Rachel Nelken, CEO EO of Raw Material Music & Media Education Ltd is Future Connected £10,000 Award Winner

Future Connected and the London Borough of Lambeth have announced that Rachel Nelken, is the winner of the Future Connected £10,000 Award. The finalists included leaders of 10 Lambeth-based grass-roots cultural organisations who were awarded a place on the first Future Connected Programme as Fellows.

Raw Material Music and Media Education Ltd is a community arts and creative enterprise hub based in Brixton. The enterprise nurtures raw talent, catalyses creative development, and supports mental health through industry-standard music and media pathways for diverse communities at their South London Community Hub and via a vibrant online community. 

“I am thrilled to have been awarded the first Future Connected Award for myself and my organisation, Raw Material Music and Media, especially alongside an extraordinary cohort of cultural leaders. The programme has been transformational for me in terms of clarity of vision and communication of our organisation and its values.” - Rachel Nelken, CEO of Raw Material Music & Media Education Ltd 

A panel of independent judges selected the most compelling business plan from an innovation and feasibility perspective. The £10,000 Future Connected Award is aimed at helping the Award recipient realise that plan. All participants who completed the programme will receive £1,000. 

The winner was announced at a celebratory Gathering at the Royal Festival Hall on the evening of Thursday 2 March hosted by Lambeth Councillor Jacqui Dyer who also announced the winner. At the ceremony, the Poet Laureate for Lambeth, Abstract Benna, premiered a new work, Manifesto for Optimism, commissioned by Future Connected. 

The Future Connected Programme was developed to support leaders of small-scale and grass-roots organisations. Over 7-months the Future Connected Fellows participated in a programme to develop the skills required to meet the rising demands of a sector badly hit by the fuel and cost- of-living crises, and one that is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic. The Programme has enabled Directors of Lambeth-based cultural organisations to reimagine and create new business models to sustain their organisations’ ability to face new challenges ahead. 

As part of the Programme, sessions took place in major arts venues across Lambeth, including the National Theatre, Rambert, Southbank Centre and the Garden Museum. Fellows had the opportunity to forge creative collaborations and connections with some of the nation’s most acclaimed cultural leaders. Fellows also connected with eminent figures from across the arts in the UK and internationally. 

Future Connected Programme is created and run by Future Connected Co-Directors, Louise McKinney, Founder of Arts Ideas Realised and Rebecca King Lassman, Director of Act IV, in collaboration with the Future Connected Programme Co-ordinator, Renée Trumpet and Lambeth ERF (Economic Resilience Funds) programme. 

Future Connected is a collaboration between Arts Ideas Realised, Act IV and The London Borough of Lambeth. Future Connected 2 will begin in Spring 2023 with a new cohort of Fellows. It will create lasting resources for small-scale organisations in Lambeth by founding a Borough-wide Board Bank and Patrons’ Group launching in 2024.