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JM Barrie Awards: in photos

JM Barrie Awards: in photos

JM Barrie Awards: in photos

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 JM Barrie Awards! Pictured above from Left to Right: Sir Philip Pullman CBE (winner of the JM Barrie Lifetime Achievement Award); Joseph Middleton, Kathleen Evans and Ewan Gilford (from Leeds Lieder, Members' Award winner); Amanda Craig (Members' Award winner); Josh Parsons and Yvonne Farquharson (from Breathe Magic, JM Barrie Outstanding Contribution Award winner); Matthew Sanders and Diana Schomberg (from Magic Lantern, Members' Award winner).

Thank you to the fantastic team of young people who helped make the awards happen. From Left to Right: Emmerson Sutton, our young presenter; Lilly Kurata (top right), our young pianist; and Albee and Noah Superville, our award presenters.

Members' Award Winners

Left top: Joseph Middleton, Kathleen Evans and Ewan Gilford (Leeds Lieder);

Left bottom: Diana Schomberg, James Mayhew and Matthew Sanders (Magic Lantern);

Right: Amanda Glover

Outstanding Contribution Award - Breathe Magic

Left: Breathe Arts Health Research Founder Yvonne Farquharson with ACA President David Wood OBE

Right top: Breathe Magic patron Jim Carter chats to Sir Philip Pullman

Right bottom: the full Breathe Magic Team

Home-schooling during Covid19 week one – creative activities

Home-schooling during Covid19 week one – creative activities

Home-schooling during Covid19 week one - creative activities

To support parents home-schooling their children during Covid-19, we will be sharing daily resources to help continue your children's creative education. Here is a list of our resources for week one:

Art - take the kids sketching at the Louvre's Egypt collection: https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne

Music - introduce them to the opera! We recommend starting with one of Rossini's comedies  La Cenerentola  (Cinderella) or  Il Barbiere di Sevigliahttps://operavision.eu/en/library/óperas

Museums and Galleries - follow the hashtag #MuseumFromHome for lots of fun facts from museum curators, or do a virtual museum tour of the British Museum via Streetview: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5191587,-0.1260849,2a,75y,53.35h,90.1t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shtObAXybDUe7n9XEKHUiFQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Dance - Check out Dance Syndrome’s free online dance classes. Suitable for mixed abilities and mixed age groups: https://dancesyndrome.co.uk/online-dance-sessions/

Here are a few more ideas shared by our members...

Theatre - why not download the Theatr Na Nog app for free learning resources in English and Welsh?

Literature - Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell is reading a chapter of How to Train your Dragon on YouTube every day! Perfect for a wet lunchtime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyUNZa7_Gjo

March Newsletter

March Newsletter

March Newsletter

We had a great time with members, Trustees, Patrons, Critical Friends and other industry professionals at our New Years' Drinks, hosted by SAMA Bankside!

The Arts Backpack UK - February Update

  • Pilots are on schedule to commence in Fife and Leicester from September 2020. We will be working with 7 schools in Fife, in partnership with Youth Music Theatre Scotland; and 4 schools in Leicester, in partnership with Spark Arts.
  • Planning is underway for a London pilot later in the 2020/21 academic year, in partnership with For Good, the charity associated with Wicked.
  • We have received over 200 responses to our children's survey, which was issued via First News in January. Our researchers Keda and Yasemin will be compiling this data to inform their research and evaluation processes.
  • We have received the first instalment of funding from Fife Council.

Chair's report

  • Congratulations to our patron Floella on becoming a Dame!
  • It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of our much loved patron, Terry Jones, an exceptional writer, and a unique creative spirit.
  • Vicky attended the Writer’s Guild GB Awards, and the Writer’s Guild GB Olwen Wymark Theatre Encouragement Awards 2020.
  • A group of TYA Theatre makers attended a meeting with representatives from Action for Children’s Arts, Theatre Education Forum, Theatre for Young Audiences England and Assitej UK with Anne Applebaum, Director of Children and Young People, Arts Council England. You can find full notes of this meeting below.
  • The Government are working hard to support Music Education and are calling for a music consultation. https://consult.education.gov.uk/curriculum-implementation-unit/music-education-call-for-evidence/ Maybe other art forms for children and young people should also strive to make their case heard by Government?

