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Mid Pennine Arts responded to the requests of local teachers to manage an event which would have a specific focus on literacy. The event would allow local children to work alongside professional artists whilst at the same time acting as a showcase to allow teachers to select artists to work in their own schools. The festival, ?Kicking Leaves?, ran for a period of six school weeks during the late Autumn of 2002, writes David Smith.

School partnerships had been built up through a termly arts forum for local teachers, visits to individual schools, mailshots and telephone selling of arts activities. Lancashire?s School Library Service offered not only advice and expertise but paid for writer-led, library-based events in each district. Other partners included local borough councils, Lancashire Museums? Service, the National Trust, Arvon Foundation, Heinemann New Windmills, the Wildlife Trust and Age Concern. Where a partner was not able to make a financial contribution, contributions were made in kind. The programme cost £41,000: North West Arts Board provided £19,000 through the Regional Arts Lottery Programme, and the rest we raised with our partners. Schools also contributed to the events.

A structure was agreed which gave each district a specific focus:
? performance poetry
? writing poetry
? scriptwriting through improvisation
? children?s book illustration
? storytelling
? short story writing.

Flexibility was built into the programme by allowing a number of writers to be available to schools in all areas, and to make a number of the events family friendly and open to the general public. To make each district feel a part of the whole festival, four theatre companies performed across East Lancashire, whilst INSET (In Service Training) for all teachers was offered on storytelling skills, poetry in the classroom and developing school book weeks. In addition, a creative writing competition was open to all children, whether or not their school had brought writers into their schools. Winners? work is to be published in a professionally-produced anthology.

The successes were as follows:
? 57 different schools took part
? 4,729 young people worked alongside professional artists
? 2,760 formed the audiences for theatre and storytelling
? 1,440 people visited a library exhibition of children?s work
? 37 writers and artists were employed
? By April of this year, £9,000 of work had been secured for writers to return to local schools.

Kicking Leaves raised awareness of the quality and accessibility of children?s literature. New writers, together with writers with national reputations, like Jan Mark, Nigel Hinton and Kaye Umansky, were brought into our schools and libraries. High quality work was commissioned: Jacqueline Harris created new stories around Gawthorpe Hall, whilst Malorie Blackman, winner of the Lancashire Children?s Book of the Year Award, wrote a new short story for the festival. Thousands of poems and short stories were created under the guidance of professional writers. The festival provided an effective showcase for schools to book artists in their own right and our partners have already committed themselves to working together on arts collaborations in the near future.

What next? Planning, building partnerships and funding took almost a year. ?Kicking Leaves 2? will take place in Autumn 2004.

David Smith is Education Officer for Mid Pennine Arts. t: 01282 421986;
e: david@midpenninearts.org.uk