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Arts Award in Libraries: &

The People We aimed to engage more children Brighton & Hove Libraries and young people with the library Primary School service and develop Brighton & Hove Libraries schools engagement Primary School programme, while supporting Alridge Community Academy participants in their Arts Award Georgia Metaxas (artist) Discover journey. Jon Mills (artist)

Collected Works CIC

programme, and help the children and young The Project people involved to achieve an Arts Award In the summer of 2014, Artswork supported Discover qualification. In addition to this, the Libraries to work in support enabled the library service to train three partnership with local artists and creative more staff as Arts Award advisers and improve educators to deliver a series of Arts Award the longer-term sustainability of the service, to activities. The aim was to engage more children deliver Arts Award. and young people with the library service, Three different activities were supported: develop the libraries’ schools engagement 1. Pop-Up Chatterbooks children’s book clubs The pop-up book clubs built the In partnership with Collected Works CIC, pop-up children’s confidence in reading book clubs were established in Hove Library and and they were able to share their Jubilee Library in Brighton city centre. The children who attended were able to work at their experiences of books together. It own pace and explore reading in new ways. brought together children of all 2. Storytelling and character creation activities academic abilities and from a range of schools across the borough. Working with Coldean Primary School and Gladrags, a creative educator and local community costume resource, Coldean Library developed a series of storytelling and character creation activities that encouraged confidence and book swaps. confidence in reading and they were able 3. Mr. Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal to share their experiences of books together. It helped to bring together Mile Oak Library invited local artist Jon Mills into children of all academic abilities, and from the library and arranged for pupils from Mile Oak a range of schools across the borough. All Primary School to attend. Using Jon Mills’ of the children who submitted their Arts character as a reference point, the pupils were encouraged to explore the library and its related Award Discover work received the award stock, as well as an exhibition of Jon Mills’ work. and celebrated this achievement. The project also related to World Book Day Chatterbooks created a place for children celebrations, enabling pupils to discover book and from across schools to come together. experience the joy of reading firsthand. • By working with local primary schools, the libraries were able to demonstrate added Successes value as part of their schools offer, as well as building on existing school engagement • The pop-up book clubs built the children’s work. Having a new offer to approach children and teachers who were not schools with was very positive for already accessing our services. our ongoing schools engagement • Being able to use the library space for activity. We welcomed children and creative activity changed perceptions, including those of staff working within the teachers who were not already service itself. accessing our services. • Employing local artists to work alongside our library staff ensured a high-quality, authentic and artistic experience for the children and young people, and also supported library staff to think creatively themselves. • Working in partnership with local artists and organisation who already had an Challenges understanding of Arts Award really benefited the delivery of the activities. • It took time to coordinate school pupil data Pupils were enthused about reading and with the Arts Award system, but this could discovering new books, and it helped the have been overcome with more time being libraries enrich and develop their schools’ factored in at the planning stages. engagement programme. • Newly trained Arts Award advisers were • Staff with different skills and levels of learning how best to deliver the Award and experience across different locations what aspects of library activities could be became involved in a service-wide project used towards it – through more activities – this helped explore the potential of this kind, their confidence will be able to provided by Arts Award, and allowed for grow. the piloting of new ways of working. • At times, managing the expectations of • Having a new offer to approach schools these children involved could also be a with was very positive for ongoing schools challenge. There was so much engagement activity. We welcomed both enthusiasm for the pop-up book club sessions that it was difficult to bring them We would definitely encourage to a conclusion! other libraries to use Arts Award as How might the project influence part of their school engagement how you approach or deliver similar work. It is easy to work into what work in the future? you may already be doing and is a It was very helpful that one of the artists we great way to engage with local arts worked with had experience of Arts Award as it professionals too. made the process a lot smoother for us. If we were to repeat the work, we would ensure that all artists we work with have as firm a grasp as possible of Discover and its moderation, before planning workshops. We are very keen to implement this method of collaboration, of teaming up with artists, to work more with schools groups in the future. Credits It would also be good to match up any Arts Award Supporters and their offer with schools and other Taken from: Project Evaluation by Lucy Castle, community groups wishing to explore the Brighton & Hove Libraries and an independent evaluation by Paddy McNulty possibilities of working with local partners. All images © Brighton & Hove Libraries In relation to challenges, it would be ideal to build in more time to engage frontline library staff, Edited by: Laura Lamb enabling them to see the link between Arts Award Artswork and its potential for enhancing current library [email protected] offers. This would also support staff engaging with the public and explain in understandable www.artswork.org.uk terms the potential for accreditation.

Impact of the project

From this support, Brighton and Hove Libraries have learnt that by working with local artists, schools and through training up staff, Arts Award can be used a successful schools engagement tool. By the end of the funded activities, 91 people had been involved – 9 teachers, 3 cultural practitioners, and 79 children, of which 70 achieved their Arts Award Discover. Final Thoughts We would definitely encourage other libraries to use Arts Award as part of their schools engagement work. It is very easy to work it into what you may already be doing, and it is a great way to engage with local arts professionals too. Our advice: be brave and give it a try – it will certainly add value to your current schools offer.