General Election 2019: Manifesto round-up

General Election 2019: Manifesto round-up

General Election 2019: Manifesto round-up

We have done a round-up of  policies on children, education and the arts. Please note that this article has been quoted verbatim from each manifesto, and parties have been ordered according to the number of seats they currently hold in the House of Commons.

The Arts:

  • A £250 million cultural capital programme to support local libraries and regional museums.
  • A Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2022.
  • Business rates relief for music venues and cinemas.
  • Maintain support for creative sector and tax relief and free entry to the UK's national museums.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • An 'Arts Premium' for Secondary Schools.
  • An extra £14 billion in funding for schools - that translates to at least £4,000 for each primary school pupil.
  • Raising teacher starting salaries to £30,000.
  • Expand 'alternative provision' schools for children who have been excluded.
  • More school places for children with complex Special Educational Needs.

Children:

  • Invest £500 million in new youth clubs and services.
  • Cement the Opportunity Areas Programme.
  • Review the care system to make sure that children and young adults are being provided with the support they need.
  • A £1 billion fund to help create more high-quality, affordable childcare.
  • Maintain the commitment to free school-meals.

 

The Arts:

  • £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country.
  • Make the distribution of National Lottery Funding more transparent.
  • Maintain free entry to museums.
  • Launch a Town of Culture competition.
  • Work with trade unions and employers to make creative jobs accessible to all, ensuring diversity in these industries.
  • Ensure libraries are preserved and updated for future generations.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • An Arts Pupil Premium to fund arts education for every primary school child.
  • A £160 million annual boost for schools to ensure creative and arts education is embedded in secondary education.
  • Radically reform early-years education to make high quality early-years education available to every child.
  • Within 5 years, all 2-4 year olds will be entitled to 30 hours free education per week.
  • Maximum class-sizes of 30 for all primary school children.
  • Fund more non-contact time for teachers to prepare and plan.
  • Scrap KS1 and KS2 SATS and baseline assessments, refocussing assessments on supporting pupil progress.
  • Receive advise on integrating private schools into a comprehensive education system.

Children:

  • An £845 million plan for Healthy Young Minds - more than doubling the amount spent on children and adolescent mental health services.
  • Introduce a Future Generations Wellbeing Act.
  • Develop a cross-governmental National Strategy for Childhood, focusing on health, security, well-being and poverty.
  • Stop 300,000 children from being in poverty by scrapping the benefit cap and the two-child limit.

 

The Arts:

  • If Brexit happens, campaign for streamlined visa schemes for artists and performers.
  • Continue supporting tax incentives for Creative Industries.
  • Work towards more equality, inclusion and diversity across the Creative Sector.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • £750 million Scottish Attainment Fund to close the attainment gap in schools.
  • Expand early-learning and childcare provision from 600 hours per year to 1,140 hours.

Children:

  • Expand childcare into the school holidays.
  • Campaigning against the 'Rape Clause'.
  • Introduce a new £10 a week Scottish Child Payment for low-income households by the end of next year.

 

The Arts:

  • Maintain free access to national museums and galleries.
  • Protect sports and arts funding via the National Lottery.
  • Examine the available funding and planning rules for live music venues and the grassroots music sector, protecting venues from further closures.
  • Support growth in the Creative Industries and create Creative Enterprise Zones.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • Protect the availability of arts and creative subjects in the curriculum and act to remove barriers to pupils studying these subjects.
  • Teach the key skills required for children to flourish in the modern world: critical thinking, verbal reasoning and creativity.
  • Reverse cuts to school funding and employ an extra 20,000 teachers.
  • Scrap SATS and replace league tables with a broader set of indicators.
  • Triple the Early Years Pupil Premium to £1000.
  • Require Early-Years staff to complete a training qualification.

Children:

  • Free, high-quality childcare for every child aged 2 to 4 years, and children between 9 and 24 months where their parents or guardians are in work: 35 hours a week, 48 weeks a year.
  • Invest £1 billion a year in Children's Centres.
  • Extend free school-meals to all children in primary education, and children in secondary education whose families are on Universal Credit.

