January's Arts Award forum is all about reviewing arts events with Becci Smith of Total Theatre magazine. Book your places here.

Arts Award Advisers Forum: 26 March 2014

How to become a Supporter

The last Arts Award Forum welcomed Rose Kigwana who is the Programme Manager for Arts Award. Rose covers the South East and is connected with the Arts and Cultural sector. She helped to explain how to become a Supporter with a step-by-step guide. During the session, Rose went into fine detail about what it meant to be an Arts Supporter, with all the additional information of what it entails.

The best place to start is here with this short guide.

So what are the pros of being a supporter? If you are an arts venue or heritage organisation you can attract more visitors by displaying the supporter logo on events which are suitable for Arts Award participants alongside talks with experts and artists, exhibitions and more. By offering discounts and incentives to groups you can join the Arts Award Supporter map to promote your centre to schools and groups undertaking the award in your area.

The activity comprised of the group splitting in two; each group were asked to discuss and plan a hypothetical situation, e.g, how one School or Youth group can be a Supporter to others; where they would start, and what the plan of action would be. The two groups were then asked to report back to each other to share ideas.

The Gift of Gold

Our last forum welcomed artist, musician and facilitator Peter Cook. Peter lead a thought provoking session stimulated by GOLD! We listened to music, viewed pictures and played games before launching into the main activity.






I always find other people's games really interesting and have 'borrowed' 3 of Peter's already.









One great game for warming up was 'Pass the Clap':

Group size: 5 or more players Group age: 5 up (may need to be adapted)

1) Ask the group to stand in a circle
2) Start off a clap that gets passed around the circle from player to player, you can slowly build up speed. Make sure it is passed consecutively and no one claps too soon!
3) Introduce the two clap rule. If someone claps twice on their go the clap gets sent the other way around the circle (Peter advised us to only let each person use this once or it tends to get stuck).
4) If the group get the hang of it introduce the 3 clap rule. If a player claps 3 times on their go the clap skips the person next to then and jumps to the next player!

A great simple and fast paced focus game.



We continued the session exploring poetry and comparing our feelings on Gold to the actual award.



We really got into discussing how gold is a precious gift, showing maximum effort and dedication. It is also a gift that is passed on the next person. This is exactly one of the aims of the Arts Award, in creating young creative leaders to pass on their gifts to the next generation.



We discussed how the progression of Bronze, Silver and Gold could be used in this way to pass on experiences between groups. If you were running them simultaneously, in schools for example, you could have the groups delivering to eachother i.e. the taking part of bronze could be a project run by silver or gold particiapants.

 

Thanks to Peter's diversity as an artist and facilitator, we were easily able to grasp sing cross art forms from poetry, to drama to music. This really relates to the challenge set in Gold Award in participants finding  new art form or challenging their existing one.

What is the value of Gold?

February's Arts Award Forum

Wednesday 26th February
5-7pm
@ The Gulbenkian

Join us for an evening of creativity, inspiration and Gold!

On Wednesday 26^th February, Wide Eyed Theatre will be joined by the talented Peter Cook who will be leading a fascinating workshop on the value of gold. Come along and explore the representation of gold using music, poetry, drama and colour!

Book your place today through the Gulbenkian's website. You can join in the fun!

We will also be joined by Leanne Macdonald, Artswork, who will be showing participants how to use the new Artsbox to get their Arts Award evidence together.

This is February’s Arts Award Forum and it is open to one and all. Not only will you have the opportunity to experience an inspiring workshop, but there will also be the chance to share ideas with other Arts Award Advisers, including our resident Advisers, Vicki and Emma of Wide Eyed Theatre.

Do you have questions about the Arts Award?
Do you want to learn some creative skills?
Do you want to be inspired?

The value of gold materialises when it changes hands, and that is what the Arts Award is about: Passing on something valuable.

And bring a friend! Thanks to our brilliant location in the Gulbenkian, there is room for all. Free to attend, but please book in advance so we can supply materials for everyone.

Come and create with us.
Come and learn with us.

Best wishes,
Wide Eyed Theatre

The Third Arts Award Forum - Discovering Arts Award in Folkestone...

On Wednesday 23rd October, we visited the Quarterhouse in Folkestone to deliver our third Arts Award Forum. This time we were looking at the Discover and Explore program and got a chance to discuss ideas and they way the program runs with Leanne Macdonald from Artswork, South East.

