UK and Ireland’s largest amateur cultural award opens for nominations

The search for the country’s best voluntary arts groups is set to begin next week.

From dance groups to knitting projects any of the UK and Ireland’s more than 60,000 groups are invited to apply to the 2015 Epic Awards.

The awards, set up in 2010 by Voluntary Arts, recognise and reward excellence and innovation in the amateur cultural sector.

The awards are split up regionally by country and last year’s Scottish winner was Braemar Creative Arts Festival.

It was crowned for its role in inspiring people to take up new activities in the remote village of Braemar after a group of residents decided to hold an arts festival back in 2012.

It has since became an annual fixture leaving a year-round legacy of arts participation.

Previous winners have found that being shortlisted for, or winning, an Epic Award has raised their profile considerably both with the media, local audiences and funders

A spokesperson for Voluntary Arts said: “The Epic Awards celebrate the achievement of voluntary arts groups across the UK and Republic of Ireland, by recognising the skill, innovation and hard work that goes into their activities.

“Previous winners have found that being shortlisted for, or winning, an Epic Award has raised their profile considerably both with the media, local audiences and funders.

“The Epic Awards are here to shine a spotlight on their work, and to inspire others to get involved.”

The 2015 awards will be presented at a reception in Salford’s Media City in May 2015, during Voluntary Arts Week. All winners from across the UK and Ireland with be offered an all-expenses paid trip to the reception.

Groups have from 12 January until 16 March to nominate themselves at epicawards.co.uk.