WIREDGOV

Arts Council England yesterday announced the 1,580 schools and other education settings across England that have been successful in achieving an Artsmark award.

You can read a full list of awards on the Artsmark website.

Artsmark is the national programme that enables schools, further education colleges and youth justice settings to evaluate, celebrate and strengthen a quality arts offer. The programme aims to support and recognise formal education institutions that deliver rich and high quality arts and cultural provision.

By achieving Artsmark, a school or education setting demonstrates its commitment to providing a high quality arts and cultural offer for children and young people. 

Greater focus on quality in a wider range of settings

This is the first application round since the programme was re-launched in September 2011 to include further education colleges and youth justice settings. The award has a greater focus on the quality of arts provision as well as the quantity.

This renewed emphasis on quality arts provision has been developed to support our 10-year goal of ensuring that every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts.

The latest round of applications reflected the wider range of settings that can apply, with 70 per cent of Founder Further Education Colleges taking advantage of their new eligibility for the programme by applying for Artsmark status.

Other changes to Artsmark include the streamlining of the programme to create two award distinctions: Artsmark and Artsmark Gold, with Artsmark now the equivalent of the old Artsmark Silver. 

Every young person experiencing the arts

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, said: 'The Arts Council has a long history of involvement in arts education and it's great to see schemes like Artsmark becoming an integral part of more and more school curriculums.

'We took some time last year to review Artsmark and listen to what schools and our other partners had to say about the programme and how we can improve it. The high number of applications from schools and other educational settings clearly illustrates how well received these changes were.

'This re-launched Artsmark programme will play a significant role in achieving our ambition of every young person in the country experiencing what the arts have to offer.'

The Arts Council recently announced that Trinity College London, which also manages Arts Award, had been successful in its application to become the national provider for the Artsmark scheme from September 2012.

Using the same provider for Artsmark and Arts Award will result in a more joined-up approach to delivering cultural education for children and young people, both in and out of school.