Children and young people

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has launched a two-year scheme to invest in the arts, heritage and culture sector.

The proposals include spending £1m on a programme of sector-specific skills and business support for early- and mid-career freelancers, small cultural organisations, and creative businesses.

Up to 100 individuals and small organisations can join the Activate programme, receiving tailored workshops, mentoring, masterclasses, networking opportunities and well-being support.

The programme will also include internships to encourage younger people to work in the cultural and creative sectors, part of WMCA Mayor Richard Parker's plan to reduce high levels of youth unemployment.

In addition, WMCA will run a Future Boards Accelerator scheme to help people develop skills and confidence to take up positions on governing boards.

Applications are now open to join the Activate programme, and later this year, small grants will also be available to pay for "targeted learning" and "personal development opportunities".

Parker said: “The West Midlands cultural and creative sector is one of the biggest in the country – and the people at its heart make a remarkable social and economic contribution to our region.

“They must be able to look to the public sector for our support, and they have already told us that one of the biggest barriers to success is the lack of sector-specific support to sustain and grow their businesses."
 

Chichester Festival Theatre has received planning permission for a new 120-seat studio theatre.

Called ‘The Nest’, the venue will be the organisation's third and smallest stage and will be focused on providing a space for talent development by supporting artists and technicians at the beginning of their careers, including local writers and performers, as well as offering entertainment for a younger audience and community programmes.

The new building will use an existing temporary structure previously located in London and Edinburgh. The trust hopes to raise at least £1.5m for the project.

Director Sam Mendes began his career at Chichester and is a Patron of the Appeal.

"Nurturing the next generation of artists is vital to ensure that theatre in the UK maintains its international reputation for excellence," said Mendes. "I am delighted to support Chichester Festival Theatre – a place dear to my heart – as they embark on creating this exciting new space. I cannot wait to see the work that is incubated in The Nest."

Musician Ed Sheeran has been funding a local state school's music, art and drama education programmes for the last seven years after government cuts to the subjects left teachers with a meagre budget.

In an interview for Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, the singer-songwriter explained how he came to finance creative subjects. “Basically, in 2017/ 2018, my old music teacher came to me, and he was like, ‘Look, the government that is currently in charge does not value art at all—arts, drama, music—and they cut all the funding for comprehensive high schools.

“I think they had to share between art, music and drama, like £700 per year for all three subjects. So, I started funding that at my local high school. And then you see a massive uptick in kids doing production, kids doing songwriting, kids doing this.”

Sheeran has used his own money to build a recording studio and to provide “loads of proper instruments that aren’t broken”. Seeing the impact encouraged him to expand his efforts: “I started doing that in the county that I’m from. And we’ve just now changed it to do it nationwide.

“Because I’m not an academic person and in the real world, I would be viewed as stupid, but I excelled at music, and therefore, people think that I’m good at something."

Speaking about the general election, he added: “I’m doing what I can to get funding for [the arts in state schools]. But I think getting the new government will be better at it. 

“We’re famous for music with The Beatles. We’re famous for painting. Damien Hurst. We’re famous for movies. You’ve got Danny Boyle coming out of here [and] Christopher Nolan. And the government is just putting importance on maths and banking, and we make arms, but no one is proud that we make arms, and no one is proud that our banking’s really good, but they are proud of our art.

“And so for a government to be like. ‘The art doesn’t matter,’ where do you think the art [is] going to come from? So the next part of my career is getting proper, proper funding and art, music, drama back into schools – and actually Ireland do a very good job of it.

"It worked so well for me, and I know it can work so well for other kids. I’m kind of proof that normal kids can just pick up guitars, work hard and do it.”

Post-16 vocational qualifications in art, creative and media subjects are meeting the needs of learners, according to findings from Qualifications Wales.

The review, part of a national programme across a range of employment sectors, includes qualifications in performing arts, media and communication, crafts, creative arts and design, and publishing and information.

Together these sectors employ 34,900 people in Wales with an annual turnover of £1.7bn.

While the report findings suggest that art, creative and media subject qualifications – which are available in English and Welsh – are meeting the needs of learners, it also identified areas that should be improved.

These include: that some qualifications need additional content; that creative apprenticeship frameworks should be reviewed as some no longer included funded qualifications; and that there is demand for one framework qualification to be made available in Welsh.

Gareth Downey, Senior Qualifications Manager at Qualifications Wales, said: "Our review findings show there are a number of strengths to the current range of qualifications, but that some areas require attention.

"We have been working with awarding bodies and other stakeholders to address the issues identified.

"This includes recommending that the Welsh Government review the apprenticeship frameworks in the sector and that awarding bodies update the content of some qualifications, alongside increasing the number of Welsh-medium qualifications available to learners.”