New Funding: Global Curiosity

Creative and cultural education charity, Curious Minds, is today celebrating a new international alliance with European partners, after securing funding for its ‘Global Curiosity’ cultural learning programme.

The funding will help to develop a best practice model for arts-based youth work that tackles global issues, spanning national boundaries to encourage a spirit of enquiry, empathy and democracy amongst hundreds of young people – the global citizens of the future.

A group of 24 arts-based youth workers and educators from the UK, Greece and Poland will undertake a short transnational exchange programme, through which they will visit all three countries, share best practice, collaborate on research and create new resources to support effective delivery of global youth work. The insights gained from this cultural exchange will then be taken and disseminated through networks at home to reach as many young people as possible.

The funding for the Global Curiosity project has been secured through Erasmus+ - the European Union's programme to support education, training, youth and sport.

Commenting on the award, Caz Brader, Deputy CEO of Curious Minds said:

“The UK leaves the European Union tonight but, at Curious Minds, our union with Europe has never looked stronger. We are so happy that this funding will allow us to build even deeper relationships between North West colleagues and our friends in Greece and Poland.

“This project comes a time when it has never been more important that we support young people to challenge assumptions about ‘other’ people from diverse countries, cultures, background with curiosity; to navigate fake news; to be critical consumers of the media and to engage with democracy. All arts organisations and youth workers have a responsibility to think about how we build bridges strong enough to keep our young people connected to a wider world. The Global Curiosity project is a key first step in this process.”