Introducing the Idea

Action for Children’s Arts would like to commission an arts and cultural researcher to explore the idea of a virtual Arts Backpack being offered to every Primary School child in the UK. The Arts Backpack will serve as a digital collection point for all their Arts, Cultural, Heritage and Library engagements and experiences across the school year and our aim is to ensure that each child can access a minimum of 5 experiences.

Click here to download the full Feasibility Brief.

The Feasibility Study – Why we are seeking to commission it

ACA want to commission a study examining the validity of the Arts Backpack idea. We plan to begin this study in Autumn 2018. The funded Feasibility Study (FS) will, among other targets, enable the creation of a national steering group and potentially regional steering groups. Key to the process will be the identification of a strong case to support it across the UK.

We wish to appeal to:

• Funded arts providers who could do more for children;
• Commercial providers who could do more for children;
• A selection of exemplary children’s arts providers;
• Digital arts/children’s learning providers;
• Politicians from across the UK with remits for Arts, Culture, Education, Digital, Health and Well-being; HE researchers working on, or who have published work looking at children and creativity or the impact of creativity in society;
• Leaders in understanding and assessing the impact of creative industries on UK GDP.

The role of the Arts Business Consultant

We expect the Consultant to develop the FS over a 6 week period; the £4,000.00 fee offered covers all costs and expenses. The Consultant will be contracted as a freelance role with agreed and accepted responsibility for their own National Insurance and Income Tax. The Consultant will work independently with weekly agreed liaison with designated ACA Trustee(s).

Purpose of the Feasibility Study

The FS must offer clear reporting from a current review of published information and available literature related to the concept and scope of a UK wide initiative challenging all primary school children to connect with heritage, libraries, culture and the arts.

The Feasibility Study should address the following particular areas:

Research areas:

• International models of good practice
• Synergy to current UK programmes in Arts and Sports
• Current access and engagement levels/barrier to access for Arts and Cultural Events for primary school children across UK
• A review of current research pertinent to this idea
• Identified case for the educational, creative, emotional wellbeing, commercial and citizenship strengths that recommend this idea for support

Proposals for the Project’s Delivery and Management:

• An outline of the shape, format and scope of the project supported by the evidence gathered
• Project pilot options
• Project Timescale
• Digital and online engagement options
• Outline of funding and resources required for the pilot and expanded programme
• Regional and National Set Up options

Reflection and Continuity

• Project evaluation choices
• Overview of Sustainability highlighting any currently perceived risks.

How to apply

Expressions of interest should be submitted electronically to:

Mimi Doulton, Development Director: mimi.doulton@childrensarts.org.uk

Expressions of interest should include:

• CV
• A statement of why the project is of interest to you
• Details of previous experience relevant to the project
• Contact details of 2 referees

Deadline: 7 September 2018

Click here to download the full Feasibility Brief.

Action for Children’s Arts (ACA) campaigns for children across the UK to have access to the arts. Today it has announced current areas of immediate risk, as identified by its members and patrons.

• As the UK faces its most significant changes and challenges in a generation, ACA considers it is essential that the voices of children should not be excluded from the national conversation. “Listening to Children” will for the first time be the focus for a celebratory event to be organised in association with the National Theatre this year.

“The government is squeezing creativity out of our children’s learning”

Rufus Norris, Artistic Director, The Royal National Theatre, writing in The Guardian newspaper

• The continuing threat of the imposition of the EBacc, if carried through, will lead to reduced arts opportunities for all children, and particularly those in deprived areas.

“The government insists that the arts and culture should be available in all schools, and quite rightly so! But by and large it is the private schools that offer this access, and consequently it is too often available only to the elite. This is unfair and unjust. All children should benefit from the richness of the arts in their school lives.”

ACA Patron Sir Tony Robinson

• Play is an essential part of learning in the Early Years. ACA aligns itself with the many signatories to the letter of concern sent in response to the Ofsted report Bold Beginnings, which threatens to narrow the reception curriculum to focus more heavily on literacy and mathematics, with overly formal teaching and less opportunity for play.

“Early Years are a crucial time within a human life for the development of emotional intelligence. Play, which develops imagination, is being lost in childhood because of the increasing pressure of early school assessment. We must remember it is every child’s right, every day, to have time to create, imagine and play.”

ACA Trustee, and BBC Children’s TV presenters, Chris Jarvis and Pui Fan Lee

• The continued threat to the future of libraries is of great concern to ACA. All children and families should have access to a range of literature and a place in which to explore it.

“We all of us want the best for our children, for them to grow strong in heart and spirit, body and mind. That so many children do not have the start in life they need to flourish, is society’s fault, our fault. 

We need to give them, their parents and their teachers the tools to do the job. To close a library, to deny children opportunities for reading, for developing a love of literature,  is to exclude children from their culture, their birthright, from fulfilment of their creative potential, and, most importantly, from the knowledge and understanding they will need to comprehend  better the world about them, the lives of others, and themselves. 

Without this empathy, without such knowledge and understanding, where are they? And where are we?”

ACA Patron, Sir Michael Morpurgo

• ACA notes with concern the reports of charges being introduced in schools for Music GCSE classes. Access to music and music tuition must remain part of the UK school curriculum and not become the preserve of the wealthy.

“It is a tragedy. All our children deserve access to the arts. The UK has traditionally been a world leader in culture – we should be supporting and encouraging the arts instead of jeopardising young people’s choices through these short-sighted cuts”.

ACA Patron, Julian Lloyd Webber

ACA believes that, in the context of current political policy, there is an urgent need to reinforce the importance of the arts as part of a broad and balanced education for all – not just for those who can afford it.

Notes for Editors

Click here to download this press release in .docx format

Contact for information: mimi.doulton@childrensarts.org.uk

www.childrensarts.org.uk

@childrensarts

Action for Children’s Arts is a national membership organisation embracing all those who believe that every child deserves access to artistic and creative activity. The charity is dedicated to the promotion, development and celebration of all creative and performing arts, for and with children.

ACA is proud that its membership ranges from individual artists, to National Portfolio Organisations, to parents and teachers – all championing the cause of giving every child access to the arts.

President: David Wood, OBE

Chair: Vicky Ireland, MBE

Patrons: David Almond, Jenny Agutter OBE, Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE, Baroness Floella Benjamin OBE, David Bintley CBE, Malorie Blackman OBE, Sir Quentin Blake CBE, Sir Matthew Bourne OBE, Mrs Felicity Dahl, Dame Carol Ann Duffy CBE, Peter Duncan, Michael Foreman, Jamila Gavin, Anna Home OBE, Shirley Hughes CBE, Sir Nicholas Hytner, Terry Jones, Judith Kerr OBE, Julian Lloyd Webber, Joanna McGregor OBE, Michelle Magorian, Roger McGough CBE, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Nick Park CBE, Philip Pullman CBE, Lynne Reid Banks, Sir Ken Robinson, Sir Tony Robinson, Michael Rosen, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Benjamin Zephaniah.