Curious Minds

Bridge Organisation - Connecting young people with great arts and culture

 

Bridge Update

Curious Minds and the Bridge

We are one of ten regional Bridge organisations operating across the country and our remit from Arts Council, put very simply, is to connect young people across the North West with great art and culture. We have three main functions:

The first is to facilitate and support networks across the arts, culture and education. For us this is about disseminating information and resources, sharing great practice, and being solutions and action focused in our thinking. Our aim is to support and add value to existing infrastructures and to encourage a more joined up approach to arts and culture for young people both in and out of school.

The second function is more specific; to encourage and help schools and other educational settings to make sure their young people have access to and experience more quality arts opportunities. This is partly about advocating for the positive outcomes that engaging in the arts brings and for the strength of the arts as a vehicle for communicating messages and bringing the curriculum to life. But our role in working with schools is about much more than advocacy, it’s about actually connecting schools up with great arts providers and enabling them to work together in a meaningful way.

This brings us to the third key function of the Bridge, which is to help arts and cultural organisations get better at tailoring and bringing their offer to more children and young people, whether through connecting with more schools, becoming more family friendly, or connecting with traditionally hard to reach groups. At Curious Minds we don’t just want to attract the same children and young people to engage in more activity, we want to look at how we can engage new groups of children and young people in arts and culture for the first time and we also want to explore how the cultural experiences on offer can enable young people to be continually challenged and have the chance to progress and develop their interest and talents.

Regional Intelligence

One of our Arts Council Key Performance Indicators is to produce an annual report gathering and presenting intelligence on the current arts and cultural offer for young people in the North West. We used the recommendations from this year’s ‘State of the region’ report  as a kind of manifesto to help us plan the themes and priorities for the Bridge programme for the year ahead.

Henley Review – Museums, Film, Music and More....

Alongside the main Bridge programme we will soon receive additional funds directly from the Department for Education. This has been allocated in response to the Henley Review of Cultural Education and is designed to help us to incorporate a wider cultural footprint into our programme, not just working with arts organisations but also connecting more fully with museums, heritage settings, libraries, music hubs, Youth music, the film sector and the wider third sector with a focus on children and young people. The funds will also enable us to work in a more focused way with Teaching Schools and Alliances. The detail of this work is yet to be confirmed but we’re planning to set up some exciting initiatives partnering up Teaching Schools and cultural organisations, providing opportunities for networking and professional development such as mentoring and action learning.

To support our museums and heritage work we’re in the process of deploying a team of Curious Agents who will be auditing, mapping and reviewing the current museums and heritage offer across each sub region with a view to producing some exciting advocacy for schools. The format for this is still to be worked up but we’ve been describing it in the team as a kind of ‘rough guide’ for schools that uncovers the hidden gems and local resources that  schools can use to enrich the curriculum and facilitate learning outside the classroom.

Find out more about:

Information, communication and advocacy

Engagement

Achievement & Arts Award

Quality and Artsmark

Funding Advice

 

What is a Bridge

Curious Minds is part of a national network of 10 bridge organisations, funded by Arts Council England to use our experience and expertise to connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and culture.

The Arts Council believes that every child and young person should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture.

Bridge organisations facilitate networks and make sure there is an ongoing dialogue across the arts, culture and education 

Bridge organisations help educational settings, both formal and informal, identify and access arts and cultural opportunities

Bridge organisations help other arts and cultural organisations, including museums and libraries, to bring the cultural experiences that they offer to more children and young people

What do bridge organisations do?