Please feel free to share and use our ideas in your Arts Award Delivery...

Discover:

The Discover program is designed for younger children and there are different workbooks for a different variation of age groups( KS1-KS3). Here are an example of some of the books :

There are three parts of the Discover program, these are:

A) Discover - What can you learn about/discover?
B) Explore- What artist can you research?
C) Share - How are you going to present it? (Can be one to one.)


OUR ACTIVITY 

In groups we planned how to run an Discover programme both in an education setting and outside.

WITHIN SCHOOL

The 'school group' decided they would theme their work around nature, forest schools and their local environments.

Discover:

• Out door workshops to gather natural materials and using them to create art.

• Kites - history and DT/design elements

• Use of local areas such as a church - grave stones, stained glass windows etc.

Explore: 

• Nature artists
• Historical aspects of local area
• Religious artists

Share: 

• Use of church, assemblies, presentations, arts evenings and open afternoons where children can take parents round and share what they are doing.

Extra Curricular

The 'outside of school group' decided to look at Gulbenkian Youth Theatre and the Youth Service. Here were some of the points they discussed:

• We decided the Youth Theatre are already discovering the Arts by participating in weekliy session. They look at a number of different art forms e.g. mask making, poetry, technical theatre. Incorporating all skills.

• The group decided that the Youth Service could run taster and drop in sessions so that young people could discover the Arts and make their own choice of what they would like to focus on.
•  The use of Pintrest was discussed as an effective method of keeping different ideas on.
• The group felt that there needed to be greater awareness of Arts Award within the host organisations so thatcould be effectively run with assistance from non trained staff.

Explore:

• The group thought a buddy systems with Arts venues for tickets to shows and day trips to visit places would improve the cultiral offering

• Youth Service to encourage more visits to different arts venues identified by the young people.

Share:

• Pinterest - easily and quickly share ideas with people

• Gulbenkian Youth Theatre can share with their group in session tme

• Awards ceremonies, press coverage ... BUFFET!

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR ARTS AWARD DISCOVER AND EXPLORE STORIES...

An answer to some of our school questions?

An interesting article from Arts Professional on how to use Arts Award in school, a hot topic at many of our forums! http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/269/feature/arts-accreditation-schools?utm_source=Weekly-Good-Reads&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Arts-accreditation-in-schools&utm_campaign=14th-November-2013

How can we encourage good leadership skills?

Maidstone Museum’s beautiful Library was the setting for our second Arts Awards Advisers’ Forum.  During the short two hour session we managed to cram in a huge amount of information, discussion and debate, which I will aim to summarise here.  This session focused mainly on the Bronze ‘Sharing an Arts Skill’ component and Silver Unit 2, ‘Arts Leadership’

The attendees had a huge range of experience from those that had not yet managed to run the Award to those trained in all stages. This was fantastic as it meant that we could start to envisage a ‘buddy’ type system where more experienced Advisers could assist those not so practised.  If this is something you would like us to develop further please let us know.

The session began with Sam Sladden leading the group in a drama session. Sam is a young person who completed the Silver Arts Award two years ago, and has since gone on to speak at regional conferences and be considered for the privilege of being the next Arts Award Case Study.  We asked Sam to demonstrate an example of what could be considered appropriate for the leadership sections of the award. He took the group through some drama warm ups and then gave us a piece of his script (written for his Arts Award) and asked us to work through the design elements of it. This was an insightful task that allowed the attendees, who work in all different disciplines, to play to their strengths and interpret the activity in their own unique ways.

This lead to a follow on from last week’s session where we came to the conclusion that in a school setting where Advisers feel they must encourage the whole group to work on the same project, using a stimulus could be a fantastic way of encouraging individuality, without providing lots of extra work for the Adviser. A stimulus could be presented, such as a script, a painting or piece of music and individuals could then focus on it in their own way, or smaller groups could be set up to focus on a particular aspect.

After Sam’s workshop we discussed the concept of ‘leadership’ and what qualities we can look to build on to create young leaders (see below for the group’s interpretation of a leader).  There was a huge list, most of which you should be able to see in the images below. 

