Taking arts to children and young people

The Arts Council recently announced an ambitious plan to improve local delivery of arts opportunities for children and young people. Through five "bridging" organisations across London – and another nine across the UK, the council said it wanted to exploit regional knowledge of the arts and create new opportunities for children, through better collaboration. A New Direction , an arts, culture and educational charity based in east London and one of the organisations chosen to bridge the gap between schools, the creative and cultural sector and other partners, will receive a three-year £1.1m grant starting in 2012. The organisation already works with 230 schools across London with an annual budget of £3.2m. We asked four organisations involved in one of A New Direction's current projects, the Olympic-themed Biggest Learning Opportunity on Earth (BigLop) festival, for their views on how better collaboration can improve children's participation in the arts and the challenges of working with organisations across different sectors. Thirteen organisations working with 150 schools across London have been involved with BigLop over the past year, exploring the Olympic theme and providing a participatory space for children. Steve Moffitt, New Direction director "There's a disconnect between the arts and the education sector which will get more polarised. Bridging will allow us to make more activities and be coherent and consistent. With Biglop, we wanted to find value and get young people involved using the Olympic theme. As part of the bid, London made a commitment to young people but there are children not a mile away from the stadium who don't know what it is. But even if they can't go, they can understand what it's about and about where we live. Historically arts and education have worked in silos around art forms or funding. We're sharing knowledge and ideas. Though there's less money, in local authorities for example, if Newham can learn from something interesting happening in Hounslow then they need to have a conversation. A big challenge in working across different sectors is in language. Objectives might be the same but with each sector comes a different vocabulary. Preparing for what happens next is going to be challenging, especially as most Olympic cities have a dip after the games. We need to get better at arguing the importance of what we do. We haven't won that argument yet. The sector is complicated, messy, divided. It's about moving learning and people forward - it's not just about money. There are cuts, but compared to other sectors we've done quite well. The Arts Council's portfolio has hundreds of organisations who know what their funding arrangements are going to be until 2015. It's a good opportunity to regroup and re-articulate what we're doing and the way forward. We've been able to provide frameworks." Hannah Quigley , arts manager at Lambeth CLC, a social enterprise supporting schools in the borough in arts, culture and technology activities "We're not one of the five Olympic boroughs but BigLop is an exciting opportunity because it links us with the Olympic and Paralympic values. We work on a strategic and delivery level. We have 80 schools in Lambeth and a strong local network. Through our contacts we get schools in touch with arts opportunities and bespoke programmes like BigLop. Not every borough has an arts education organisation like us. We also bridge the language divide and help translate projects, for example balancing what schools can do and what arts organisations might want to do. Partnerships are so important as is using local knowledge and understanding, so projects are pitched at the right level; some schools have little experience and others a vast wealth of knowledge. We may need to help find a school with no experience which is ideal for a pilot project. Organisations like us will become more important in supporting local projects, because of the cuts." Peter Higgin , enrichment director at immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk, one of BigLop's 13 creative partners "We worked on a brief to see if the Olympics could be the biggest learning opportunity ever using a tangible connection between the schools, the public and area in which they live. We devised the fantastical and magical Space Invaders Agency , a fictional design agency with offices worldwide. A website introduced them to the agency and we sent them a body of research they'd need to do. One primary school explored the qualities of strength and made contact with a holocaust survivor who was a weightlifter. We've worked with universities, schools and organisations since 2008, but one of the big challenges for us was trying to deliver a high-level and high-quality immersive experience across 10 schools at the same time. Organisations like A New Direction are vitally important - they have a strong reputation in partnering schools and artists. Assessing quality across all 13 organisations and 140 schools must be challenging but we've come together throughout the planning process. Collaboration is more important than ever. We're very lucky in London but it's increasingly important for schools to know there are organisations to help them do that." Shermaine Slocombe , arts manager at Kidbrooke school, a specialist arts school working with Punchdrunk "Many of the Olympic values are the same as ours: excellence and respect for example. We were keen to work beyond the arts across all school subjects. Through the space invaders project our year eight group received a secret package and developed drama and design skills using role play. They still think they are working with an actual agency. I think it works better with primary as the magic is still there. Our school has a track record of working with outside organisations but getting pupils to study solidly together for three days was challenging. It will be up to individual schools to drive involvement but more experienced schools can disseminate knowledge to others through bridging organisations. As a specialist arts school, we know the arts are valued here but funding is tricky. But it's not always about money but imagination, innovation and resources. We want teachers to be adventurous in encouraging creative skills. One teacher who we shared our experiences has rewritten the humanities and drama curriculum - it's real, meaty stuff. Students can transfer those skills from subject to subject which they don't usually do. The big challenge is to get other subject teachers to be enthused and to see that value in cross-curricular learning." This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a Public Leaders Network member to get our weekly update direct to your inbox