The Young Creative Awards celebrates it's 18th year!
The Young Creative Awards 2026 ended this year in a celebration of creativity at Nottingham Playhouse, where young people received their awards and appreciation from their friends, families, and peers.
476 entries
135 shortlisted
31 winners
71 youth performers
2 work experience students
12 volunteers
625 free tickets
The Young Creative Awards 2026 ended this year in a celebration of creativity at Nottingham Playhouse, where young people received their awards and appreciation from their friends, families, and peers.
Hosted by BBC Radio presenter Frances Finn, the event featured guest speaker and YCA alum Dan Ottowell, who performed with his band to close the show. We were also delighted to welcome His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire Professor Veronica Pickering to speak at the event.
The awards show featured several performances by youth dancers, musicians, and poets.
The Collective ensemble performed for the audience throughout the show, organised and supported by The Nottingham Music Service, keeping our energy up and spirits high. Dancers from Nottingham College performed a piece inspired by J.B. Priestley's evocative play An Inspector Calls. There was also a poetry performance by students from Archway Learning Trust schools as part of the Wordplay programme created by Young Creatives Nottingham and run by YCA alum Bridie Squires.
This year the awards headline sponsors were ChalleNGe with Victoria Centre directly supporting the shortlist exhibition.
ChalleNGe is Nottingham's cultural and education partner, working with Young Creatives Nottingham across a number of projects over the years and continues to be an important partner for the charity. Victoria Centre supported the awards last year by providing space for the YCA 2025 exhibition and Summer Arts Pop-up and continues to exhibit winning and shortlisted work.
Documenting the event were YCA alumni Luke Brennan (photography) and Sophia Bell (videography) alongside two NTU work experience students. Their work can be seen across the website and social media and is individually credited. If you are a YCA winner you can request photographs of the awards presentation by emailing info@youngcreativeawards.org
All of this year's winners are now listed on the hall of fame.
The YCA 2026 brochure detailing all shortlisted work, as well as messages from our sponsors and partners is available to download here. Once again it has been designed and arranged by long-time partners STENCIL.
A huge thank you to all our volunteers and partners for helping put together such an amazing celebration of young creativity. We are incredibly lucky in Nottingham to have so many supporters of the arts, as well as creatives who engage so much with the community. The Young Creative Awards aims to help young people to aspire to include more creativity in their lives, and that can't be done without our generous community.