Search for Creative Professionals to aid Northumberland Schools
11 Nov 2008
Students take part in 'Space to Think'
Area Delivery Organisation: Creative Partnerships Northumberland, Newcastle & Gateshead
Schools across Northumberland are appealing for individuals and organisations to help them find their creative spark, as part of a new initiative from Creative Partnerships.
A total of 47 schools across the region are looking to contract experienced creative practitioners to assist them in the successful completion of two new Creative Partnership programmes, each designed to develop the skills of young people and inject more creativity into the curriculum.
Interest will be welcomed from individuals and organisations in all business sectors, not just the arts, with award-winning Newcastle-firm Napper Architects being one of the first to sign-up.
From September, 22 schools across the region embarked on a new Creative Partnerships Change School programme, an intensive one to three year initiative designed to enable schools with significant challenges to enhance the creative development of the whole school.
25 other local schools begun the Creative Partnerships Enquiry Schools programme, which will see them engage in a one-year creative learning programme targeted at specific groups of pupils and teachers.
Depending on the school’s particular project, the work is could amount to anything between one day and several months work across the school year from September 2008 to summer 2009. Each Creative PractitionerAgent will be contracted by theto a particular school involved and will be paid accordingly.
Sarah Burn of Creative Partnerships Northumberland, said: “We believe that creativity is about taking an innovative and imaginative approach to problem solving and is not something which is restricted solely to the arts.
“As such, we are looking for the representatives from all manner of creative industries, from education and science, to engineering, design and the environment, to help steer these schools in their development programmes.
“All we ask is that our practitioners agents are creative in their everyday personal and work life and are enthusiastic about sharing their experiences with the region’s young people”
One of the first businesses to sign up as a creative agent is Napper Architects based in Newcastle’s Waterloo Square. The firm was recently involved in Creative Partnership’s’ ‘This is My Place’ project, when they helped 80 Year 9 students from Prudhoe High School to develop ways of improving their school environment.
After spending several months working together, Napper Architects and the students put forward a number of ideas for improving the school interior and exterior and staff are currently raising fund to implement the proposals.
Graham Dodd, Managing Director of Napper Architects, the first firm to sign up, added: “As part of Creative Partnerships we have the chance to work directly with young people and learn to understand their needs and concerns in a completely different way from our existing experience within school design projects.
“Previous assignments like this have proven both informative and rewarding, with our staff also benefiting from working in a teaching environment, that requires completely different skills from the standard day job.”
The 47 schools involved in the Change and Enquiry programmes will be asked to choose their own creative practitionersagent from all of those expressing an interest e applications received and will then contact that individual or organisation directly.
For more information or to express an interest request an application form, please email info.northumberland@creative-partnerships.com.
