New European Partnership to support more Local Artists to work in Primary Schools

9 August 2010

UK-based charity Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) secures European partnership to develop a practical online guide for ‘Artists in Creative Education’.

Primary school children across Europe are set to experience the benefits of a creative education with the development of a new European-wide guide which will increase skills and support artist’s to work in schools. The ‘Artists in Creative Education’ project will bring together experienced creative practitioners from a range of countries to share their existing practice through workshops and an exchange programme. This will culminate in the launch of a new free and practical online guide at an international conference in Brussels in September 2011.

The project is part-funded by the European Commission and led by UK-based charity Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) in partnership with three other European cultural and educational organisations: Drommarnas Hus, Sweden, KulturKontakt Austria (KKA) and; Kunstenaars&Co, Netherlands.

Evidence shows that children gain real and tangible benefits from working with artists on creative and cultural projects. Creativity can transform the aspirations, attainment, skills and life chances of young people. Learning with artists through the creative process gives them the ability to question, make connections, innovate, problem solve, communicate, collaborate and reflect critically. Developing these skills early in life through creativity in schools enriches the lives of young people while also meeting the requirements of contemporary employers and benefiting the wider economy across Europe. In England, for example, young people who attended Creative Partnerships activities, working with creative practitioners in their school made, on average, the equivalent of 2.4 grades better progress in GCSE than similar children in other schools.

The ‘Artists in Creative Education’ project focuses these benefits on those most in need by preparing and supporting artists to work in primary schools serving deprived and disadvantaged communities, relating directly to the 2010 European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. Creative professionals have different expectations of young people and when these are set high, children rise to the challenge. The project will enable experienced artists from across Europe to share, refine and develop their skills and knowledge of working in education settings. This collective knowledge will be developed and tested as the artists carry out exchange visits witnessing the work of their counterparts. This exchange of practise will further support and refine the practical guide which will be disseminated across Europe.

‘Artists in Creative Education’ has a budget of €400,000, with €200,000 from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture and the equivalent sum combined from the partner organisations. The project will see 25 artists selected from England, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and other South Eastern European countries attend a workshop in Amsterdam this autumn to work together to develop the guide. The practical guide will then be tested and refined through a series of artist exchanges to 20 primary schools based in deprived communities across Europe. The work of the project and the practical guide will be disseminated in 2011 at a conference in Brussels attended by arts organisations as well as politicians and MEPs.

Paul Collard, Chief Executive of Creativity, Culture and Education, said: “Through Creative Partnerships we have already seen the benefits of creative practitioners working with children and young people in nearly 6,000 schools in England. At CCE we are already broadening our reach internationally and ‘Artists in Creative Education’ will equip artists to take creative learning practices into the heart of all European schools – helping us to transform even more children’s lives through creativity, providing them with the skill-set for working in the 21st century.”

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