Founded as a grassroots group in 2009, The GAP Arts Project today is an ambitious, well-respected, venue-based and community-facing company, known for the quality and integrity of its work, led by a skilled and experienced team of young and driven arts leaders, supported by committed and attuned Trustees, and set to join the Arts Council of England’s national portfolio 2023-2026 this April.

Based in the top 10% of the most deprived and diverse communities in the UK, The GAP is the only cultural venue dedicated to young people’s creativity in Birmingham. Designed for and with young people to be inclusive, inspiring and welcoming - with gallery, workshop space, rehearsal room, ‘listening space’, arts library and community café - it hosts exhibitions, community conversations, family activities and live music, theatre and social events, as well as creative and cultural participatory projects with young people aged 7-30 yrs.

Our specific mission is to engage the under-represented young people of three target communities in meaningful and transformative arts experiences: the youth of Balsall Heath and its surrounds; young asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Birmingham; and young artists in the Midlands. We have a dynamic and diverse youth forum - The Culture Collective – which helps shape The GAP’s cultural provision, informs our youth engagement strategy, and to whom we offer a range of development opportunities along clear progression routes.