Those partners selected are: Bodelwyddan Castle Trust, National Museum Cardiff, The Makers Guild in Wales, DanceEast, Norwich Castle Museum, Battersea Arts Centre, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, No Limits Theatre, Northern Stage, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, Theatre Royal Margate, Royal Cornwall Museum, and Warwick Arts Centre.

Start provides funding and support to cultural venues so that they can form partnerships with primary and secondary schools in their local area. Throughout an academic year every participating student will attend at least two professional performances, concerts or exhibitions as well as taking part in a series of workshops and follow up work in the classroom designed to bring their experience to life. Through Start children will discover that cultural venues are welcoming, accessible and exciting places to be.

Children & the Arts CEO, Jeremy Newton said, “I’m delighted that our Start programme has now reached so many parts of the UK, with new partners as far apart as the Outer Hebrides and Cornwall. The artistic range of our projects is equally wide, offering us the opportunity to test a variety of different and innovative approaches to engaging young people in the arts for the first time.”

There is more information about the Start Programme here.

The day will be held at Seven Stories, The Centre for Children’s Books. The training day is designed to introduce arts in the classroom, focussing on Storytelling, Drama and Music. Debbie Beaks, Participation Manager at Seven Stories, will start the day with a talk on the work of Seven Stories and the impact it is having on young people in Newcastle.

The days’ workshops include:

Storytelling– building your storytelling skills with Malcolm Green

Theatre– bringing stories to life through drama with Debbie Beek based on the children’s book The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer.

Musical Narratives – bring the past to life with sound, workshop leader to be confirmed

Catalyst Flyer for Newcastle - Seven Stories

To book your space for the 09 July download the Catalyst Booking Form or call 020 3326 2237

Visit our Peter Pan page for more information.

     
Both Zoë and Don attended our carol concert in December 2008 delivering two funny, festive readings – Zoë told the lively story of ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ by Dr Seuss and Don wittily read ‘Talking Turkeys’ by Benjamin Zephaniah. Since then, Zoë and Don have both been inspired to support Children & the Arts as Ambassadors.

  
Both their careers span film, television, stage and radio. Don started acting when he joined his local repertory theatre aged 17. Since then he has worked with The National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Bristol Old Vic. Don also recently took part in Strictly Come Dancing, alongside professional dancer Lilia Kopylova. He was awarded an MBE in the 2008 Birthday honours for his services to drama.

  
Zoë has been nominated for a staggering ten Olivier Awards and won twice: for “Once in a Lifetime” and “Electra”, for which she also won the Variety Club Award.  Most recently her theatre work includes Serafina in “The Rose Tattoo” and Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing”, both at the National Theatre. On television she is well known for playing Tessa in three series of the award-winning “Love Hurts” and Susan in nine series of “My Family”, for which she won the Rose d’Or.

  
Zoë is an Honorary Doctor of Letters at the South Bank University and the American University Richmond London, an Associate at the National Theatre and Honorary President of Shakespeare’s Globe.  In 2000 she was awarded a CBE.

  
Thank you to Zoë and Don for choosing to join our current ambassadors and support Children & the Arts.

The 13.1 mile run takes place on Sunday 11 October 2009 and is a beautiful route through the Royal Parks starting and finishing in Hyde Park.

Public places have already sold out so Children & the Arts places will go fast. Move quickly to ensure you get the chance to be involved with this very special challenge and help disadvantaged children across the UK.

Visit our Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon page to download the registration form.

The training day is designed to introduce arts in the classroom, focussing on Storytelling, Drama and Music. The day begins with Ben Haggerty, an advocate of the art of professional performance storytelling and Kate Norgate, who co-founded the London Centre for International Storytelling in 2004. 

Ben will also lead the storytelling workshop. Other workshops include:Musical Narratives – bring the past to life with sound by composer and educationalist Rachel Leach Drama-Exploring history through drama.

Every teacher who attends will receive a FREE limited edition of Catalyst, a new book that includes 60 inspirational activities to use in the classroom covering Dance, Poetry, Music, Storytelling, Theatre and Visual Arts.  The book also gives practical information on planning arts projects and working with external artists and arts organisations.  

Catalyst Flyer for London - Kensington Palace

To book your space for the 12 March download the booking form or call 020 3326 2237 The last of our six teacher training days will be held in Newcastle in June 2009. Check back for details.

