the biggest learning opportunity on earth
release: 26th April, 2010
Launch of ‘The Biggest Learning Opportunity on Earth’ – a £700k ‘Olympic’ themed project for 150 London schools.A New Direction, the strategic body for connecting young Londoners with the city’s creative and cultural energy, is pleased to announce the 14 partner organisations confirmed to deliver the 'Olympic' themed 2010/11 Creative Partnerships Enquiry School Programme to 150 schools across London.
The following organisations will each work in partnership with schools from September 2010:
Eastside Educational Trust, Cineclub - The Young Filmmakers Network, Clayground Collective Ltd, Discover, , Emergency Exit Arts, Fundamental Architectural Inclusion, Graeae Theatre, Kinetika, LIFT, MakeBelieve Arts, Nimble Fish, Punchdrunk, RollingSound and Spitalfields Music.
The Enquiry Schools programme is a one-year opportunity for schools to work with a partner to explore creativity, and how it can drive school improvement. Each organisation will devise and develop a project concept inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, drawing from the findings of the DEMOS report, ‘The Biggest Learning Opportunity on Earth - How London’s Olympics could work for young people in schools’. The projects will reference Every Child Matters outcomes and explore one of the following themes: ‘Connecting Countries’, ‘My Family and Me’, ‘Inspired by London’, ‘Leading the Way’ and ‘My Future’.
The application process opens to schools across all 33 London boroughs on 07 June 2010, and successful schools will be announced in September, with projects starting in October 2010.
For more information contact: Emma Macorison / Love Communications: emma@wearelove.co.uk / 020 7300 7379
Steve Woodward / A New Direction: steve.woodward@anewdirection.org.uk / 020 8536 5388
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Notes to editors
1. A New Direction is the key strategic body for connecting young Londoners with the city’s creative and cultural energy. It is the first-stop for those looking to advance their work with young people, arts and culture in London. Our work covers three main areas:
• A New Direction to careers.
• A New Direction to creative potential.
• A New Direction to audiences.
Our work is driven by young Londoners. We help them navigate London’s extraordinary cultural opportunities to find new ways of being creative and becoming fulfilled. www.anewdirection.org.uk
2. Download the DEMOS report, ‘The Biggest Learning Opportunity on Earth - How London’s Olympics could work for young people in schools’ (Charlie Timms - 2007). http://www.anewdirection.org.uk/demosreport
3. During the 2009/10 academic year, A New Direction’s Creative Partnerships programme reached around 20,000 children and young people in 250 primary, secondary and special schools (approximately 10% of the schools in the greater London area), and over 1,200 teachers, delivering over 4,000 sessions.
4. A New Direction is funded by Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) to deliver Creative Partnerships to schools in London. Creative Partnerships is England’s flagship creative learning programme, and is designed to develop the skills of young people across England, raising their aspirations and achievements and opening up more opportunities for their futures. www.creative-partnerships.com
About the Organisations
Eastside Educational Trust is a highly acclaimed, award winning, world record breaking, arts education charity and London’s leading youth arts provider. It offers a comprehensive range of creative and cultural experiences which introduce children and young people to the arts, culture and heritage in London. www.eastside.org.uk
Cineclub - The Young Filmmakers Network train professional filmmakers and teachers to set up and run film-making workshops for young people. We aim to create a vibrant and thriving network of young filmmakers who create, watch and share films with each other. www.cineclub.org.uk
Clayground Collective Ltd was set up to realise ‘Project Clay’ - a venture to create a new public space in London in 2012, using clay. This new space aims to give anyone standing there a poetic sense of the world through the world's clays in all their variety. Alongside material dug in London, clays from around the world will be worked on with artists, young people and adults from different walks of life to create artifacts to furnish the new space. www.claygroundcollective.org
Discover was established in 1998 to provide creative, play and learning opportunities to enable children and their carers to develop their potential. It particularly targets families in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage and ensures that children are listened to and can participate in decisions that affect their lives. www.discover.org.uk
Emergency Exit Arts is one of the UK's leading street arts companies producing celebratory events, participatory projects and unusual spectacle; a company of visual artists, performers, musicians, composers, puppeteers, pyrotechnists, designers and inventors. www.eea.org.uk
Fundamental Architectural Inclusion is an architecture centre that seeks new ways for communities to participate in the transformation of their neighbourhoods. http://www.fundamental.uk.net/
Graeae Theatre is a disabled-led theatre company that profiles the skills of actors, writers and directors with physical and sensory impairments. The artistic approach creates aesthetically accessible productions that include a disabled and non-disabled audience. Graeae is the leading British company in its field, and has an enviable reputation for producing thrilling and innovative work, particularly built around the creative use of sign language and audio description. www.graeae.org
Kinetika has taken the spirit of carnival and delivered it to places and people all over the world. Founded in 1997, projects and performances have taken them far and wide – from the FIFA Club World Cup UAE Opening and Closing Ceremonies in Abu Dhabi, to the Olympics in Atlanta. Kinetika’s work offers a wide range of opportunities including large–scale commissions, music and dance performances and workshops, puppetry and site-specific performance, advanced training courses in design and making. www.kinetikaonline.co.uk
LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) is one of the most important events in the British arts scene, with an influence that reaches far beyond London. Working with artists from across the world to find new ways of seeing the city, LIFT's rich and varied programming has presented extraordinary events in both conventional theatres and in more unusual spaces such as disused power stations, churches and canal basins. www.liftfest.org.uk
MakeBelieve Arts is a theatre and education company, offering innovative, high quality theatre and education programmes to develop the creative potential of children aged 2 – 15. MakeBelieve Arts is a Social Enterprise, holds the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge and is a member of the Independent Theatre Council (ITC). www.makebelievearts.co.uk
Nimble Fish is an award-winning and leading cultural producing company that specialises in creating high-quality, arts-led happenings that foster social change. We work in theatres and festivals, in schools and community settings…and in any number of unusual and unexpected places. www.nimble-fish.co.uk
Punchdrunk creates theatrical environments in which the audiences are free to choose what they watch and where they go. Since 2000, it has fused live performance, music and large-scale installation art in nine productions, first in South-West England and then in London. www.punchdrunk.org.uk
RollingSound engages young people through creative multimedia, in the way that reflects their lifestyle and is relevant to their culture whilst always looking to steer them towards educational and work related success. It was founded in 2003 to run youth music projects in areas of London without existing provision. www.rollingsound.co.uk
Spitalfields Music is the home of exceptional music making in London’s East End. It creates astounding live music experiences through performances and learning and participation. Inspired by the spirit of the area, its people and their global and local influences, Spitalfields Music takes live music as its core - exploring music, performance, its artists and our communities. www.spitalfieldsfestival.org.uk
