Biennial alumni Abbas Zahedi and Adam Farah; and artist, writer and researcher Jamila Prowse. The team has been working closely with Brent-based organisations to develop a strand of community-led commissions as part of the artistic programme for the Brent Biennial 2022.

To read more about Metroland Young Associates or Metroland Cohort: Peer-to-Peer and find out how to apply, visit: www.metrolandcultures.com/get-involved