THE winners of this year's Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards have been named at a glittering ceremony.

Taking place at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the awards were created by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to celebrate outstanding contributions and commitment to art, culture and creativity across Wirral, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and St Helens.

Hosted by award-winning actor, screenwriter and BAFTA Cymru winner Celyn Jones, there were 12 categories including the People’s Choice Award, which was voted for by the public, and the Inspiration Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The People’s Choice award saw 2,500 votes cast from across the Liverpool City Region and was awarded to Paul Duhaney the Artistic Director of the Africa Oyé Festival.

The Lifetime Achievement awards, recognising an individual’s lifelong creative contribution to Merseyside, were bestowed on Author Frank Cottrell-Boyce and to Ruth Gould of DaDa Fest.

Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram said: “I’ve long said that the Liverpool City Region is the UK’s cultural capital.

"We were the first Combined Authority in country with control over culture and we’ve put those powers to good use, setting aside 1% of our funding each year to support culture and introducing an annual ‘Borough of Culture’.

"The Culture and Creativity awards are a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase the best of the exciting cultural events we’ve had over the past year.

"It’s been a phenomenal year and I can’t wait to see what the next 12 months has in store.”

A panel of judges including Phil Redmond the Chair of the Culture Partnership, chose the finalists.

Here’s the full list of winners:

People’s Choice Award (Outstanding Contribution to Culture)

  • Africa Oyé

Inspiration Award for Lifetime Achievement

  • Frank Cottrell-Boyce
  • Ruth Gould

Artist/Arts Organisation of the Year

  • Heart of Glass

Student Inspiration Award

  • Nadia Atique Mohamed

Impact Award (Health and Wellbeing)

  • Comics Youth CIC

Impact Award (Environmental Sustainability)

  • Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse

Impact Award (Improving Education and Learning)

  • Caroline Williams (The Spider Project)

Impact Award (Improving community Cohesion)

  • Mandela8

Impact Award (International Reach)

  • Africa Oyé

Impact Award (Future World of Work)

  • Andy Dockerty - Adlib

Impact Award (Sustainable Business in Arts)

  • Make CIC

Borough of Culture ‘Star of the Year’

  • Paul Askew - Ambassador

In addition to an award, winners will be offered the services of a film maker to develop a three minute bespoke film tailored to the audience that the winner wishes to reach, providing an advocacy tool for future progression or development.

This year’s awards were sponsored by Paddock Johnson Partnership, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, The Handmade Gin Company and USP Creative.

Next year the awards will take place in the 2020 Borough of Culture – Sefton.