News & Press

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts is pleased to announce that applications for grants to take part in the 2011/12 Start programme are now being accepted from arts organisations across the UK.

Start is the Children & the Arts’ core programme, which in 2010/11 brought together 38 arts partners and 16,000 children from 214 schools, country-wide. As part of Start, children visit their local arts venue at least twice a year and also participate in professional artist workshops at school and at the venue. It provides a fantastic opportunity for arts organisations to connect with a new generation that might otherwise never be introduced to the arts, while allowing the children to gain all the benefit that the art world can bring in terms of new experiences and creative development.

Arts organisations across the country can enhance their reputations by joining the programme and benefit their local and wider community as the programme helps to improve the children’s personal and communication skills and boost their confidence as well as developing their creative thinking and academic skills.

Children & the Arts will award roughly £350,000 in grants for the 2011/12 Start programme, including approximately £100,000 to new Start partners for their first year in the programme. Each grant is limited to a maximum of £15,000. Information on applying and the relevant application forms can be found at www.childrenandarts.org.uk/start. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 2nd February.

The children participating in the Start programme are often from deprived areas and would not ordinarily have exposure to the arts. Schools are selected using criteria based on social and economic deprivation in the area, and other factors such as the level of free school meals.

The positive feedback from teachers on the benefits Start has achieved for their pupils has led to Children & the Arts commissioning a three year evaluation of the Start programme generously supported by the Oak Foundation. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), Britain’s leading independent educational research institution will conduct the research intended to establish the impact of the programme on children and young people over a sustained period of time based on surveys built upon scoping and pilot phases already underway. A final report will be published in January 2014 including recommendations for the future direction of the programme and wider policy implications. Its key findings will be of enormous interest to Government and educational policymakers as well as arts organisations and schools.

Jeremy Newton, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts said: “Start aims to encourage children that their local venue is somewhere they can go and be inspired, and we have found that the experience they have through these fantastic partnerships makes a real difference to them and positively changes both their social behaviour and their attitude towards learning.

At a time when public funding for the arts is under pressure I hope that arts organisations across the country will consider the advantages of applying for a Start grant and join us in our rewarding work.”

Download this press release (word document)

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Notes to Editors

For further information on the evaluation, please visit the NFER website www.nfer.ac.uk/research/projects/longitudinal-evaluation-start-programme

For further press enquires contact Marcus Stanton, The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts on 020 8540 5393 or email marcus_stanton@btopenworld.com

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts works in partnership with arts organisations to offer children opportunities to access the very best of the arts. We target those children who would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience the arts and we will work with over 16,000 children in 2010/11. www.childrenandarts.org.uk

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