The ‘Shadows of the City’ project took place at Ripon Evolve, a centre for young people aged 16 to 19 who are not in education, training or employment. Engaging in a variety of activities, volunteering, community projects and skills, they work towards personalised programmes, which include qualifications that suit their individual needs.
In December 2012, 12 young people passed their Bronze Arts Award, with support from their Adviser Bev Skaife. Each young person was encouraged to select an art form unique to them, motivating them whilst developing their confidence, self esteem, and transferable skills. Also, the young people were encouraged to participate in a group event, developing their ability to work with others.
CapeUK is responsible for the strategic development and advocacy of the Arts Award in the Yorkshire, Humber and North/North East Lincolnshire regions (in partnership with the Arts Council and Trinity College London).
One of the major activities the young people took part in was a sellotape sculpture project. They took it in turns to fully sellotape each other, cut the sellotape off and then re-stick it to create translucent, life size figures. They then did this to other objects and began forming different poses with the sculptures. The sculptures were used for a week of candle lit visits to Ripon Museum called ‘Shadows of the City’. The sculptures were placed into different cells and areas of the museum to reflect the fragile nature of the workhouse inmates, as well as providing a beautiful and haunting visual impact for visitors to the museum.
The young people who took part were at different levels of ability and stages of the process. They were taught in a classroom session on a weekly basis, with opportunities to work on individual projects outside of the classroom, and with specialist artists in their chosen fields. The Adviser found this complex and challenging to orchestrate, but felt that the rewards of their individual achievements outweighed these challenges. The young people attended a variety of events in the area. Some students delivered lessons to their peers, while others worked in small groups, to pass on the skills they had learned. Additionally, the young people involved in the ‘Shadows of the City’ event gained an opportunity to work with older members of the community, who were volunteering at the workhouse museum. They also had an opportunity to show their work to primary and secondary school students who attended on education visits. This project has forged further links with all members of the local community and has been a major success in relation to community cohesion.
“I really enjoyed doing Arts Award. I developed my creative writing so I feel more confident in my art form. The moderation process didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, and it gave me good ideas for Silver, and I received really good feedback that helped me creatively.” Beccy, 17, Ripon Evolve Student
“Arts Award was a real eye opener to the creative side of education. We had 4 stages to complete. I made a 20 minute lesson on how to make a piece of music. It was a production lesson. It was so productive and enjoyable that it inspired me to go on to do music production at Leeds college of Music. Overall it was a great experience and I’m glad that I did it.” Shane, 18, Ripon Evolve Student
“The Award In The Arts allows young people to explore and demonstrate their creativity in ways that they had previously thought impossible. It is a fabulous way to engage and motivate young people to develop their skills in a positive and exciting manner.” Bev Skaife, Ripon Evolve Arts Adviser
“What an interesting group of young people all following their own art form. There is some excellent work there. It is very creative and there is good use of communication skills using both photos and DVDs. Fantastic sellotape bodies. The work also engages the young people with the community especially as these young people have often been so disaffected at school. ” Susie Barrett, Arts Moderator
A group of young Asian men have spent the last three months working on a short film which was launched in Dewsbury, whilst also achieving Bronze Arts Award. The primary aim of the film project, and other schemes, is to support vulnerable individuals who may be targeted or recruited to violent extremism. Organisers say it will also help to support mainstream voices in the community and challenge violent extremist ideology. The film, called 'What's Your Identity?', explores issues important to the five-strong group including identity, belonging and the role and influence of the media on their lives. ‘Pathways into Adulthood’ is one of six projects undertaken with funding from Prevent (Preventing violent extremism).
Kirklees Young Offending Team (YOT) is made up of representatives from agencies including the Police, Probation Service, Children and Young People Service and Health. Kirklees YOT identifies the needs of each young offender by assessing them and addressing the specific problems that make the young person offend.
The young film-makers were assisted by Yorkshire-based Lippy Productions as part of a partnership project between the Kirklees Youth Offending Team and the Kirklees Young People's Service. During this process the group achieved the Bronze Arts Award, an accreditation which is managed regionally by CapeUK.
We took the group to a play at West Yorkshire Playhouse called “the Black Album” – For many of the young people it was the first time they had been to a live theatre performance. The play was directly related to our film project, as it explored the experience of a young British male who enters university where he is vulnerable to being recruited to an extremist cause. The young people were able to identify empathise with the main character as he was someone who was susceptible to peer pressure and like them was caught between different cultures. The young people were impressed by the use of a small space and the use of props to change the scenes.
The young people learnt how to use the film camera and editing equipment and shared these skills with staff supervising the project. This experience of sharing their film making skills increased their confidence and allowed them to “show off” to staff which they enjoyed.
Through their involvement, the young participants gained film-making skills and boosted their self-esteem, teamworking skills and communication. They became more self-aware, critical thinkers and gained knowledge of oppression and racism and ways to address these issues.
The film project was based around the experience of British born Pakistani heritage young men from Dewsbury in North Kirklees. Their experiences and views on how they see themselves and growing up as an ethnic minority within Britain can be transferred to other young man to increase awareness, empathy and allow space to explore difficult and challenging areas of work with young people today.
The feedback from the Arts Award moderator was: “an interesting and varied set of folders which showed the young people had clearly enjoyed working on their Bronze journeys. All the folders were individual yet had a common bond of thought which enabled them in the end to achieve their Arts award goal. Some superb film work and personal reflections in their Hero and Apprenticeships. Well done!"
