THE founder of the Stendhal Festival in Limavady, whose headline acts in recent years have included the likes of Divine Comedy, the Undertones, Frightened Rabbit and Badly Drawn Boy, is in London this week aiming to bag a UK-wide creativity award and a share of £1.5 million in prize money.
Ross Parkhill (34) has been selected by collaborate workspace company WeWork as a UK finalist within The Creator Awards, a global initiative to recognise and reward ‘creators’ from all over the world.
He founded the multi-award-winning music and arts Strenhal Festival seven years ago to celebrate all things creative and establish a special community venture for Limavady.
Now he has a fresh challenge, planning to establish a completely new event within the rural landscape, targeting the most ‘creatively’ deprived children.
Called ‘ArtAbyss', it aims to enhance creative capacity within the region, specifically targeting tomorrow’s innovators.
And winning a grant from the Creator Awards would allow Ross him to pilot ‘ArtAbyss' next year.
He will pitch the idea of his new event to a panel of judges in Battersea Evolution this Thursday as he vies to scoop a share of the bumper cash pot on offer.
The Creator Awards is a global initiative established by WeWork to recognise and reward ‘creators’ from all over the world.
Open to individuals and businesses across all industries and all stages of growth, the awards will grant a total of $20 million to entrepreneurs, small businesses, growing companies, non-profits, artists and more, including £1.5m in the UK.
Eugen Miropolski from WeWork said: “We’ve seen some fantastic creators and business ideas and it was incredibly challenging for our team to select only a handful of finalists for each category. I can’t wait to hear the pitches and wish all finalists the best of luck with the next stage of the competition.”
WeWork is a community for creators, providing more than 150,000 members around the world with space, community, and services through both physical and virtual offerings.