The finale, held at the Prince’s Drawing School, took the form of a celebratory exhibition of the work created by all the children from across the UK who have been involved in The Great Art Quest 2008.  Children took part in two workshops including one led by Neil Buchannan of Art Attack! fame and they will also met world-renowned artist Gavin Turk who supported the project.

The Great Art Quest, which has been running since September 2008, has linked four art galleries with their local primary schools and has introduced over 1,000 children to the visual arts for the first time.  Graves Art Gallery (Sheffield), The Harris Museum (Preston), The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) and The Courtauld Institute of Art (London), have been working with schools which have limited art facilities and would otherwise be unable to organise cultural visits of this kind.

Storytellers and professional artists having been working with the children involved in The Great Art Quest to bring works of art alive. The project has encouraged the children to get to know and feel comfortable visiting the gallery and has inspired them to create their own masterpieces which will be on display at the project finale. Quentin Blake, Ambassador of Children & the Arts and the supporter of The Great Art Quest said: “I helped dream up The Great Art Quest a few years ago in the hope that it would help young people to get to know and love great pictures.   I have always drawn pictures and I have always enjoyed looking at other people’s art too. The Great Art Quest has given these children a chance to do both of these things.  It has the galleries involved alive for children who might never otherwise have visited them or had chance to look at original paintings.  Who knows….it may have opened a window onto a new world that will stay with those young people forever.”

The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts is delighted to announce that GAM has renewed its sponsorship of The Great Art Quest for a second year.  From September 2009 to February 2010 The Great Art Quest 2009 will link The Whitechapel Gallery (London), Spacex (Exeter), Hunterian Art Gallery (Glasgow) and The Baltic (Gateshead) with local schools, enabling a further 1,000 children to experience the visual arts for the first time. 

Andrew Hanges, Chief Executive Officer of GAM UK Limited commented: “We are excited to sponsor this programme which has the potential to make a real impact on many children’s lives.  It echoes the cultural heritage of GAM and reflects our historically strong link to the arts.”

Jeremy Newton, CEO The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts said: “We are delighted that GAM is sponsoring The Great Art Quest for a second year running. Through their generosity and support over two years some 2,000 children in eight different areas of the UK will have the opportunity to engage with their local gallery and experience the visual arts for the first time.”

Create-a-Quest linked 16 arts organisations with local primary schools and a Land Securities shopping centre, and has introduced over 2,000 children to two or more art forms. For many, this has been their first experience of the arts.

Since September 2008, children from Liverpool, West Lothian, Aberdeen, Sunderland, Leeds, Cardiff, Maidstone, Margate, Shepherd’s Bush, Stratford, Lewisham, Exeter, Corby, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Porstmouth have been working with partner arts venues in their area and have participated in workshops led by creative practitioners introducing them to their selected art forms.

The finale event, held in the beautiful Georgian Church of St. Mary’s, Marylebone celebrated the work created by all 42 schools involved in the project. For those children that attended they had the chance to view exhibitions of the work created as part of the project, performances to watch and workshops to participate in.

Donal McCabe, Director Corporate Communication, Land Securities said: “Land Securities wants shopping centres to be a partner of the communities they serve, not just a place that happens to be there.  Working with Create-a-Quest we aim to help local school children enjoy themselves while learning about both themselves and the arts.  “ 

Emma Blanksby, The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, Project Manager of Create-a-Quest said: “The Create-a-Quest finale will allow us to celebrate the wonderful work created by all the children involved in the project. It will be an exciting day for all.”

MusicQuest brings together four major organisations; The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts, Classic FM Music Makers charity, Yamaha Music UK and The Philharmonia Orchestra for a unique three year project which introduces children right around the UK to classical music and encourages teachers to use music in their everyday teaching practice.

Each year The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts – with support from Classic FM Music Makers, Classic FM’s listeners and instruments and practical support provided by Yamaha - take classical musicians from The Philharmonia Orchestra into schools and venues in five different areas of the UK as part of MusicQuest. Every year the project reaches over 5,000 young people between the ages of 7 and 11 who might not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with a high quality and complete music experience.

This year’s project will saw the Philharmonia Orchestra travelling to Bradford, Stoke on Trent, Kilmarnock, Great Yarmouth and Middlesbrough delivering workshops in schools and performing live at concert hall venues for all the children involved. By the end of its second year MusicQuest will have proved 10,000 children with a classical music experience.

Links to Press Coverage and Videos

The Yorkshire Post

The Sentinel

The Middlesbrough Gazette

The Great Yarmouth Mercury

The Kilmarnock Standard