Nottingham, a UNESCO Creative City of Literature, has confirmed that it is looking to bid for European Capital of Culture 2023, at a launch event held on 16 August 2017.

Nottingham’s European Capital of Culture 2023 bid team is confident the city’s entry will be heavily supported by people across the Midlands and beyond, and is calling on locals to become Nottingham 2023 ‘Cultural Lions’.

Paul Russ, chairman of Nottingham's Cultural Strategy Partnership and chair of the Nottingham 2023 board said:

“The lions outside the Council House have been a local meeting, gathering and rallying point for decades, we are a proud and inclusive city and urge people of all backgrounds to ‘join our pride’ and help us get to the next stage of the bid by becoming ‘Cultural Lions’. […] As part of the bid, we want to give everyone in Nottingham the opportunity to take part in a project, production or experience and nurture the next generation of creative producers and cultural leaders. […] We’re proposing a ‘cultural change’ programme that will transform the lives of people in the Midlands; harnessing the power of creativity, stimulating innovation, attracting investment and creating new international networks that will redefine our relationship to Europe and the world.”

Nottingham has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the UK, with an average age of just 34. Once the global industrial centre of lace-making, nine out of ten jobs in Nottingham are now in the service industry, and the city is in the process of reimagining itself as a creative economy for the 21st Century.