Cllr Peter O'Neill, Kirklees Council's Cabinet Member for Safer Stronger Communities, said: "This project has benefited everyone who took part and has given them useful skills for the future. The project has also demonstrated how the arts, as therapy, can broaden a young person's perspective, change their outlook on life and help them become better citizens."
This event has now been postponed to the 17 May 2010
The day will be made up of key note speakers, future Arts Award developments, case studies from advisers & young people, networking, practical workshops, using technology to create interesting & exciting evidence and opportunities to develop skills and practice… and much more
To discuss further please contact Dan or Ginny on 0845 450 3700 or email dan@capeuk.org
CapeUK is looking for Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) and young people (15-25) from Yorkshire, Humber and NE Lincolnshire to take part in a new programme ‘Critical Friends’
The ‘Critical Friends’ programme is a partnership between Arts Council Yorkshire and CapeUK and aims to enable a selected group of young people to act as critical friends to selected RFOs.
CapeUK will train the successful young people in communication techniques, presentation skills, mentoring, feedback, reviewing and reflecting – and the young people will gain invaluable experience working alongside some of the region’s best arts and cultural organisations.
This consultancy opportunity will allow RFOs to gain an insight from a young person’s perspective, allowing the organisations to assess and develop their provision of work for young people.
For more information please contact Ginny Scholey on 0845 450 3700 or email ginny.scholey@capeuk.org
In September a pop-up pink garden shed, surrounded by fake green grass, bright flowers and a sheep – appeared on Briggate, Leeds City Centre. This event was hosted by CapeUK to celebrate the Arts Award 5th Birthday and the creative achievements of the 3,500 young people who have achieved Arts Award in Yorkshire.
Pat Cochrane, Chief Executive, CapeUK; “Creativity is an absolutely critical skill for young people, to help them face the future. CapeUK were delighted to host the regional 5 year celebration in the centre of Leeds. We have been leading the Arts Award since 2005 across Yorkshire, Humberside and North Lincolnshire and to date over 3500 young people have now achieved their award. CapeUK are really proud to be involved in the leading of this programme that offers so much support to young people – enabling them to develop creative skills and cultural appreciation along with building key personal skills; confidence, communication, teamwork and leadership.”
Love the Arts? Love Arts Award! If you’re aged 11-25 then the Arts Award is for you. It's a great way to develop your creativity, artistic and leadership skills, whilst getting a qualification recognised nationally by employers and educators.
Visit Arts Award Facebook page to see other happy birthday wishes from across the country!
Image: Lloyd Thompson from Clean North amazes the unsuspecting shoppers on Leeds Briggate
On Wednesday 22 September a pop-up pink garden shed, surrounded by fake green grass, bright flowers and a sheep - appeared on Briggate, Leeds City Centre.This event was hosted by CapeUK to celebrate the Arts Award 5th Birthday.
Yorkshire-based breakdancing group, Clean North and dancer Naran from Manasamitra emerged from the crowd, to perform spectacular dance routines in front of unsuspecting shoppers.
This regional ‘Grow Your Own’ event was to celebrate the creative achievements of the 3,500 young people who have achieved Arts Award in Yorkshire.
Arts Award alumni, Lloyd Thompson, who founded the Clean North dance group, was one of the first people to take part in Arts Award and now runs his own breakdancing company. Speaking about his involvement in Arts Award, Lloyd says: “I would strongly recommend Arts Award. It is a fantastic opportunity for young people to try new arts disciplines, get involved in extra curricular activities, as well as meet fellow artists and friends. For anyone with an interest in the arts this programme is an amazing thing to do.”
The event also showcased young DJs, rappers, dancers and MCs – highlighting the wealth of talent that is being nurtured and developed throughout the region.
Pat Cochrane, Chief Executive, CapeUK; “Creativity is an absolutely critical skill for young people, to help them face the future. CapeUK are delighted to be hosting the regional 5 year celebration in the centre of Leeds. We have been leading the Arts Award since 2005 across Yorkshire, Humberside and North Lincolnshire and to date over 3500 young people have now achieved their award.
“CapeUK are really proud to be involved in the leading of this programme that offers so much support to young people – enabling them to develop creative skills and cultural appreciation along with building key personal skills; confidence, communication, teamwork and leadership.”
For more information about the Arts Award please call Dan or Ginny on 0845 450 3700
CapeUK have supported young people who are currently displaying their work in the open air exhibition at YSP during September 2010.
The idea behind the project was to use creativity and photographic art to give the young people a different focus and an opportunity to learn new skills. The ‘Me Myself and I’ is an exhibition of self-portraits by young offenders from Wakefield area. The project aims to challenge the young people through creativity. Exploring the self-portrait encourages the young people to use the still image to communicate with their audience about how they see themselves.
The theme of Me Myself and I was selected by the young people themselves to allow those involved the opportunity to create pieces of work personal to them.
Congratulations to the young people who have taken part in this journey of discovery, whose resulting artworks are displayed in the open air at YSP during September 2010.
For more information about the project please click here
The purpose of this collection of case studies and reflections is to tell the story of how a range of different voluntary sector projects used the Arts Award with young people from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The Arts Award is a national qualification which supports young people to develop their creative and leadership skills by taking part in the arts.
CapeUK is the delivering agency for the Creative Partnerships programmes for over 150 schools in Yorkshire. This is England's flagship creative learning programme, it aims to help young ...
