Arts Award introduces Discover at Home

When lockdown was announced, the team at Arts Award quickly realised that a new way of supporting our wonderful community of advisers, centres and supporters would be needed. So many elements of Arts Award have previously been delivered through hands-on, lived experiences – including museum visits and opportunities offered throughout arts and cultural organisations. With these buildings closed for the foreseeable future, we wanted to create something which lets children continue to engage with their local museums and arts organisations, and helps keep them creative at home – often with families who may not be confident supporting their children with arts education. We also wanted to have something for organisations to use to encourage families to continue to interact with them, with the ambition being that this will help build visits back up when social distancing is behind us. Thus Discover at Home was born!

Discover at Home

Discover at Home is a special version of Arts Award Discover, the first level of Arts Award. Arts Award is a set of awards for children and young people aged 25 and under that gets them involved in and excited about arts and culture and celebrates their creative achievements. This unique qualification is managed by Trinity College London in association with Arts Council England in England and is normally available across the UK through schools and centres that offer arts activities. Discover at Home is aimed at children aged 11 and under and will be available throughout the summer and until the end of the autumn term (and possibly beyond).

The set of resources for families to use at home has expert support provided regionally in England by Arts Council England’s Bridge Organisations. We have been working closely with the ten regional Arts Council England Bridge Organisations, and together they have curated regional offers so that children and their families can continue to connect with the arts and culture in their area.

Our free downloadable pack is designed to enable anyone to support a child or young person through their Discover at Home journey, even if they aren’t familiar with Arts Award.

We have provided detailed guidance for parents & carers looking to complete Discover at Home, along with suggestions of online activities and resources to complete. We have also provided guidance for Arts Award centres who may be looking to deliver Arts Award Discover in this way.

We are keen to signpost online opportunities and offers from museums nationwide to add to our growing bank of activity – so do let us know if we can signpost to your offer.

 

Additional support from Arts Award at this time

As well as Discover at Home, we have been supporting our community in a range of other ways. The Arts Award blog is being regularly updated with lots of great content and ideas to support delivery remotely. We have also been running weekly webinars exploring how other people have adapted their plans to take into account the current situation. Our recorded session with Alison Bowyer, Executive Director at Kids in Museums may be of particular interest.

We know it is tough for the arts and cultural sector right now, but we hope that Discover at Home is something which can be used to help keep families engaged, looking forwards to when times will be better. If we can support your Arts Award plans, or if you have any questions about Discover at Home, please do get in touch.

 

Annabel Thomas is Arts Development Manager at Trinity College London, supporting organisations to run Trinity’s range of arts qualifications (including Arts Award) in the UK and Ireland, as well as leading on partnership development across all sectors. Follow Arts Award @ArtsAward and Annabel @ArtsEdAnny

6 July 2020