Inspiring children through the arts
Posted 20th May 2008 17:35pm
Rebecca Eastmond, Director, The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts
The work that we do at The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts is very simple but it can be transformational.
Recently, I sat in an audience of 1,600 10- and 11-year-olds in Blackpool, watching the world-class Philharmonia Orchestra perform live.
This concert marked the culmination of a project which has given generalist primary teachers skills and confidence in using classical music in the classroom and has given children the chance to work, in class, with some of the UK’s best musicians.
The children were initially excited, jumping up and down to see “their” musician on stage. After the excitement died down, they sat, transfixed, throughout. The feedback we have received from teachers and children speaks for itself:
“I felt quite emotional at the end, by the passion they all showed for music. I just wish I could have brought EVERYONE from my school with us! I wanted to put it in a bottle and give everyone a taste!!” Mrs Roberts, St John Vianney RC Primary School
“Dear Simon and Zara, Thank you very much for coming to school and playing the fantastic music that you played. It made me feel like I was in heaven.” Emmie, Stanley Primary School
“Dear Kevin, I loved your conducting. It made my heart blow away.” Dominic, Stanley Primary School
Children & the Arts provides a structure to the schools we work with that enables them to build a long-term relationship with an excellent cultural venue and means that the children involved develop a real sense that the venue belongs to them. When we stop working with a school we want to ensure that the teachers, the children and their parents know exactly how to carry on what we have started.
The relationship we foster between each school and its partner venue involves going to the venue, to see exhibitions or productions and finding out how it works behind the scenes. It involves giving teachers training opportunities that will help them lose any nervousness they have about using the arts and ensure that they get the best out of working with creative practitioners, musicians, artists or storytellers visiting the school and working with the children. It usually also involves a finale where the children can invite family members to the venue to see what they have been working on and it often provides discounted tickets, to encourage children and their parents to visit outside school time.
It costs us just £25 to work with a child and their teacher for a year and we are working with over 26,000 children in the current year. We want to do much more.