       

We also discussed examples of when a student had done the majority of work for an award without realising it. For example, Vicki discussed her experience of a group of boys at a youth centre who had organised DJ workshops for others. They had managed the whole event, and had evidenced it all in the form of photography and so had only a small amount of work to put in to achieve an award. Other attendees also mentioned that this had happened with students they know. For some people the leadership qualities are absolutely already there, it can just be a question of drawing attention to them. For others it can be a little more difficult but by focusing on some of the qualities below they will soon become aware that they are in possession of at least a couple of them.

We also discussed a number of different ways of ‘passing it on’ including mass cross-teaching (as suggested by Turner Contemporary in the last Forum), including a q&a after a performance and a summer fete where students can teach a craft etc they have learnt.  There are many, many more ways and we would like to compile a list. If you feel like you can add to this discussion, or expand our list please let us know.

What is the difference in delivering Arts Award in a curricular v's an extracurricular setting?

We opened our discussion at the first forum with the question 'How to engage young people in Arts Award?' This lead to a variety of responses and engaging stories about people's experiences. What separated the group however, was where Arts Award was delivered and in what context. The two camps seemed to be:

•  'Curricular' - delivered within a school setting, by teachers, during lesson time or attached to a school project i.e. a school play
•  'Extracurricular'- delivered by an arts organisation or group, lead by artists or practitioners and either long term or short term.

We chatted about the pros and cons of each:

Curricular Pros

• Participants are constant
• Sessions can be planned in advance
• The school/parents will fund the cost of the award
• Adviser's time and training is paid for in the role of teacher
• Additional costs such as materials are absorbed by the school

Curricular Cons

• How does it fit practically for schools?
• The award is an 'attachment' to the existing programme and some pupils don't realise they are doing it!
• All students tend to follow the same route e.g. all have to focus on the same art form, programme of work etc.
• Sparking interest or independent research is potentially difficult

   Extracurricular Pros

• It is easy to get young people interested as they are already on board!
• Young people set their own challenge, or the challenge is set by their interests
• Choosing their own art form means young people are in control
• Developing the award in an individual way and a more organic approach to learning
• Higher success rate in experience, confidence building and leadership

Extracurricular Cons

• Difficult to fund/ make financially viable
• If you charge do only those who can afford it do it?
• Regular access to young people
• Consistency of young people's attendance
• Getting started once you have trained! This was a major point we focused on; newly trained Advisers need the support to start a group, as as an independent facilitator it can seem a scary/unachievable prospect

  
Extra-curricular vs curriculum   

HOW DO YOU ALLOW FREEDOM AND CHOICE WITHIN THE CURRICULUM?
HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO MAINTAIN FLEXIBILITY WITHIN THE CLASSROOM?







Solutions

These are some of the solutions advisers came up with:

General

• When working flexibly create 'I-books' for individuals to keep rough work in one place. These can then be pulled apart to make personal portfolios later - Thank you Leanne!
• Recording Kent's Arts Award success stories on this site to give other advisers ideas about innovative ways of delivering. If you are an adviser with such a story, please contact us to tell us about it!

Curricular 

• To open up the 'Leadership' section of both Bronze and Silver it was suggested that Primary and Secondary schools could can link projects, with Secondary groups delivering their projects to Primary groups and inspiring interest in Discover and Explore for primary ages.
• In the Bronze 'Heroes and Heroines' unit and Silver 'find out about artists and arts organisations' schools would benefit from 'real artists' visiting the schools. Some attendees spoke about how this was successful in inspiring young people to take up the award whilst also providing first hand contact for students to inquire about careers within the Arts.
• Schools can find organisations/individuals who deliver certain parts of the award here

Extracurricular 

• Artists can collaborate with services such as the Youth Service to deliver Arts Award
• Venues can become Arts Award Supporters and encourage those undertaking the award to visit. Find out more here 
• When writing funding bids for projects with young people build Arts Award into the costs.
• Promote the work you do and are able to offer by becoming one of our profiled advisers
• Apply for Arts Awards Access Fund

Please feel free to comment below and contribute to this discussion, we want to hear your opinion!

Forum One at the Turner Contemporary

Tonight sees the launch of our first Arts Award Advisors Forum. We are focusing on 'Getting involved' in the Arts Award and creating an Arts Awards Challenge.

Our three main discussion points for for tonight will include:

• How to engage young people in the Arts Award
• How to put your Arts Award Training into practice
• How can the Kent Arts Award Advisers Forum best support you

 We will follow these up with results on our discussions page...

Looking forward to meeting you all.