Press Release

27/6/2007

Salford Schools unite to stage creativity festival

Pupils and teachers from eight Salford primary schools are working together to create a spectacular two-day festival at The Lowry on 5 - 6 July. Over the two days teachers, artists and hundreds of pupils will animate The Lowry with drama, music, film and visual art.

'Can You Imagine... The Children's City' has been developed by Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford in partnership with The Lowry. The festival celebrates the creative imaginations of Salford children and involves over 600 pupils, 30 teachers and 8 artists.

Creative Partnerships works to give school children throughout England the opportunity to develop their potential, their ambition, their creativity and imagination through sustainable partnerships with creative and cultural organisations, businesses and individuals.

Now in its third year, the festival has developed into a vibrant weeklong mix of shared learning and celebration of children's creativity and imagination. The festival returns again this summer with a vibrant week of performances, exhibitions, inspiring workshops and training sessions.

This year we have asked the question: 'Can you Imagine... The Children's City'. Eight Salford primary schools - Ellenbrook Primary School, Seedley Primary School, Monton Green Primary School, Cadishead Primary School, Lewis Street Primary School, St Mary’s CE Primary School, St Mary's RC Primary School, St Philip's Primary School - have developed The Children's City based on the ideas supplied by the children. The children and teachers worked with creative practitioners to develop the Children's City in six workshops tailored to the children's ideas. The culmination of the project is a vibrant city that will surprise and delight the visitor who dares to enter. The children will be opening up the city for two days to allow visitors to interact with the city and its inhabitants through visual media, performances and hands-on activities.

The Festival Launch will take place on Tuesday 3 July with a special introduction to the festival from Nancy Barrett, Director of Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford, John Stephens, Deputy Director for Salford Children’s Services, Steve Pickett, Halle Education Director and Paul Mayers, Lead Artist for the Children’s City. Young people from St Philips RC Primary, Crab Lane Primary and Langworthy Road Primary in partnership with The Hallè will perform a performance of 'Kikimora', a musical poem from a Russian fairy tale. The schools have been working with players from the Hallè in creating their own individual interpretations of the Russian fairytale.

Nancy Barrett, Creative Director of Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford says, 'We’ve seen a wealth of ideas developed by young people and their teachers so far. The outcome of the work will be a unique work-in-progress where the young people will be able to share and showcase their creative imaginations with each other and children from Salford schools'.

Notes for editors

Creative Partnerships
Creative Partnerships is the first joint creative education programme supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills and is managed by Arts Council England.

Creative Partnerships works in 36 regions across England

Creative Partnerships recognises and builds on exciting and culturally relevant creative learning opportunities for young people. It has the support of both the creative and cultural sectors and is regarded as the blueprint for the ways in which our children can be educated to embrace the challenges of living and working in the 21st century.
www.creative-partnerships.com
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Since 2002, Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford has worked with over 2,000 young people, 130 creative organisations and individuals and over 500 teachers in 26 schools. The programmes of creative activities puts the development of young people’s imagination and ideas at the heart of their learning process.

Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford aims to enhance the achievement, motivation, creative skills and employability of young people, helping them to respond successfully to future life challenges and become active citizens of our creative cities.

·We support the development and delivery of high quality, evidenced - based creative activities, which take place across the whole school and curriculum.
·We develop and support projects that, through consultation with young people themselves, are relevant and motivational and put the development of their imagination and ideas at the heart of their learning process.
·We aim to facilitate and contribute to networks and events, to share the learning and models from our programmes widely across the education, creative and cultural sectors and to promote discussion, debate and collaboration, opening up new resources and further opportunities for creative learning for young people.

Between 2005 – 2008, we will work to build upon and develop a legacy for these programmes so that the Creative Partnerships approach can continue to benefit young people in the future; enabling them to have a wide variety of creative experiences and opportunities and to play an active role in their communities and the cultural life of their cities.
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Creative Partnerships Manchester Salford

Lead Schools and Cultural Sectors currently involved in the programme:
Lead Schools partners 2006: SALFORD: (4 lead primary), St Mary’s RC Primary, Eccles; Ellenbrook Primary; St Philips RC Primary School; Seedley Primary School; (4 lead secondaries), Chatsworth High School, Oakwood High School; St Ambrose Barlow RC Technology College; St Patrick’s High School MANCHESTER (2 lead primary), Medlock Primary School; Chorlton Park Primary (4 lead secondary), Barlow RC High School; Chorlton High School; Newall Green High School for the Arts; Melland High School in Gorton. Lead Schools will act as a network to share practice across Manchester and Salford children’s services areas.

Cultural Sector partners: Contact Theatre; Greater Manchester Music Action Zone; The Hallè Orchestra; The Lowry; The Royal Exchange Theatre; Spearfish; WFA Media and Cultural Centre and Lets Go Global: Whitworth Art Gallery.
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The Lowry
The Lowry provides art, education and entertainment for all. Whether you are a primary, secondary or further education teacher, The Lowry has a programme to suit your needs. In addition to educational materials, familiarisation visits and school tours we can also provide you with a public space for your group to perform.
www.thelowry.com

Artists
The following dance, drama and visual artists have been involved in Salford Schools Creativity Festival:

Paul Mayers (Lead Artist), Leigh Gardner, Clare Bleasdale, Isobel Pickup, Sumit Sakar, Johnny Woodhams, Alan Birch, Hafsah Naib and Jim Medway

Contact details

For media enquiries relating to Creative Partnerships, please contact:
Claire O'Brien
T: 0161 838 5648
Email: claire.o’brien@creative-partnerships.com