Curious Minds

Welcome to a Curious Future

Curious Minds to lead an ambitious new programme of development for arts, culture and creativity with children, young people and their families 

Arts Council England (ACE) today (30 March 2011) announced their funding decisions for England’s new ‘National Portfolio Organisations’.

The North West charity Curious Minds is pleased to announce that Arts Council England has chosen the organisation to become one of ten new national 'Bridge Organisations' for arts and cultural work with children and young people.

The new 'Bridge Organisation' will help make a rich range of arts and cultural experiences more joined-up and accessible for children, young people and their families. Particular emphasis will be placed on:

• making available to children and young people, as well as their parents, carers and teachers, up-to-date information on opportunities for participation in the arts in their local area
• harnessing the power of the arts to underpin the teaching of different parts of the curriculum in schools
• encouraging young people to pursue employment and self-employment within the fast-growing creative industries and to become the artists of the future
• ensuring that children and young people who face particular challenges or who experience severe economic disadvantage can nonetheless take part and create their own work

Curious Minds is a charity and social enterprise  that has, since 2002, delivered a number of acclaimed programmes across the North West designed to improve the lives of children and young people by increasing opportunities for their active participation in arts, culture and creative learning - both in and outside of school. A central belief of the organisation is that it is everyone’s right to have the opportunity to realise their creative potential, developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to contribute fully to society and lead positive and productive lives.

As a partnership organisation - summed up in its strapline: 'enabling creative collaboration' - Curious Minds will be working hard to help the region's arts and cultural sector for children and young people to thrive  in challenging times, including:

•  working with partners to improve the quality of arts programmes for children, young people and their families - seeking out and celebrating excellence and offering networking and training opportunities for artists attracting more investment for life-transforming creative work with children and young people in the North West
• facilitating the establishment of new working partnerships between arts and cultural organisations and a range of other partners.

 

Chris May, Curious Minds Chief Executive commented today:

We are delighted to learn of our success in becoming a strategic partner to Arts Council England. Across the North West a vibrant community of organisations and individuals has a strong reputation for developing exciting work with children and young people.  Our aim will be to work effectively with these partners to create and enhance mechanisms which enable young people to be part of the cultural landscape as cultural producers and decision makers in ways that ensure their talents and achievements are spotted and celebrated; progression routes into employment in the creative industries are made easier; and that children and young people have a genuine voice in the planning, delivery and evaluation of services. In the year to come, as we prepare for this new role, our job will be to listen carefully to the views of our partners so that we can be clear about how we can best work together to create exciting and  sustainable provision that makes a very real difference in children and young people’s lives.”

 

The new Bridge Organisation's programme will come into full effect in April 2012 but work begins immediately on an interim year in which Curious Minds will build on its already strong presence in the region, strengthening   relationships with and between schools, arts organisations, artists and other strategic bodies in the North West and getting a better sense of the job that needs to be done.