theartsdesk at The Hospital Club

The Arts Desk is delighted to announce a new partnership with The Hospital Club in Covent Garden. There are plenty of private members club in central London, but The Hospital Club is uniquely a creative hub with its own television studio, gallery and performance space, which for certain events are open to non-members.

The Hospital Club, which takes its name from the hospital built on the same site in Endell Street in 1749, puts considerable effort into supporting the arts and media. The most tangible evidence of this is its own annual awards for innovative achievements in the creative industries. This is where theartsdesk comes in.

The h.Club100 awards are so-called because there are 10 nominations for each of 10 categories. One rationale behind the awards is to celebrate creative work that goes on beyond the radar of conventional arts awards. Last year’s winner in the broadcast category was writer, comedian and actress Lolly Adefope (pictured above), while in theatre and performance the winners were Joseph Houston and William Whelton, who discovered an empty Victorian warehouse in Manchester and turned it into the Hope Mill Theatre. There were awards last year highlighting the work of the National Literacy Trust and the PRS Foundation for Music. Dame Judi Dench, in short, does not have a Hospital Club award on her mantelpiece. In the film section John Boyega saw off competition from the likes of scriptwriter Matt Charman, director Andrea Arnold and Dogwoof, the influential plays in feature-length documentary. (Pictured below: the h.Club100 awards ceremony, 2016)This year theartsdesk will be covering the ninth annual h.Club100 awards. To kick off we’ll be talking to last year’s winners. Then throughout the summer we’ll be reflecting on cultural trends thrown up by this year’s nominations. Finally we’ll report from the awards ceremony itself on 3 October. Writers from theartsdesk will be part of the judging panel making nominations in relevant categories. They are as follows:

• Art, design and craft: Florence Hallett
• Broadcast: Adam Sweeting
• Theatre: Matt Wolf
• Games: Steve O’Rourke
• Film: Nick Hasted, Tom Birchenough
• Music: Thomas H Green
• Publishing and writing: Liz Thomson
• Rising stars: Katie Colombus

Kevin Madden, publisher of theartsdesk, said, “We are thrilled to become the h.Club100 awards media partner. We strongly support the awards' ethos, which is to look beyond the algorithms of celebrity and recognise both established and emerging talent across a wide spectrum of the arts, culture and media.”

Michael Berg, creative director of The Hospital Club, said, “We are delighted to welcome theartsdesk.com as media partner for the h.Club100 awards in 2017, whose expertise and insights into the creative industries ties in perfectly with the ethos of the campaign.”

Later in the year we will also be announcing our own special award in association with The Hospital Club. But it’s not all about us. It’s also about you. Creative Stories is a series of live events at The Hospital Club, each of them featuring last year’s winners and hosted by writers from theartsdesk. Readers of theartsdesk will be offered the chance to attend. And you will also have the opportunity to vote for your favourite nominees in each of the award categories. So stand by for further announcements.

• More information about h.Club100 awards