mac birmingham is in the final of the National Lottery Awards 2011 – and needs your vote to win.
The most visited arts centre in the country is in the running for Best Arts project, and is the only Birmingham-based organisation left in the whole competition across seven different categories. The Awards are an annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects, and they recognise and celebrate the difference that Lottery-funded projects make to communities across the UK.
After receiving a huge swell of support during the semi-final back in June, we secured enough votes to get through to the final, and the second round of voting is about to begin which will decide the ultimate winners. There’s no panel deciding – it all rests on the public vote. If the competition wasn’t hot enough, due to a tie in the semi-finals, mac birmingham is up against three other arts projects rather than two for the prize. Votes cast in the semi-final aren’t carried forward, so even if you voted for us last time, we need your votes again!
If mac birmingham wins, we will be featured in a one-off primetime programme on BBC One in early November, and receive an extra £2,000 on top of our Lottery funding which would be spent on improving our facilities for our customers, especially children and people with disabilities.
Dorothy Wilson MBE, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of mac birmingham commented, “We’re so excited to be in the final of the National Lottery Awards. It’s fantastic that we’ve had enough public support to get us this far but to win the award, voted for by people who use mac birmingham, would be truly special. We offer arts opportunities which are genuinely for everyone, and winning this award would give us the chance to show the rest of country the difference we make to people from across the city and beyond. We’re calling on anyone who values mac birmingham to pick up the phone or go online and vote for us one more time.”
Voting runs from now until midday on Monday 26 September.
To register your vote for mac birmingham, call 0844 836 9673 or visit http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/
