Press Release

17/2/2005

Successful national initiative comes to Derby schools

Derby school children will soon benefit from an innovative scheme for schools when Creative Partnerships launches in the city next month (March). Managed by Arts Council England and jointly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), Creative Partnerships works to give school children the opportunity to develop their creativity, imagination and potential by initiating long-term, sustainable partnerships between schools and creative and cultural professionals, to establish ways of enriching the national curriculum.

Creative Partnerships is a national programme and, in other parts of the country, has successfully brought together schools and creative and cultural professionals to produce projects as varied and imaginative as the creation of an award winning sensory garden, making electronic games for children in a local hospital, and the inventive contribution to the design and build of a school through combining art and architecture.

In Derby, Creative Partnerships will team many of the city’s school children with the creative wealth of the area. Designers, artists, architects and museums are just some of the types of individuals and organisations who will all play their role in helping to enliven and enrich the national curriculum.

Initially, 15 of the city’s schools will spearhead the project, and Creative Partnerships will work alongside head teachers to agree how the initiative could best benefit their pupils. Creative Partnerships will then initiate partnerships between creative and cultural professionals to develop creative approaches right across the curriculum. Once these programmes are established, there will be opportunities for schools across Derby to share in the work.

Centrally based in the Derby Dance Centre , the Creative Partnerships’ four-strong team is led by Caroline Barth, creative director, whose background in theatre and education (as head of education at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, and education and outreach manager at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, Essex), perfectly equips her for the role.

“This initiative introduces a unique way of working with schools and school children, and we aim to really capture imaginations by connecting them to inspiring organisations, businesses and individuals, to bring out the very best in them. I believe creativity is something we’re all born with and it’s not just about the arts. Creativity can be used as an exciting approach to making teaching and learning more alive and relevant to young people! We’ve seen some fantastic work from other groups across the country, and I’ve no doubt that the school children of Derby will create many brilliant projects too,” commented Caroline Barth.

Our picture shows the Creative Partnerships team (left to right): Tracey Callinan, creative programmer, Judith Lamzed, operations manager, Caroline Barth, creative director, and Katherine Barnard, team assistant.

Notes for editors

Photographer: Nick Cutts, Creative Agent, Creative Partnerships Derby

Creative Partnerships aims to foster effective, sustainable partnerships between schools and the widest possible range of cultural and creative professionals, in order to deliver high quality cultural and creative opportunities for young people to develop their learning, both across and beyond the formal curriculum

Creative Partnerships works with schools in areas selected by Government ministers from a list of the most socially and economically challenged neighbourhoods

It is co-funded by the DCMS and DfES and by the end of 2004/05 will have received £114.5 million of new government money

Creative Partnerships have been established in 25 areas of the country, including Derby, with plans to roll out to a total of 47

Contact details

For further information please contact:

Bettina Grant
Capella Communications
0115 981 2113 / 0789 996 4033

Caroline Barth
Creative Partnerships Derby
01332 204204