New cultural agenda for schools

Details are now being published of the new £25m ‘Find Your Talent’ scheme, announced last week as a key element of the Government’s plans to give young people in England the chance to experience high quality arts and culture. The programme will be piloted in ten areas, but no firm proposals are yet in place as to how or where it will be delivered. Instead, the Government is seeking expressions of interest from partnerships wishing to explore how best to give young people the chance to develop both as “informed spectators” and as “participants and creators”.

The projects selected to be part of the pilot scheme will, as a minimum, offer young people access to top quality theatre, orchestral and dance performances, and visits to national and local exhibitions, galleries, heritage sites, significant contemporary buildings, public spaces and museums. They will also enable young people to engage with libraries, learn musical instruments, play or sing in ensembles, take part in theatre and dance performances, get involved in creative writing, learn film-making, digital or new media art, and create visual arts or crafts. The aim is ultimately to offer all children five hours of arts and culture a week, both within and outside of the school day. Announcing the programme, Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, said, “There will be practical challenges in delivering this ambitious goal of course, and these pilots will give us the chance to see what those challenges are.” All partnerships applying to run a pilot will have to include the relevant local authorities, local music services, appropriate cultural institutions, specialist schools, cultural programmes such as Arts Awards, and, where they are in operation, Renaissance in the Regions, Cultural Hubs and Creative Partnerships. Each may apply for up to £2.5m over three years, starting in April.

The Find Your Talent programme will be managed by Creative Partnerships (CP), the Government’s flagship creativity programme for schools. CP will become an independent organisation during the coming year, receiving a further £110m over three years to continue its work. A new body, the Youth Culture Trust, is being set up to oversee both schemes. It will take over responsibility for CP from Arts Council England. The decision to give CP independent status was announced shortly after the publication last month of the Government’s response to the Education and Skills Committee’s earlier report on Creative Partnerships and the Curriculum (see AP157). The response states that “…while there are clearly examples of Creative Partnerships-funded work involving those from sectors other than the creative and expressive arts, such as industry, science and design, we nevertheless consider this to be an area in need of further development.” It went on to question “whether the patronage of the Arts Council, with its very particular remit, is still appropriate given Creative Partnerships’ wider ambitions, and whether the current make-up of the Creative Partnerships board adequately reflects the full range of professions to which creativity is key.”