 

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • £16.5 million has already been spent on local schools.

Children:

  • 30 hours for 28 weeks of childcare provision for 3-4 year-olds.

 

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • Financial literacy and oracy to be included in the national curriculum.
  • School health workers introduced in primary and secondary schools.
  • 20-week retraining sabbatical for those in need of a mid-career skills boost.

 

The Arts:

  • Demand a devolution of broadcasting.
  • Maintain free entry to museums and develop a National Digital Library for Wales.
  • Create a new National Gallery for Contemporary Art.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • £300 million extra for schools and colleges.
  • Ensure teachers can make the needs of children and young people central to what they do.
  • Develop a new curriculum, and allow sufficient time and resources for teachers to prepare to teach it.

Children:

  • Universal free childcare 40 hours a week and a new £35/week payment for every child in a low-income family.

 

The Arts:

  • Increase central government funding to councils by £10 billion a year. They can use this funding to nurture arts and culture in their areas, keeping local museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving.
  • Reforming copyright and intellectual property rights legislation to ensure a better balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of those working in the creative economy.

Education (for children aged 12 and under):

  • Learning must be lifelong, liberating and accessible to all. Education can and should unlock creativity and enable self-expression across all ages.
  • Restore arts and music education in all state schools.
  • Increase funding by at least £4 billion per year.
  • Long-term aim to reduce class sizes to under 20.
  • Free schools from centrally imposed testing regimes, OFSTED inspections, rigid national curriculum and league tables.
  • Formal education will start at 6 years-old. Those under 6 will remain in early-years education with a focus on play-based learning.
  • Remove charitable status from private schools and charge full VAT on fees.

Children:

  • Ensure that all children receive the basic elements of a good childhood: a decent place to live, safety and security in their community, time and space to play, as well as opportunities to learn and develop inside and outside of school.
  • Prohibit the use of pesticides in the locality of homes, schools and children’s playgrounds.
  • Phase in a Universal Basic Income with supplements for families with children.

 

First donation to the ACA candle campaign

First donation to the ACA candle campaign

First donation to the ACA candle campaign

Our heartfelt thanks to Dr Chris and Hazel Abbott for being the first donors to our candle campaign!

We are asking for donations of £300 to buy a candle on our celebration cake. Alongside your donation you can nominate 10 people for a year's free ACA membership, or you can donate ten bursary memberships to ACA. Each bursary membership will be given to an emerging artist who the Trustees feel would be a valuable part of ACA, but who does not have the funds to become a member.

Click here to become a Candle donor.

Why donate?

We campaign for the right of every child aged 0-12 to access the arts, regardless of their background or personal circumstances. We are particularly passionate about ending inequality in arts education.

A recent report from the Social Mobility Commission found that children from the poorest families are 3 times less likely to be involved in extra-curricular arts activities.

Although we have been running this campaign since 1998, politicians are yet to listen and appreciate the value of instilling creativity in all our children. We need to continue working with teachers, practitioners and arts organisations to democratise arts education.

In the last 18 months our charitable activities have included:

The Arts Backpack UK: In Autumn 2018 we commissioned a Feasibility Study for an Arts Backpack project in the UK. Since publication, we have spoken to over 50 organisations across the four nations, and coordinated a first phase of pilots in Fife and Leicester. Each child will be entitled to at least five quality arts encounters a year.

Networking events: Around 500 people have attended ACA networking events.

The JM Barrie Awards: The 2018 JM Barrie Awards celebrated Stuart and Kadie Kanneh-Mason as role-models to all parents of creative children. In 2019, the JM Barrie Awards honoured Sir Philip Pullman CBE, for a lifetime's achievement in delighting children.

Listening to Children: We are working closely with children from Chickenshed Theatre to develop our research and evaluation structures. Our first piece of child-led research was conducted through schools' newspaper First News in autumn 2019.

We need as big a network as possible in order to push the message home to government that the arts are an important part of all our lives. In these turbulent times, the cultural sector needs to stand together and demand a better future for our children.

