subtitle:Investing in happiness
Spirit of 2012 was set up to recreate the spirit of pride and positivity that defined the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We fund arts and sports projects that foster greater community cohesion, empower those who are most under-served and challenge perceptions of disability.
On 26 November 2013 the Big Lottery Fund set out the Trust Deed that endowed Spirit of 2012 with £47 million to fund events and projects that captured – and continued – the spark that lit up the London Games. Since then, we have awarded almost £25 million to arts, sports and volunteering programmes that have brought together people across the UK, and have left behind sustainable social legacies.
We wanted to mark 2018, the centenary of some women winning the right to vote, with a celebration of the young people that were pivotal to the movement but whose names we might not know, and use their stories to inspire a new generation of young activists. Our Spirited exhibition ran at the Portico Library in central Manchester in October and November, and we also commissioned a digital archive so that the stories of these remarkable young women won't be lost again.
