About Arts Award
Arts Award is a range of unique qualifications that supports anyone aged up to 25 to grow as artists and arts leaders, inspiring them to connect with and take part in the wider arts world through taking challenges in an art form – from fashion to digital art, pottery to poetry.
Offered at five different levels, young people get to: discover the enjoyment of creating and participating in any art form, develop their creativity and leadership skills, learn new skills and share them with others, get to work with or experience working with creative arts professionals, gain experience and knowledge to progress into further education and employment.
To achieve their Arts Award, young people take on challenges in an art form, participate in arts activities, experience arts events, get inspired by artists and share their arts skills with others. Young people create a portfolio to keep a record of their creative journey. Along the way they are supported by an Arts Award adviser, acting as assessor, facilitator and mentor.
Find out moreArts Award at Real Ideas
Real Ideas has been a deliverer and advocate for Arts Award since its launch in 2005. We are proud to be an Arts Award Supporter, offering opportunities for young people to access high quality arts and cultural experiences that can help them to work towards their Arts Award journey. Our spaces, in particular Ocean Studios and the Market Hall, provide inspiring environments packed with exciting events and workshops for all.
Open to everyone, Ocean Studios hosts a wide range of creative workshops and events for all ages. From Pottery to Print there’s something for everyone! Our studios have specialist equipment, accessed via our membership, giving artists the chance to access the tools they need to improve their creative practice. Our workshops open up this space for resident artists to share their talents and teach others, why not book a workshop and pick up a new skill? All of these activities can be used as evidence to support your Arts Award at different levels.
Home to an awe-inspiring 15m immersive dome, the first of its kind in Europe – the Market Hall offers experiences at the cutting edge of immersive tech. Open to everyone, and with a wide range of events and experiences for all the family, the dome invites you to explore immersive realities without the need for a VR headset. The Market hall also offers educational immersive experiences and workshops for all ages and abilities, many of which can be used to evidence creative practice for Arts Award.
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Get Involved
Whatever art form you’re interested in, whatever your ability, Arts Award fits you.
You can do an Arts Award in any area of the arts from fashion to poetry, rapping to dancing, sculpture to film. You can be an artist or performer or develop your skills in essential roles like marketing or stage management.
To get going you need to work with an Arts Award centre and an Arts Award Adviser, who will support you and assess your work. The best place to look is the Arts Award Centre Map.
If there are no centres near you then you can get in touch with us to see if we know of anyone that you could work with, or you can contact the Arts Award help desk: artsawardenquiries@trinitycollege.co.uk
There is a lot of really useful information to tell you more about Arts Award and support you on your journey on the Arts Award Voice website here.
Discover at Home
Discover at Home enables children to be rewarded for the creative activities they enjoy and supports them to connect with their local museums, theatres and arts activities they like, online or at home, and explore new ones.
Discover at Home is a fantastic way to keep children engaged in the arts and creativity while they are at home. With easy to follow guidance and lots of suggestions for arts, craft and creative activities, Discover at Home is a great option for parents & carers who may not be arts specialists themselves or are looking for something different to keep children engaged and entertained.
Trinity College London has developed a resource pack to enable families to engage with Discover at Home.
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Delivering Arts Award
Young people work towards their awards using Arts Award centres as a base, in addition to working independently.
Centres can be set up in a wide variety of different places, from arts organisations to schools, pupil referral units, youth clubs and community centres. In fact, an Arts Award centre can be any setting that supports children and young people taking part in the arts.
Every Arts Award centre is registered with Trinity College London and must have at least one trained Arts Award adviser. Arts Award advisers are key to the success of Arts Award. They support children and young people working towards their awards, acting as mentors, facilitators and primary assessors.
Becoming an Arts Award centre is a great way to:
- Enable young people to work towards a national qualification
- Kick-start a new arts project
- Develop your existing work with young people through the Arts Award framework
- Engage more young people in the arts and challenge them to develop their creativity and leadership skills
Running Arts Award can contribute towards your school or organisation achieving Artsmark.
Book Arts Award adviser training to start your journey here, or get in touch with us to find out more.
Get in touchI’m not ready to deliver but I would like to support others who are doing their Arts Award
Organisations bearing the Arts Award Supporter badge offer activities, events, expertise or resources which help young people working towards their Arts Award. Being a Supporter helps you to develop links with young people, schools and youth groups.The Supporter programme works best when you think of it as part of both your marketing and your education programme. It needs to link closely with your work for young people and schools, and your marketing team should be involved in using Supporter to help you take your work to new audiences.
Registering as an Arts Award Supporter is free and you don’t need to have a trained Arts award adviser at your organisation, though it is helpful if you can spend some time learning about Arts award – we can support you with this and to map the different levels against your provision.
There’s more information about how to register as an Arts Award Supporter here, or you can get in touch with us for support on mapping your offer to Arts Award.
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