Camden Arts Centre 

Inspiring creativity through accessible art workshops

Thanks to a new project from Camden Arts Centre, more children will have the opportunity to explore their creativity. Our grant of £57,193 is funding a series of artist-led workshops for mainstream and Special Education Needs (SEN) schools.

Opportunities for young people with a learning disability to take part in creative learning outside school are scarce. Our partnership with Camden Art Centre is helping change this. A team of artists, including one learning-disabled artist, are hosting collaborative workshops at two schools for 11-to-19-year olds with a range of learning disabilities, including profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). The workshops encourage confidence and independence and champion all forms of communication and self-expression. The work produced will be shown at an exhibition at Camden Arts Centre. The wider school communities will also benefit from a ‘School Takeover’ day to celebrate the artwork produced.

60 young people will benefit from the SEN Schools Programme – 20 pupils will take part in the workshops, and another 40 will benefit from School Takeover events.
Around 450 pupils from two state schools will benefit from the mainstream Schools Programme.
In 2019-20 (the last full operating year pre-pandemic), Camden Arts Centre engaged 13,975 people across their learning and public programmes.

Community, compassion and connection

The mainstream Schools Programme will work with one primary and one secondary school – in Camden and in the Arts Centre’s neighbouring borough of Brent. All sessions will involve gardening, drawing and conversations while exploring themes of community, compassion and cultivating connection.

As well as enjoying creativity and gaining confidence, the workshops aim to empower young people to consider art and the creative industries as further education or career choices.

“Our learning programmes aim to discover, engage and support the next generation of artists and arts audiences. An integral part of nurturing this passion for art is working in long-term partnerships with local state schools, targeting those schools with pupil intakes less likely to have accessed the visual arts, visited an art gallery or participated in contemporary art projects.

Ambitious artist-led creative learning projects of this kind are over and above state school’s normal art provision. They simply wouldn’t happen outside of their partnership with Camden Art Centre.”

Neil Debnam, Head of Development, Camden Art Centre

Barbican Centre Trust

Teachers and artists are coming together to rethink how the national curriculum is taught, using the principles of curiosity, creativity and compassion.

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Access to Opportunity