Your donation will give us a stronger voice, and enable us to keep making this demand for another twenty years to come.

Click here to become a Candle donor.

Introducing: Breathe Magic

Introducing: Breathe Magic

Introducing: Breathe Magic

The Breathe Magic Intensive Therapy Foundation programme is a clinically effective, fun and engaging approach to therapy. It’s designed to help young people with hemiplegia, a weakness or paralysis affecting one side of the body caused by an injury to the brain.

Grounded in world-class medical research, this award-winning approach gives young people access to 78 hours of intensive therapy AND transforms them into young magicians! Specialist occupational therapists work alongside Magic Circle magicians to teach magic tricks designed to develop hand and arm function, cognitive abilities, self-confidence and independence.

Breathe Magic will be awarded with the Action for Children's Arts Outstanding Contribution Award on 7 November. They were selected for this award by ACA Trustees, in recognition of their contribution to children's arts and well-being.

At the awards, a citation will be given by Magic Circle Centre Director Darren Martin.

Working at The Magic Circle headquarters, you would expect to see miracles and wonder on a daily basis helping you believe in magic. However, it was when hosting a ‘Breathe Arts Health Research’ event some years ago that we realised what real magic can be.

Breathe Magic is part of Breathe Arts Health Research - one of the first arts-in-health companies to be recognised by organisations such as NHS England. Breathe Arts Health Research began as part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, before becoming a separate social enterprise in 2012. Since then they’ve been designing and delivering arts-in-healthcare programmes that:

  • Improve clinical outcomes for patients
  • Enrich healthcare environments for staff, patients and visitors
  • Offer unique training opportunities

The organisation represents a ground-breaking collaboration between Arts, Health and Science. As the new National Academy for Social Prescribing is launched, ACA is delighted to be honouring an organisation at the forefront of this research.

Click here to visit the Breathe Arts Health Research website and find out more about Breathe Magic.

September News

September News

September News

What have we been up to...

We have held meetings with the Spark Arts in Leicester, Fife Council, the Jennie Lee Foundation, 11 by 11, the Open College of the Arts, and Wicked.

We have attended WhatNext, the Westminster Forum, the Cultural Campaigning Group and Tom Watson's Creative Industries Federation event.


ACA member Miranda Thain wrote an article about why she is a member of ACA.

The Hullabaloo stands in one of the 1% most deprived wards in the UK, many worlds away from the corridors of Whitehall and yet, through being part of an organisation like Action for Children’s Arts, we feel that we have a voice in influencing the future cultural opportunities of our children nationwide. It may just be a small corner of this confusing world, but together we can make it better.


ACA Chair Vicky Ireland MBE met the minds behind the Norwegian Cultural Rucksack in Oslo.

She also met the new children's laureate Cressida Cowell at the Chiswick Book Festival 2019. We love Cressida's charter for children's reading, which you can take a look at here.

 

News from the industry...

DCMS has published its annual Taking Part Survey, including the Child Report, which can be found here.

The CLA has written a paper on 20 years of Cultural Learning Policy in England. Click here to read it.

The Children's Commissioner has published a manifesto for children, which you can read here.

 

This is only part of the September newsletter. Click here to get the full thing to your inbox every month.

Why I support ACA: Miranda Thain, Theatre Hullabaloo

Why I support ACA: Miranda Thain, Theatre Hullabaloo

Why I support ACA: Miranda Thain, Theatre Hullabaloo

In a confusing world that often seems to share few of the things that you deeply value, it is important to find your tribe. This is why I joined Action for Children’s Arts, an organisation filled with passionate people who believe deeply in the value of the arts and creativity in the lives of children. Collectively, we engage with all stakeholders in childhood to advocate for that which we know to be true; that children need the arts, as we all do, to bring us together to entertain, provoke, challenge, delight and inspire. Education is narrowing just at the time when we need breadth and space for ideas. If we don’t allow young people that space to dream of a better world then how can they possibly make it real?

