Artswork Challenge Seed Fund: Earlyarts Case Studies artswork

Artswork and Earlyarts worked together to encourage, build and enhance great arts, creative and cultural practice with young children and to build sustainable connections between early years settings and arts and cultural organisations.

The Artswork Challenge Seed Fund was a modest investment programme to enable innovative collaborations between the cultural and early years sectors in the South East. The objective was to provide an opportunity for professionals across the sectors to create small scale, local action-based partnerships or networks that could develop the thinking and practice arising from the Artswork/Early Arts Shared Practice Networks programme.

Nine settings from across the South East Bridge region were selected to take part in the programme, that ran between September 2013 and April 2014. This followed a shared practice network event in the summer of 2013. The aim was to develop partnerships that would explore:

• Ways in which creative approaches and cultural environments can directly support young children’s learning and development

• Help to engage families or settings in supporting their child’s learning journey

• Increase the development of arts and cultural practice in early years (learning through but also in the arts)

• Dissemination of the practice more widely

Standards and Learning Effectiveness Service, Eastbourne Library

Mosaic Malarky, Ore Church Mice pre school, Fairlight Nursery, Sussex Coast College

Bright Shadow performance company, City View pre school

Hastings and St Leonard’s children’s centres, Ed Boxall

Gillotts School, Langley Academy, Mill Meadows Nursery

Thrift theatre company

Oaks Nursery, Wide Eyed Theatre, South East Dance (Connect conference)

Hampshire County Council, Maple Vue Sure Start centre, Aldershot Garrison, South Wonston Nursery

Orange Apples, Bigfoot Arts Education, St Mark’s C of E Primary

Towner

RSPCA

Animate Community Arts

Jerwood Gallery

River and Rowing Museum

St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary School

Gulbenkian

Sue and Sue

Magic Parsnips

Eastbourne

Mallydams Wood, Fairlight, East Sussex

Canterbury

Hastings

Henley on Thames

Maidenhead

Canterbury

West End Centre, Connaught Community Centre, North Camp Aldershot/Winchester

Southampton

Setting Partners Location

http://earlyarts.co.uk/our-events/shared-practice-networks/

• Development of resources e.g. explorer belts, further Early Years work, adapting spaces and signage in the gallery , offering drop in activities

Tiny TownerTowner // Art Gallery // Eastbourne

The programme:

• 150 parents, carers and children attended a Kids in Museums event

• Mentoring from Senior Leaders in Education (SLEs) on the Early Years Foundation Stage learning targets

• Child-led opportunities• Development of resources and guides for

staff• Development of new audiences through

partnerships with Specialist Leaders in Education and the Library

• Loans of art works to library, loans of books to gallery, librarian support in workshops (story time) - ongoing

• Under 5’s resources developed and available

• Low cost monthly workshops in place with library

Challenges:

• Dispelling myths about quietness in museums and galleries and reaction of other visitors to children under 5 in the galleries

• Supporting children under 5 to use eyes rather than hands to explore artworks

• Developing staff awareness• The need to keep attention/meet needs of

0-5 year olds• Supporting adults’ ability to play and

explore to encourage children to do the same

Other outcomes:

• Communication and language development, physical development, personal social and emotional development, literacy, maths and understanding the world, expressive arts and design

“ They have enjoyed everything – especially

lights, projected lights, paper houses, clay,

water, stories.

“

“ We have enjoyed every session. When I tell the

children we’re coming to the gallery, they get very excited. A parent told me

their child woke up and immediately started saying

‘art gallery’ very excitedly...I would definitely recommend

for any parent/childminder to come and make the

most of the brilliant opportunities.

“

“ It has been a wonderful experience for the

children - a different environment. Henry is

fantastic with his storytelling and messy play.

“Case Studies

Mosaics and MeRSPCA Mallydams // Education Centre and Woodland // East Sussex

The programme:

• 23 children aged 0-4 and 35 participants engaged in activities over 3 weeks

• Developed new partnerships with two local nursery settings plus families and arts practitioners

• Encouraged outdoor creative practice, using clay, which translated back into the nursery settings and encouraged further development at Mallydams

• Children developed awareness of nature, imagination and creativity, improved fine motor skills, problem solving, sensory development, social development, confidence

• Collaborative mosaic artwork, displayed in the woods.

Other outcomes:

• More children engaged with messy play at their nursery settings

• Planning for summer visits• Willow structures commissioned from Mosaic

Malarky

“ I like the woods...it’s quiet.

“

“ I like the painting, it makes it beautiful.

“

“ They have loved being active and hands on with

the clay and being out in the woods.

“

“ Every child has joined in making mini woodlands

using both clay and things they had collected from their

visits to Mallydams back at our nursery.

“

Pigeon StoriesAnimate // Community Arts Organisation // Kent

The programme:

• 12 children aged 0-4 years and 15 participants in all

• Devising and delivery of two storytelling sessions based on WW1

• Parental/family/carer engagement through follow up home activities

• Children developed identification skills (pigeons), memory (lyrics, salutes, stories), coordination, fine motor skills, literacy, nurturing and caring for animals, confidence

“ Is this egg going to hatch?

