From Junior Print Club to Lego Robotics Club, Real Ideas has a variety of creative workshops to offer children across Ocean Studios and Market Hall. Since offering Arts Award Discover to children who attended Illuminate Festival in November 2021, the certificate is starting to make an appearance in our other workshops too! So why is that?

During Illuminate Festival 2021, over 230 children visited Market Hall in Devonport with their school to attend the Illuminate Immersive Worlds Workshop, and almost all of them left with Arts Awards! The aim of the workshop was to allow the children to re-create the underwater world, shown in the 360 immersive dome, in the Market Hall’s event space using just light, sound and a few props. The children learnt about shadows and how to create an atmosphere with colour, as well as developing skills in critical thinking and design.

Everyone had a wonderful time and the feedback from teachers was fantastic, but we wanted to add further value to the workshops, leaving the children with something tangible for their contribution.

Arts Award Discover was the perfect recognition for this; each child received a certificate from Trinity for their engagement in the activity and their contribution to the artistic process of creating an underwater world, which focused on climate change. As well as building on their team work skills, these children were able to walk away with an award; something they can recognise as an achievement for their creativity.

With the positive impact Arts and Culture have on wellbeing and progress, allowing children to gain a qualification in this area can boost their confidence, as well as the award adding value to an activity! Throughout May Half Term, we are offering 100 funded Arts Award places for children aged 4-12 who take part in our Junior Print Club at Ocean Studios, or our Seeds for Plymouth Immersive Wildflower Experience at Market Hall.

Find out more about our half term programme here, and if you working in education or are a home educator, you can keep up to date with Arts and Culture opportunities for children, young people and educational settings by signing up to our Educators’ Newsletter here.

You can find out more about Arts Award and the levels they offer here.