We’d appreciate if you would share this widely among local educators and your own networks:

For teachers, youth leaders and homeschoolers, planning something different to enhance well-being and skills in your learners in 2022, research from the Cultural Learning Alliance shows that young people (and all of us!) really benefit from cultural engagement.

To help with your planning for 2022, here’s a step-by-step guide from Helen O’Hara, the new Culture Challenge Manager at Bedford Creative Arts:

1. Try out The Culture Challenge activities using the Culture Checklist. Use it as an auditing tool to identify gaps in the cultural life of your class, group or whole school, to generate ideas for new activities, and to spark discussions about culture and communities. It covers music and performance, arts and crafts, heritage, nature and adventure – there is something for everybody to explore.
2. Browse creative and cultural opportunities from providers in Bedford Borough and Central Beds on The Culture Challenge website. You can search ourProviders’ directory by theme, postcode or keyword. This will bring up descriptions of offers to schools and young people; an indication of costs; safeguarding and liability insurance information; and referees that you can contact. You can contact these providers directly with any queries and make bookings with them – all the key information is at your fingertips.
3. Are you booking a visit or workshops from providers on this website? If so, we still have funding to allocate in the form of The Culture Challenge Vouchers of several £100s. The vouchers can go to Bedford Borough and Central Beds schools working with our creative directory providers. These must be applied for up to 31 March 2022, but some activity can take place afterwards and with Covid there is some flexibility. Send in an outline of your booking and request an application form
4. Check out Arts Award, a national scheme with recognised qualifications. It’s useful for helping young people to investigate a range of art forms, recognising achievement, and monitoring their own progress. The Culture Challenge is designed to support Arts Awards by identifying Arts Award supporters and advisors to help you deliver and assess the qualification in our directory.
5. Going further in this journey can lead to Artsmark, a flexible framework to help you embed arts, culture and creativity across your whole curriculum, celebrating your commitment to cultural education.

Why not make a New Year’s resolution to inject the gift of creativity into your young people and ignite some sparks of inspiration? Have a Happy New Year 2022!