Bridge organisations: 

build on the good practice already out there but will also establish a sound evidence base. Then they will build and facilitate networks across the arts, culture and education to make sure that there’s an ongoing dialogue 

help educational settings identify and access the right arts and cultural opportunities, and will help them to bring their views into local cultural planning. This work will build on the legacy of Creative Partnerships and Find Your Talent 

help National Portfolio Organisations and other arts and cultural organisations, including museums and libraries, bring the cultural experiences that they offer to more children and young people. Bridge organisations will help them to connect with schools and to identify opportunities for new commissions 

help National Portfolio Organisations and other arts and cultural organisations to identify investment opportunities from local authorities, local businesses, trusts and foundations – so that they can enhance the offer they make to children, young people and families 

develop the reach of arts and cultural experiences and the numbers of people engaging with them through Artsmark and Arts Award. They will help to balance the need for universal access to Artsmark and Arts Award with the targeted development of both schemes 

balance the need for universal access to Artsmark and Arts Award with the targeted development of both schemes support the Arts Council’s ambition to raise the quality of work for, by and with children and young people Arts Council England will play a facilitation role, consulting and working through National Portfolio Organisations and the wider sector to develop a shared understanding of how the quality of experience for children and young people and families can be judged 

support the work of the new Music Hubs and National Music Plan

What don't bridge organisations do? 

The Arts Council aren't expecting bridge organisations to directly deliver arts and cultural opportunities for children and young people as part of their role as a bridge. Bridge funding relates just to bridge activities.

Some bridge organisations also receive National Portfolio Funding to produce and present art.  Bridge organisations will continue to deliver arts opportunities to children and young people as part of their core business – distinct from their bridge role. 

Bridge organisation may help to deliver opportunities for children and young people with other agencies and organisations (for example by modelling or piloting ways of working that directly benefit other arts and cultural organisations) in order to increase the capacity and long-term sustainability of the sector.

The Curious Bridge Team

Curious Minds has gathered together some of the greatest, most curious, Minds, in the country to help the organisation deliver this role for you in the North West. They are:

Caz Brader - Director of Programmes

Caz leads the delivery of Curious Minds’ arts, cultural and creative programmes, including Arts Council England’s Bridge Organisation programme across the North West of England; ensuring that all children and young people in the region have access to quality arts and cultural learning activities

Kelly Allen - Bridge Coordinator: Engagement

Kelly’s role is to work with external partners to ensure ALL children and young people have access to high quality arts and cultural provision by identifying and removing barriers to participation in arts and cultural activity for children and young people most at risk of missing out.  She is tasked with:Working  with staff in educational, youth, cultural and community settings to increase the range and accessibility of opportunities available to children and young people to be creators, consumers, critics, commissioners and leaders of culture and arts across the region. Supporting inter- and cross-sector collaboration to improve the coherence of locality arts and culture offers by supporting and growing vibrant networks across arts, culture, education, health and regeneration.

Hannah Baldwin - Bridge Coordinator: Achievement

Hannah is working with partners across the North West to develop and promote exciting opportunities for children and young people to explore, connect and celebrate their artistic talent and achieve appropriate recognition and accreditation, especially in the form of Arts Award.  Hannah will seek out and co-ordinate opportunities for children and young people to produce, exhibit and perform their own work.

Alice Demba - Bridge Coordinator: Quality 

Alice is responsible for promoting, developing and celebrating quality and excellence within the North West’s arts and cultural offer for children and young people.  Alice provides advice, support and challenge to schools and other organisations looking to embed quality approaches to their work with children and young people.  She also helps them to identify and engage with appropriate quality assurance frameworks and ‘kitemarks’, especially Artsmark.

Glen Meskell - Bridge Coordinator: Communications    

Glen is responsible for:Gathering, processing and sharing information and intelligence on the North West's arts and cultural offer for children and young people, including how it is perceived and levels of participation Developing  and implementing a marketing and communications strategy for Curious Minds, our Bridge Organisation role and wider activitiesWorks with external partners to improve marketing, information provision and the innovative use of digital technology within the region's arts and cultural sector

The Bridge team will also be supported by other internal members of staff within Curious Minds, as well as partners and leaders from across the North West and further afield.

If you have any questions about Curious Minds Bridge work, or any of our other work, please contact 01282 435835 or email: info@curiousminds.org.uk