The winners with the Mayor of Sutton.

The crème de la crème of Sutton’s cultural world has been celebrated at a borough-wide awards ceremony.

And the winners of the Sutton Cultural Awards are….

Chas Bailey and Ross Feeney and Teresa Whitfield from Successful Sutton  

Who jointly delivered history walks in Sutton High Street.

Kate Puleston

For her life-long work in the theatres with Sutton Council and supporting young performers in the borough.

Adam Greenhalgh

Adam partnered with the IMAGINE festival of the arts in 2014 to create and coordinate One Body / One Sound at the Sutton Life Centre. The project engaged a new audience through music workshops for children on the autistic spectrum and painting workshops for adults with learning difficulties and the elderly.

Vanessa Wilkinson

An outstanding art teacher at Wallington High School for Girls who also strongly encourages the school to take part in shows at the Europa Gallery, organised by Arts Network Sutton.

Richard Paris Wilson

Ran the Citizenship Media Group, delivering training for young people to create films.  He is an acclaimed director and founder of the London-based video production agency ‘We are Cowboys’.

Keeley Wilcox

Is constantly growing the opportunities that InUnity gives to the community of Sutton. By enabling local people to enter dance at any level, she has and continues to improve the health and well-being of the community. The organisaton was born in Sutton. Based in the Phoenix Centre on the Roundshaw estate, the programme at present is made up of dance classes, targeted towards community groups that would not traditionally access a regular dance school.

Mr and Mrs Forty

For running the successful Carshalton Methodist Church community cinema.

Tim Devenish

Art teacher at St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls and partnering to deliver exhibitions at the Europa Gallery, organised by Arts Network Sutton.

The Mayor of Sutton Cllr Arthur Hookway, in his speech at the ceremony, said:

A thriving cultural offer is at the heart of every cohesive community. Cultural activities should reflect and celebrate the diversity of its residents, and offer an open space for local people to be inspired. As chair of the panel who selected this year’s cultural award winners, I’ve had the chance to learn about and even experience some of the great work being done.

Many can mistake cultural activities for only taking place within formal settings such as a gallery or performance space. But this evening’s winners have shown that culture is all encompassing, with a range of activities from history walks, delivered by working with business and regeneration, community music, painting and acting workshops, film screenings and training and individuals who go that extra mile.

All eight winners have shown innovation by always moving forward, diversity by the range of people they reach, empowerment by increasing skills and confidence in Sutton’s residence and the ability to reach a wide audience by being inclusive and open.

I would like to thank those who’ve taken part in selecting the winners, and those who put forward their nominations and of course to all of the runners up.  It is with great pleasure that I now present the awards to our eight winners… the exemplary residents of Sutton.

The awards ceremony was held last night, Wednesday 29 April, at Honeywood Museum.

The annual awards recognise those individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to the cultural life of the borough.

They began in 2012 as a legacy from the work of the local Olympic and Paralympics Games Forum.