“

“ I’m going to find a pigeon when I leave nursery…in the sky.

“

“I’ve got some feathers for the pigeon’s nest.

“JerwoodGallery // Hastings // East Sussex

The programme:

• 140 children aged 0 – 4 and 32 children aged 5 -11

• Build partnerships with the Children’s Centres, and develop new audiences

• Establish new audiences and relationships with families, build awareness in Jerwood staff

• Create new opportunities for family use of gallery spaces

• Learning about demand and putting in place systems to cope with capacity and security issues

“ The Jerwood is the best gallery.

“

“ It was the best thing we have done in ages.

“

“ All the children engaged and enjoyed open ended

activities.

“

Making ConnectionsRiver and Rowing Museum // Oxfordshire

The programme:

• 21 children aged 0-4 years, 25 aged 11-16, 6 aged 16-18 - a total of 59 participants

• Support for childcare students (Year 10 BTEC) and providers of childcare qualifications in developing an understanding of the potential for working with arts and cultural settings

• Successful creative activities co-devised by students

• New partnerships between the museum and two schools and stronger collaboration with the nursery, including help with planning future Early Years activities

• Enriched education offer from museum for 14-19 year olds

• Children developed confidence, cognition (links made between museum collections and art activities and personal experiences), curiosity

• School students developed confidence in working with Early Years, skills in planning, playing and evaluation, independent learning skills, communication, developing appropriate activities , structuring a session, understanding children’s development

Other outcomes:

• Additional sessions for Yrs 9 and 12 Health and Social Care students at Langley Academy

“So when we went up into the museum I noticed

she liked a lot of the listening things, she liked pressing the

buttons and having a look at them, especially when we

saw all the animals…and she’d ask questions about all the animals and joining things together which was

pretty smart.

“

“The children go to see it’s not just about facts, it’s

about actually understanding why that thing is there in the museum and why it belongs

there - they can get more background information on

it while absorbing it at the same time.

“• Gillott’s student volunteering in school

holdiays at the museum

St Edmunds School and Thrift Theatre CompanyThrift Theatre Company // Berkshire

The programme:

• 65 reception-age children, 2 teachers• Creative art workshops involving the

destruction of an imaginary museum in a storm, recreated in the studio

• The children choosing from a selection of found objects to curate a new museum

• Reflection and discussion about the experience and learning

Challenges:

• Lead member of staff on maternity leave

Other outcomes:

• None reported

JourneyTheatre and Cinema Venue // University of Kent // Canterbury

The programme:

• A total of 80 children aged 0-4 and 120 participants in total

• Gulbenkian built up a strong partnership with Wide-eyed Theatre and Oaks Nursery to inform and embed a strategy for engaging with young children and their families through consultation with the children about the theatre’s physical space and environment

• Developed training for front of house staff in understanding and attending to the needs of Early Years

• Built confidence of nursery staff in working with an arts and cultural partner and accessing creative professional development opportunities

• Greater visibility for young children as part of the campus community and increased use of Gulbenkian as facility and resource for Early Years groups. More programming for Early Years

Other outcomes:

• Exhibition of children’s work• Showcase event at South East Dance

Connect conference involving nursery children

“I was quite astonished by what the children recalled from the live performance

that had taken place several weeks before.

“

“ It was lovely to see the children responding

so immediately to live theatre.

“

“Theatre is a safe space of fun and wonder.

““ I have worked here for

quite a few years and this is the first time I have been

inside the theatre.

“

Little ArtistsSue & Sue // Creative Practitioners

The programme:

• 32 x 0-4 year olds plus parents/carers, a total 72 participants

• Creative art workshops for disadvantaged pre-school children and parents/carers

• Creative professional development session for early years practitioners

• Sessions focused on book-making and supporting a love of books

Challenges:

• Isolation of army families and travel issues to venue (West End Centre) meant plans had to be adapted

• CPD sessions declined by Sure Start Centre in Aldershot in spite of these sessions being very well received elsewhere

Other outcomes:

• Resources developed for CPD session to offer to other Early Years sessions

Together We Make a DifferenceMagic Parsnips Ltd // Hampshire

The programme:

• 74 x 4 and rising 5 year olds, total participants 111

• Developing a multi-cultural learning environment for children through workshop series

• Improving engagement of parents with their children’s learning

• Better relationships and cross cultural friendships developed in parents, parenting skills

• Confidence building in children and in parents about creative skills

• Children developed literacy and reading skills, social skills, maths skills (shop), confidence

• Teachers developed visual storytelling skills• Built on strong established partnership

“ My son has enjoyed it so much and it’s been

great to make something together.

“

“ Nice to see them in a different environment -

their behaviour and reactions. Makes the children proud.

“

Other outcomes:

• Marketing of sessions as “come and play with your children” rather than workshop was more effective

Challenges:

• Change in leadership and communication issues had significant impact

“ It was very good. It’s not always easy to find time

to play or work with children at home.

“

artswork

Taken from the Artswork Challenge Seed Fund Report

Edited by Laura Smith, Communications Officer: Media & Advocacy, Artswork

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