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The Arts Award may only be three years old, but it has come of age, says Diana Walton.

Three young women dance on stage
Huish Episcopi School working with Somerset College Photo: www.kristinprisk.com

Arts Award was launched in October 2005 to celebrate young people’s achievements as artists and arts leaders. The award was developed by DCMS and is delivered by Arts Council England and Trinity Guildhall. It offers national qualifications at three levels, and is the first dedicated qualification to accredit young people’s development through the arts rather than skills in the arts. It complements skills-based qualifications for talented young artists, and offers an alternative accreditation to young people working outside established artforms. As a learner-driven programme, Arts Award also appeals to young people outside mainstream education, and is successful in Pupil Referral Units and projects which target young people described as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).

Arts Award and arts professionals Arts Award is more than a qualification. It offers a framework for supporting young people’s development, which works in formal and non-formal education contexts. It can help arts organisations to develop a quality-assured and structured approach to their work with young people. It is both flexible and challenging – and provides a usefully measurable outcome. Staff at The Lowry, Salford comment that, “The framework of the Arts Award enabled our project to be led by young people more than previous projects. It also strengthened our collaborative working with schools.”
Arts Award feeds the cultural sector by stimulating audiences and by opening career pathways. Every young person doing an Arts Award attends and reviews arts events and works with arts professionals. This opens their eyes to opportunities and gets them involved as audience and volunteers. The research strand in the Arts Award programme supports young people in exploring pathways within their chosen artform, often leading to a college course or a Creative Apprenticeship. This process identifies and channels new creative blood.
The Arts Award is also valuable to freelance artists. Many who are in training add Arts Award to their CV, which strengthens what they can offer to schools and community organisations. Claire Marshall, a freelance Arts and Creativity Consultant in the West Midlands, said, “Schools are really interested when I say I’m an Arts Award adviser and usually ask me to include Arts Award in my projects. Sometimes I co-deliver with teachers to help them achieve the personalised learning and stretch individual young people. It’s also useful in my work with Muslim and Bangladeshi young people, as the accreditation weighs with their parents and shows the value of time spent on the arts”.
Arts Award in action
An organisation which wants to run the Award should start by sending a suitably experienced person to train as an Arts Award adviser (a one-day regionally based course), after which it can register as an Arts Award centre. The adviser (both facilitator and assessor) recruits, registers and works with young people until they have achieved all parts of the programme and are ready for a visit from the Arts Award moderator (an arts or education professional), who sees portfolios and meets young people in order to confirm the adviser’s assessment. As we approach our third birthday in October 2008, we have nearly 6,500 Arts Award advisers, 1,750 centres and 55 moderators. They are supported by nine regional development co-ordinators, located either within regional bodies or Arts Council regional offices, plus a network of 40 training agencies and local delivery partners.
One aspect of Arts Award is the arts leadership strand which, for many young people, is a new and highly enjoyable experience. Often young people work as apprentices or junior leaders in an arts organisation, adding capacity and building their skills as future workshop leaders and project managers. Gus, a Gold achiever with The Stables project in York, summarises, “I have increased my communication skills absolutely through speaking and teaching – when teaching you also learn for yourself, it clarifies your thinking”.
Where next?
The levels of participation and demand suggest that Arts Award is here to stay, but there is plenty to do to embed it within our education and cultural landscape. Our wish-list for the next two years would see Arts Award used widely to fulfil additional and specialist learning within the Diploma in Creative and Media and the other 14–19 diplomas. We would also like to see most arts organisations either becoming an Arts Award centre or welcoming Arts Award groups, and every young person getting the opportunity to do an Arts Award either in their school, arts project, or youth club.
Award winners
Emily works for ADEC (Arts Development in Cambridge). She decided to do her Gold Arts Award to develop her own creative practice alongside her new job. Jewellery is her artform, and she used Arts Award to stretch her skills and produce work ready for exhibition and sale. On our website, in Gold stories, Emily says, “This award has allowed my interest in the arts to be recognised and has given me support whilst researching how to develop my career”. Awareness of the Gold Arts Award is growing rapidly in Higher Education. We hope to confirm UCAS and CUKAS (Conservatoires UK Admissions Service) points in 2009.

All students at Holy Trinity Catholic Media Arts College, Birmingham, get access to Arts Award. It is offered as curriculum extension activity, used to accredit extra-curricular activities and to motivate young people with particular needs. Diane Henson, Assistant Head Teacher says: “the great thing about Arts Award is its flexibility. We’ve seen real results in terms of progression within arts skills and interest in the arts – plus improved social skills”. Arts Award is now offered by 633 secondary schools or which 238 are Specialist Arts Colleges.
Billy took part in a Summer Arts College in 2007, run by the Youth Justice Board to support young people at risk of re-offending. Billy tried music and film-making and, despite a long period outside education, is now on a media course at college. Billy says, “I achieved my Arts Award and I was like, this is the first thing I’ve ever achieved in my life and I know I can achieve more”. Bronze and Silver Arts Awards have been achieved by 275 young people in the youth justice system.
These are just three of the 10,000 young people who have achieved Arts Awards since October 2005.
 

Diana Walton is Head of Arts Award
Development at Arts Council England.
t: 020 7820 6178
e: enquiries@artsaward.org.uk
w: http://www.artsaward.org.uk