Reignite was born out of a desire to push the creative industries and media arts further in York. Twenty years ago, Cherie Federico and Dale Donley set up Aesthetica as students. Since then, the organisation has grown into a nationally and internationally distributed magazine, BAFTA-Qualifying film festival, international Art Prize and Creative Writing Award. We stand firm to our core values, which are to support and champion outstanding talent through creativity, diversity and equality. Advocating for the next generation of creative entrepreneurs is key and we know first-hand that it takes determination, hard work and resilience to make something happen. Now, we want to use York’s UNESCO designation to enhance opportunities, create educational pathways and drive economic change in the creative sector - building new opportunities for everyone in this amazing city.
Our Partners
Only through collaboration can we make great things happen. Reignite started through conversations with York BID and Viridian FX. We identified that we needed to bring together the sector and invite others into the conversation. We need a fresh approach, one where we stop working in silos and develop new synergies. There is a lot of traction between organisations and together we can drive change in York. Since Reignite I in September 2023, we have been fortunate enough to bring on board more partners and collaborations. It’s been a wonderful experience to curate these programmes, expand our reach and develop this vision further. We are looking forward to the next phase of the Reignite series, which will focus on talent development, educational pathways and culminate in the UNESCO City of Media Arts Expo to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the global designation.
