Ten arts organisations have been offered up to £30,000 each to develop innovative approaches to learning through Glow, thanks to a dynamic partnership project between Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) and the Scottish Arts Council.
In September 2009, the Co-Create Project invited Scottish Arts Council-funded arts organisations to link up with new media companies and local authorities to develop inspiring new projects and resources for Glow, the Scottish schools intranet.
The project received 37 applications for funding from across Scotland, of which ten have been selected by an assessment panel made up of local authority officers, classroom practitioners and representatives from LTS, the Scottish Arts Council and RM, the solution provider for Glow.
The successful partnerships will now go on to deliver pioneering and ambitious demonstration projects which will pilot new ways of learning and teaching. The projects selected will be implemented all over Scotland and represent a wide range of art forms. Successful projects include ‘State of Emergency’, a project which will help pupils to create online dramas broadcast ‘live’ from a fictional country in conflict to explore dilemmas and themes associated with war. Another project seeks to bring together mainstream and disengaged primary pupils and their teachers, learning across the curriculum through traditional arts and new media.
Marie Dougan, Director of Learning and Technology at LTS, said:
“I’m delighted that we received such a great response from the arts and technology communities for the Co-Create Project funding.
Glow is proving to be an invaluable tool in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and I’m looking forward to seeing the fantastic ideas put into practice to illustrate the key role that the arts play in supporting this.”
Joan Parr, Head of Education, Scottish Arts Council said:
“The quality and scope of projects chosen as part of this exciting new fund is testament to the passion and creativity of Scotland’s education and arts sectors.
Each of these projects, aside from encouraging new collaborations, recognise the important role the arts can play in learning; both in supporting and enhancing the implementation of curriculum for excellence and developing new and innovative approaches to learning and teaching through Glow. We are very excited to see how these projects and partnerships influence and shape the future of arts and education interaction.”
Co-Create projects will take place throughout 2010 and will represent all art forms and engage with a cross section of age levels and target user groups in schools across Scotland.
The ten successful organisations are as follows:
- Citizens Theatre
- Drake Music Scotland
- Fèis Rois Ltd
- Horsecross Arts
- Imaginate
- NVA
- Street Level Photoworks
- Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre
- Visible Fictions
- Y-Dance
Co-Create's contribution to enriching the range of educational activity that can be accessed from creative and cultural organisations by schools through Glow, was discussed at a seminar on 15 December 2009, hosted by Fiona Hyslop and Keith Brown, Ministers for Culture and External Affairs and Schools and Skills, respectively. The overall focus of the seminar was to explore fresh ways to bring more culture and creativity into the curriculum; it was attended by bodies from the education and culture sectors.