I’ve had the pleasure of working in children’s arts for my whole career, including for the last 12 years as Artistic Producer at Theatre Hullabaloo. I can’t imagine wanting to do anything else. Theatre Hullabaloo believes that creativity should be part of everyone’s childhood. I’d go even further and say that the magic that we all know from being part of the audience in a spine-tingling performance, or the way your mind is blown when an artist encourages you to turn your world view upside down, should be an entitlement of all children, whatever their background.

In 2011, when the first round of austerity hit children’s arts particularly savagely, I wrote in The Stage ‘Perhaps we can no longer afford that precious place in childhood where we have room to imagine?”

The Hullabaloo, our new venue for children and families which opened in December 2017, stands as a beacon for that place of the imagination. It is a building which is proud to recognise how important children are and to offer them spaces and art that is made specifically for them. These spaces are filled with the best of children’s theatre from around the world, attracting specialist artists, most of whom have given their lives to developing work and a relationship to their young audience which is as sophisticated as we know children to be. Fundamental to our vision is that The Hullabaloo is the meeting point for artists, children and academics so that we are not just making great art in creative collaboration, but also developing research which will impact on national policy around the place of creativity in childhood.

The Hullabaloo stands in one of the 1% most deprived wards in the UK, many worlds away from the corridors of Whitehall and yet, through being part of an organisation like Action for Children’s Arts, we feel that we have a voice in influencing the future cultural opportunities of our children nationwide. It may just be a small corner of this confusing world, but together we can make it better.

Theatre Hullabaloo presents TakeOff Festival, England’s leading festival of theatre for children and young people, 21-26 October (Delegate Festival 23-25 Oct, Durham City).

For more information about Theatre Hullabaloo visit www.theatrehullabaloo.org.uk

Miranda Thain, Artistic Producer, Theatre Hullabaloo

Why I joined ACA – Walia Kani

Why I joined ACA – Walia Kani

Why I joined ACA - Walia Kani

I was lucky enough to be a child in the 50s and 60s when arts were a full part of state primary education. I had Ivor Cutler as a drama teacher at junior school. And, without knowing it, learned songs from the opera Hansel and Gretel in infant school, where we also had a pottery wheel and kiln, despite being in the heart of London's deprived East End.

At secondary school there were free piano lessons, and group violin lessons, even for someone like me with minimal aptitude. Our school days were punctuated with orchestra, choir, school play rehearsals, painting sets, dying costumes. We were taken to see Maggie Smith play Beatrice while we rehearsed our all girls Much Ado.
As the decades have gone by I have seen these opportunities disappear from the school curriculum as it becomes more structured and controlled. So, when I  became aware of ACA through my niece I knew this was a good chance to give today's children the experiences I was lucky enough to have.
Walia Kani is a retired optician, based in Durham. She became a member of ACA in July 2019.
It only costs £2.50/month to support our cause. Click here to become a member and join our community.

August News

August News

August News

What have we been up to...

We have held meetings with the Spark Arts in Leicester, Fife Council and Sunderland Empire. We are looking forward to meeting the Open College of the Arts, 11 by 11 and Sunderland Empire in September.

We are also looking forward to attending the Creative Industries Federation event with Tom Watson MP and the Cultural Campaigning Group.


ACA Critical Friend Dr Chris Abbott has written a response to the government report An Unequal Playing Field. Read his full response here.


Since Janet's appointment we have been exploring the co-working spaces in London's theatres, galleries and concert halls. Development Officer Mimi Doulton decided to make the most of the opportunity and has created a short guide to some of London's co-working spaces here.


ACA Chair Vicky Ireland MBE and ACA Trustee Chris Jarvis were delighted to meet Emmerson at the Delfont Room, ahead of this year's JM Barrie Awards (pictured at the top of this newsletter). Emmerson is our young presenter for 2019 and will be working alongside Pui Fan Lee.


We are delighted to have welcomed three new members! Writer and illustrator Rod Campbell, creator of the acclaimed Dear Zoo said:

'I am pleased to support ACA in your work in making the arts available to all children as a fundamental part of their development.'

To become a member of ACA, click here.


This is only part of the ACA August newsletter. Click here to get the full thing in your inbox every month!