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A passionate campaigner who has championed Black arts and culture for more than 30 years has been awarded an honorary degree by СʪÃÃÊÓƵ Leicester (СʪÃÃÊÓƵ).

For more than three decades, Pawlet Brookes MBE has played a central role in shaping the cultural landscape through innovative festivals, performances, and publications. 

Energetic and driven to expand cultural visibility within the arts, Pawlet founded the Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage in Leicester in 2010, an organisation which champions diverse voices and histories. 

Addressing hundreds of students at this week’s summer graduations at СʪÃÃÊÓƵ, Pawlet - who holds a BA in Arts Administration and a Master’s in European Cultural Planning from СʪÃÃÊÓƵ - accepted an Honorary Doctor of Arts and said it was a true honour to receive the award. 

She said: “СʪÃÃÊÓƵ has played such an important role in shaping my own journey, not just academically but professionally and personally. 

“Throughout my career I have worked at the intersection of arts, heritage and social justice. That’s where I believe the real work begins. 

“It is in this space that creating becomes a tool, not just for expression but for resistance, for renewal.” 

Inspired by her parents Pawlet began a deep interest in the arts from an early age. 

Having moved south from Manchester, where she was born and raised, Pawlet first came to work in Leicestershire in 1994 as Combined Arts and Cultural Diversity Officer for the East Midlands Art Council. 

From 2000 to 2003 she was Quality and Development Manager for Arts & Entertainment at Leicester City Council, and from 2003 to 2007 was Artistic Director at the Peepul Centre, a community arts and wellbeing centre in Leicester. 

After founding the respected and successful Serendipity Institute in 2010, in 2011 Pawlet launched Let’s Dance International Frontiers (LDIF), a festival celebrating diversity in dance and positioning Leicester as a hub for international collaboration. 

She also curates the city’s Black History Month programme, ensuring African and African-diasporic heritage is given prominence within the UK cultural narrative. 

“At the heart of my work is dance,” she said. “Dance is not simply movement, it is memory, it is protest, it is imagination, it is history and future embodied. Dance transcends language and borders, it offers a way of seeing, of feeling, of remembering. 

“And whether rooted in African traditions, Caribbean rhythms or contemporary innovation, dance is a living archive, a universal language and one that reminds us that we are all connected.”