South East Bridge
In April 2011, Arts Council England announced a new national network of ‘Bridge’ organisations, to ensure all children and young people experience the richness of the arts both in and outside of school. These organisations will provide a direct ‘bridge’ between the work of arts and cultural organisations, schools and communities.
Artswork has been selected as one of the 10 Bridge Organisations across England to develop and deliver bridging opportunities between arts and cultural organisations, children and young people, families and schools. Arts Council England has awarded Artswork a grant of £4.7m over 3 years to deliver this role in and across the South East region and to help realise their goal that 'every child and young person should experience the richness of the arts'. The funding comes from £10 million a year of Lottery money which the Arts Council has allocated to support a cohort of bridge organisations, specifically to support strategic work with children and young people.
We will be working to make arts and cultural experiences and opportunities more coherent and accessible for children, young people and their families and will be placing emphasis on quality and excellence and low areas of engagement as well as working collaboratively to help raise the standard of art being produced for, with and by children and young people.
Artswork will be working closely with arts and cultural organisations across the region, with local authorities, with schools and with organisations for children and young people. We will aim to facilitate delivery of consistent, quality artistic and cultural opportunities and provision for children and young people in the South East.
We will act as champions for Artsmark and the Arts Award in the South East, maximising these as key tools for schools, arts organisations, local authorities and other partners including the youth sector.
We will aim to use existing information to create snapshots of the widest possible cross-section of provision and opportunities across the South East, which will highlight good practice and identify areas for further development, which we will aim to support. We will also aim to build on the legacy of the Creative Partnerships, Find Your Talent and other cultural education programmes.
We will not directly deliver arts opportunities for children and young people, but will support, connect and promote consistency across the sector, creating a step-change in improving quality opportunities and provision.
Artswork will start the Bridge role in April 2012; in the meantime we are very keen to hear the views of all those with an interest in the cultural life of children and young people – as well as the views of young people themselves. We are particularly interested to talk to local authorities and discuss joint priorities and challenges.
This is excellent news for Artswork but a tremendous challenge too that we will face with excitement and relish.
(CEO of Artswork, Jane Bryant)
These are difficult times for all arts organisations, and whilst celebrating our new status, we understand and empathise with many excellent arts organisations that have been unsuccessful. Artswork was founded in 1987 and as we enter our 25th anniversary year we will be true to the vision and commitment to the development of arts for young people, not as the artists and audiences of the future, but as the makers of our society today.
(Chair of Artswork, Rick Hall)