Artis wins an award!

The Artis Foundation is delighted to have won the National Creative Learning Award.

Artis Foundation won the Performing Arts & Music category at the beginning of March for their You, Me, Together mental health and well being project. This was a partnership project commissioned by, and developed with, Milton Keynes Cultural Education Partnership (led by Arts and Heritage Alliance Milton Keynes), Artswork, MK Council Public Health and Milton Keynes CCG.

The project took place in early 2018 and engaged four schools over five weeks in arts activities that explored the language children use to express their feelings and their understanding of mental health. Artis designed and delivered the project to 150 children across Milton Keynes, with all children receiving their Discover Arts Award at the end of the six-week project.

You can see the final film sharing the children’s views on mental health here https://aha-mk.org/develop/mkcep/you-me-together/

June Stevenson, Artis Foundation CEO, said:

“We’re thrilled to receive this Creative Learning award, celebrating the wonderful contribution the arts can make to supporting wellbeing and building children’s confidence

We find the DCMS’s report that arts activities in primary schools have reduced by a third very worrying, and are determined to do all we can to bring high quality arts opportunities to more children. This programme came from a forward-thinking partnership between health, arts and education commissioners, which is exactly the sort of collaboration that can bring about really meaningful long-term outcomes for children.”

Pete Marland, Leader of MK Council said:

“It is fantastic to see MK organisations working together with cultural education delivery experts, such as Artis, to deliver a project and final film that supported our young people to engage with what mental health and wellbeing is, and means to them.  This shows the power of culture and creativity to develop children and young people’s self-esteem, wellbeing and their ability to shape the creative future of MK.”

Jane Bryant, Chief Executive at Artswork said:

“Artswork is delighted that You, Me, Together has been awarded a Performing Arts & Music Award from the Creative Learning Guild. This Award has recognised the inspirational impact of You, Me, Together, and the value of arts, culture and creativity in addressing the wellbeing and mental health issues of children and young people. For this programme to engage so many children and young people from across Milton Keynes in the conversation was testament to the need, as was the learning around how they perceived and expressed their wellbeing. Well done to everyone involved; it’s most heartily deserved.”

Jill Stansfield, Chair of MAKE (MK’s Cultural Education Partnership) said:

“We are thrilled that this collaborative project borne out of the MK Cultural Education Partnership has been recognised in this way, it really shows how MAKE has led to collaborative fundraising, new relationships and mutual learning to achieve real results for children and young people in MK.”

A film about the project was created to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing in young people, what it means to them and to open up a conversation. What is mental health and wellbeing and what can we all do to improve things?

Gilly Bryerley, Managing Director of The Creative Learning Guild, who are organising the awards, said:

“On behalf of all here, I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to all of the winners in the National Creative Learning Awards.

There is so much talent and dedication in the world of creative learning, with practitioners taking on enormous responsibility, working long hours with almost no down time, and often no financial reward. We want these awards to recognise the un-sung heroes and support them in their ongoing fight for creativity.”

The new national Creative Learning Awards celebrate the inspirational innovators, educators and practitioners who live and breathe creative learning. The awards range across 15 categories, including formal education, the arts and creative business.

The awards are organised by The Creative Learning Guild a charity based in Yorkshire that supports the grassroots creative learning movement across the UK through a Guild membership scheme and the new awards. www.creativelearningguild.co.uk

Ruth Gamble, Head of Programmes says “the Guild is a fellowship; a membership of passionate and likeminded people. By becoming a member and nominating their creative heroes, people and organisations have committed to support creative learning, and each other in this fight for recognition and validation”.

Judges used criteria that had been informed by a consultation of arts and education organisations to choose the winners from each of the categories and the winner was announced at a Creative Learning Summit on Friday the 8^th of March.

The judging panel include an Olivier award winning theatre producer, a representative from the international Lego Foundation, leading disability arts professional; Ruth Gould and acclaimed poet Ian McMillan. A full list of the judges can be found at http://www.creativelearningguild.co.uk/national-awards

BAFTA winning judge Rob Young said “The clues in the title, Creative Learning Awards. Creative because every single entry seeks to innovate and find new ways to overcome a myriad of challenges. Learning, because every initiative is wrought from failure, resilience, evolution and triumph. For me, there are no winners, just a fine bunch of people who have earned our respect through graft, craft and… something else, something elusive and very difficult to define. In their own modest way, they have shown us the best that humanity can be.”

If you are interested in learning more about how Artis can support your school’s creative well being and mental health priorities please email dingdong@oldsite.artisfoundation.org.uk or call us on 0207 324 9880.