Connecting | Collaborating | Celebrating

The Artsmark Conference took place on Thursday 23rd of October and was a day filled with networking, motivational talks and inspiring hands-on workshops.

We would like to say a big thank you to all who attended, as delegates, speakers, workshop leaders and even our own team responsible for the running of the day itself and the work leading up to that point. 

We had a great amount of feedback from delegates on the day, but if you didn't get the chance to fill out a form and would like to, please email us at info@artswork.org.uk and we will send you one to complete!

For those of you in attendance, you will have heard Arts Council England's news that Artsmark will be going through some changes, with a renewed Artsmark being rolled out in pilots throughout 2015. 

See the full Arts Council statement here

The Strong Voices initiative has highlighted the creative ability and latent talent of the young people taking part. Many of these young people find formal education difficult and struggle to achieve formal qualifications; it has therefore been particularly encouraging that in just 18 months, collectively these young people have achieved 67 Discover, 19 Explore, 97 Bronze and 2 Silver Arts Awards. So far, the programme has enabled us to train 50 new Bronze and Silver and 33 Discover and Explore Arts Award advisers.

READ MORE...

Rings made by young people as part of Big World Impact's Make Your Mark project, one of our Partnership Investment programmes | Image: Making Space |

We are keen to hear about your experience of Arts Award. Your comments will inform how we support the qualification in the most effective way possible over the next few years.

If you have not yet trained as an Arts Award adviser, or you are involved in another way e.g. you oversee an Arts Award programme or are based in an Arts Award Supporter organisation, we would value your thoughts too.

Click here to take the survey

Survey open until 09.11.14. The winner will be notified by 21.11.14

Find out more about Arts Award support available in the South East

Artswork have  developed a programme to support Arts Award* in libraries (2014/15) which builds on previous support through the Summer Reading Challenge. To help identify the needs of libraries in delivering Arts Award , the first stage is to consult with libraries and we have commissioned Paddy McNulty to work on this and the development programme.

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This month, the new 16-25 section of the Artswork website was launched. As part of this, young people are invited to submit their own blogs about their experiences - be it working in the arts, or even just aspiring to do so - it's time for us to hear from those at the heart of our work - young people!

Click the picture to have a look - check out the blogs from some of Artswork's staff aged 16-25 too! 

South East:

CCI Employer Network event:                     Employability, Progression and Employment for Young People in the Cultural and Creative Industries             11th November 2014                                       Eastleigh College, Eastleigh                                   FREE                                                                       Book your place

London:

Access All Areas: Disability and Youth Arts     
11th November 2014
10 am - 4.15 pm           
Platform, London                     
£150 p/p
Book your place

PROTECT: Young People in the Arts & Cultural Sectors                                                           December 2nd 2014                                                     9.45am - 4.30 pm                                                     Platform, London                                                       £75 p/p                                                                   Book your place

Artswork wishes to commission consultancy services to undertake a summative and developmental evaluation of the impact of five museums programmes with schools in areas of least engagement and six heritage programmes working with Arts Award.

Download the full description and details on how to apply

Deadline for applications: 13th November

We are pleased to be delivering this year's regional Safe Network Child Protection Conferences, in partnership with Safe Network.

The Safe Network provides safeguarding information related to activities outside the home – from after school art clubs to weekend reading groups. So if you’re wondering whether your child or group is safe, READ ON...

Our Partnership Investment Fund partners Making Space and Big World Impact  have been nominated for The News‘ We Can Do It Awards in the category of Best Art/Community Project.

The Awards will be held at The Kings Theatre on 2nd November.

A big congrats to Kent YOS for receiving your Artsmark Gold earlier this month! It's a huge achievement and we hope you're very proud!

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A free downloadable toolkit from Towner, for anyone wanting to learn more about effective ways to engage with young people in cultural activities, who are often hard to reach.

Thank you to @ArtsworkLtd for an inspiring day. Feeling particularly invigorated by the dynamic, provocative speech from @rosebyp #AMCSE14

— Mairi Coyle Gulb (@mairigulbenkian) October 23, 2014