12 Nov Sharing our work on children’s and youth arts with Nordic colleagues

Several of our projects have been getting attention from other countries keen to learn from our work.  In November we were invited by Kulturtanken the Norwegian youth and children’s cultural agency, to present at their national conference on ‘quality’ in publicly funded youth arts and culture.  The event was for arts and cultural practitioners from across the Nordic region.  Kulturtanken were particularly interested in understanding the work we have done with Arts Council England to develop and implement the framework of seven evidence-based “quality principles” for children’s and youth arts, now widely used by national agencies and local arts organisations across England:

• Striving for excellence and innovation.
• Being authentic.
• Being exciting, inspiring and engaging.
• Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience.
• Actively involving children and young people.
• Enabling personal progression.
• Developing belonging and ownership.

The conference was opened by Norway’s culture minister who stressed the links between arts and cultural education and the immense economic and social challenges faced by all developed nations around education and skills, social cohesion, creating rewarding employment for all, and supporting inclusive models of economic growth.

Kulturtanken also wanted to understand the relationship between the Quality Principles, and Arts Council England’s national Impact and Insight Toolkit which provides a single method for measuring the reactions to artistic work by audiences and artists.

Read more about our work on the Quality Principles here.

Image: Lars Opstad / Kulturtanken, Arts for Young Audiences Norway