Arts Award in Libraries: Brighton & Hove

The People Brighton & Hove Libraries

Coldean Primary School

Mile Oak Primary School

Portslade Alridge Community Academy

Georgia Metaxas (artist)

Jon Mills (artist)

Collected Works CIC

The Project In the summer of 2014, Artswork supported Brighton and Hove Libraries to work in partnership with local artists and creative educators to deliver a series of Arts Award activities. The aim was to engage more children and young people with the library service, develop the libraries’ schools engagement

programme, and help the children and young people involved to achieve an Arts Award Discover qualification. In addition to this, the support enabled the library service to train three more staff as Arts Award advisers and improve the longer-term sustainability of the service, to deliver Arts Award.

Three different activities were supported:

We aimed to engage more children and young people with the library

service and develop Brighton & Hove Libraries schools engagement

programme, while supporting participants in their Arts Award

Discover journey.

1. Pop-Up Chatterbooks children’s book clubs

In partnership with Collected Works CIC, pop-up book clubs were established in Hove Library and Jubilee Library in Brighton city centre. The children who attended were able to work at their own pace and explore reading in new ways.

2. Storytelling and character creation activities

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.

3. Mr. Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal

Mile Oak Library invited local artist Jon Mills into the library and arranged for pupils from Mile Oak Primary School to attend. Using Jon Mills’ character as a reference point, the pupils were encouraged to explore the library and its related stock, as well as an exhibition of Jon Mills’ work. The project also related to World Book Day celebrations, enabling pupils to discover book and experience the joy of reading firsthand.

Successes • The pop-up book clubs built the children’s

confidence in reading and they were able to share their experiences of books together. It helped to bring together children of all academic abilities, and from a range of schools across the borough. All of the children who submitted their Arts Award Discover work received the award and celebrated this achievement. Chatterbooks created a place for children from across schools to come together.

• By working with local primary schools, the libraries were able to demonstrate added value as part of their schools offer, as well as building on existing school engagement work.

The pop-up book clubs built the children’s confidence in reading and they were able to share their experiences of books together. It

brought together children of all academic abilities and from a range

of schools across the borough.

• Working in partnership with local artists and organisation who already had an understanding of Arts Award really benefited the delivery of the activities. Pupils were enthused about reading and discovering new books, and it helped the libraries enrich and develop their schools’ engagement programme.

• Staff with different skills and levels of experience across different locations became involved in a service-wide project – this helped explore the potential provided by Arts Award, and allowed for the piloting of new ways of working.

• Having a new offer to approach schools with was very positive for ongoing schools engagement activity. We welcomed both

children and teachers who were not already accessing our services.

• Being able to use the library space for creative activity changed perceptions, including those of staff working within the service itself.

• 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.

Challenges • It took time to coordinate school pupil data

with the Arts Award system, but this could have been overcome with more time being factored in at the planning stages.

• Newly trained Arts Award advisers were learning how best to deliver the Award and what aspects of library activities could be used towards it – through more activities of this kind, their confidence will be able to grow.

• At times, managing the expectations of these children involved could also be a challenge. There was so much enthusiasm for the pop-up book club

Having a new offer to approach schools with was very positive for our ongoing schools engagement

activity. We welcomed children and teachers who were not already

accessing our services.

sessions that it was difficult to bring them to a conclusion!

How might the project influence how you approach or deliver similar work in the future? It was very helpful that one of the artists we worked with had experience of Arts Award as it 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.

It would also be good to match up any Arts Award Supporters and their offer with schools and other community groups wishing to explore the possibilities of working with local partners.

In relation to challenges, it would be ideal to build in more time to engage frontline library staff, enabling them to see the link between Arts Award and its potential for enhancing current library offers. This would also support staff engaging with the public and explain in understandable 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.

We would definitely encourage other libraries to use Arts Award as

part of their school engagement work. It is easy to work into what

you may already be doing and is a great way to engage with local arts

professionals too.

Credits Taken from: Project Evaluation by Lucy Castle, Brighton & Hove Libraries and an independent evaluation by Paddy McNulty

All images © Brighton & Hove Libraries

Edited by: Laura Lamb Artswork laura@artswork.org.uk www.artswork.org.uk