Children & the Arts

     

"I'm looking forward to going to the Turner Sims Concert Hall because I don't normally get to go to concerts.  I like music and when the musicians came into school I especially liked the performance in the hall because I was chosen to conduct them."

Charlotte, Age 9

Start

Start provides primary and secondary school students who might never otherwise have the chance, the opporunity to engage with the arts. At the heart of Start is our desire to make cultural venues accessible for a new generation.

Start provides funding and support to cultural venues (e.g. theatres, museums, galleries and orchestras) to enable them to build partnerships with selected primary and secondary schools in their local area. A Start partnership project generally lasts for two to three years but the relationship between schools and their partner cultural venue typically continues and strengthens.

Throughout an academic year, young people will make at least two visits to their partner cultural organisation to see professional performances, concerts or exhibitions and educational work (such as workshops, backstage tours, meet the artist talks) that links to, and supports these visits.

The result is that children experience a rich engagement with the arts, begin to feel comfortable in cultural spaces and become increasingly confident and creative in their own right. The children who take part are drawn from schools in areas of rural and economic deprivation and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some have been excluded from school while others have behavioural and learning difficulties.

    

Applications for our Start programme are now closed. 

For information about applying to be part of our Start programme in the future please visit our Arts Community pages.

    

Please support our work and make a donation online

During the 2009/2010 academic year our Start Programme will reach over 18,500 children and work with 40 arts organisations around the UK. 

Children & the Arts 2009/10 partners

Aberdeen Arts Centre
Arnolfini
Arts Depot
Aspex Visual Arts Trust Ltd
Battersea Arts Centre (BAC)
Bodelwyddan Castle Trust
Brighton Dome
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
DanceEast
Drumcroon Gallery
Egg Theatre at Theatre Royal Bath
Gulbenkian Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Ikon Gallery
Jack Drum Arts
Mid Pennine Arts
National Museum Cardiff
No Limits Theatre
Northern Ballet Theatre
Northern Stage
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Norwich Playhouse
Nottingham Playhouse
Oldham Coliseum Theatre
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Oriel Myrddin Gallery
Royal Cornwall Museum
Salisbury Arts Centre
Seven Stories
South Lanarkshire Council
South London Gallery
Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre
The Gate Theatre
The Little Angel Theatre
The Makers Guild in Wales
The Nuffield
Theatre Royal Margate
Ulster Orchestra Society Limited
Warwick Arts Centre