Celebrating 20 years of arts,
culture and creativity in schools
Introduction
Celebrating 20 years of Artsmark
In July 2001, 377 schools were awarded their first ever Artsmark Award. Today, nearly 5000 schools and education settings are on their Artsmark journey - that’s 1.9 million children who are benefitting from being part of the Artsmark community.
After one of the most challenging years in history, there couldn’t have been a better time to take stock, reflect and celebrate the amazing creative achievements of children and young people across the country.
Take a look at our short film and feel free to use the resources we produced - they’ll be useful all year round!
Classroom resources
Young people across the country brought #Artsmark20 into their classrooms with resources exploring identity and what it meant to be them.
There were two resources, please feel free to still use these - one for Key Stages 1 & 2, another for Key Stages 3 & 4.
Story of You
Suitable for Key Stage 1 & 2
This resource encouraged children and young people to get talking about the brilliant ways we are all different. It’s full of practical and creative ideas to support identity through creativity, teaching how our own stories can help us to understand and connect to each other. Download it for free and share in your staff rooms!
Clues to You
Suitable for Key Stage 3 & 4
What do we mean by identity? How can we express ourselves through art? This #Artsmark20 resource is designed to support pupils to explore themselves through creativity and reflect on their own ‘story’. From creating self-portraits to producing short films, there something to get everyone’s creative juices flowing!
Day to Create and libraries
Day to Create
Check out what we got up to on 6 July 2022 for the biggest creative day of the year.
Your school library matters
We’ve lined up all sorts of ways young people can show their library some love.
Artsmark 20 activities
Artsmark20 kicked off in November with Artsmark Celebration Week. Watch the highlights from the week here.
Here are the other things we got up to celebrating #Artsmark20…
Submit your #Artsmark20 story and we’ll share it here
Take it to the classroom: activities to try with your pupils
Shout from the rooftops: social media resources and more
My #Artsmark20 stories
Creating the perfect whole-school environment to inspire a love of reading
Race Leys Junior School's environment is very bespoke, with each communal area focusing on a classic children's book such as Harry Potter, or JM Barry's Peter Pan. Find out how they redesigned the school environment to improve a love of reading for pupils.
In just under three months, The Victory Academy’s new librarian transformed their awkward, unloved library into an inclusive and vibrant space where children now feel welcome and safe. We speak to their Head of English, Layla Steeples, and librarian Jo Gallant about their vision.
Artswork share practical resources to help teachers lead creative workshops focused on three different activities; creating a vegetable orchestra, lyric/song-writing and spoken word performance
The Bridge organisation for the South West, Real Ideas, spoke to a primary and middle school about the epic journeys they've been on to inspire an arts revolution in their schools.
St Paul's Juniors' Artsmark journey began as a means of getting accreditation for their arts provision. However, they soon began to see opportunities to improve, specifically pursuing more meaningful collaborations across departments.
The Rotherham Artsmark Consortium group is bringing together schools to collaborate in new ways, make unexpected connections and help arts education thrive in South Yorkshire.
My #Artsmark20 story: creating positive, inclusive, confidence-building experiences for young people
Ellesmere College, an SEND setting in the East Midlands, used Artsmark as a way to deepen their knowledge and expertise, drawing on the talents of its specialist staff to create positive, inclusive, confidence-building experiences for its students.
This CPD video video from Artsmark Partner, The Drama Geezers, introduces you to some quick and fun Drama activities to try out with your students.
Despite the challenges various lockdowns posed, Christ Church were thrilled to see how well parents engaged with online learning and getting more involved with their children’s education.
Having worked to consolidate their Artsmark Gold Award in 2015, achieved Platinum in 2017 and then again in 2019, Newminster Middle School have reapplied to continue their Artsmark journey this year... but why?
