Five questions with... Louise Govier, CEO of Artswork

Artswork has empowered children and young people through arts and culture for the last 30 years. They aim to break through barriers and develop new ways for young people to discover the success, opportunities and joy that the arts and creativity can bring to classrooms, communities and careers.

1. Artswork is one of Arts Council England’s Bridge organisations. Can you explain a little about what this means and how you work with schools and young people?

There are 10 Bridges across England, each working in a different region – Artswork covers most of the South-East.  We support a wide range of organisations in communities across our region as they connect together, forming thriving local Cultural Education Partnerships (CEPs) that deliver creative opportunities for children and young people.

We also work directly with schools, helping them to embed creativity across the curriculum through training and development, including Artsmark and Arts Award. There are some amazing settings out there who have really put creativity at the heart of their post-Covid recovery work, and we support these champion schools to lead peer-to-peer learning with others who are just getting started.

2. We heard one of your Cultural Education Partnerships linked up school, artists and communities through ‘Digital speed-dating’ during the pandemic. How did that work?

It was absolutely brilliant! It was organised by MAKE, Milton Keynes’ CEP, bringing together schools, cultural organisations and freelance creatives over Zoom. The first part saw teachers and pupils share examples of how they had been using arts and creativity to understand emotions and improve mental health. There were some really inspiring and effective ideas, including a whole school art project around the changing moods of the sea, enabling young children to explore and express their own, sometimes rapidly-changing, emotions.

Teachers then gathered in small breakout groups that were visited by artists and cultural organisations. They each had a minute or two to deliver an ‘elevator pitch’ setting out their current, Covid-friendly creative learning offer. It was fast and fun, and great to see the creative practitioners getting to grips with what schools needed in the moment. There were certainly some longer term (professional!) relationships that formed from those blind dates.

3. You’ve been collaborating with other Bridge organisations on Amplify, a digital magazine showcasing examples of youth voice. Could you tell us about this?

By working as a national network, Bridge organisations have been able to share inspiration, useful tools and best practice. We heard that organisations wanted to do more to include young people’s ideas in their planning and delivery. Amplify brings together practical examples from a range of contexts, sharing successful approaches from small interventions to significant pieces of work.

It was great to hear Megan, a creative apprentice on the Isle of Wight, talking about Brave Island, her project sharing local opportunities in the creative industries for young people. She speaks passionately about why we all need to be hearing from and working alongside young people, letting them shape their own future.  

4. You’ve recently been working with Arun District Council in West Sussex to deliver a 3-year programme of cultural investment in young people. How did you work with local partners to develop this and what were the outcomes?

Arun Inspires is a focused local programme that aims to increase the cultural offer for children and young people, working in partnership with a wide range of organisations in the area. Many partners didn’t have culture as an existing focus, but by embedding a programme manager within the community, we were able to demonstrate how the arts offered a way to meet many local needs. This has provided space to agree shared goals: including young voices in local regeneration, improving mental health and wellbeing, developing creative careers pathways, and building cultural infrastructure.

The project has already seen some great outcomes. Children designed a wonderful public sculpture for Angmering, working with an artist, engineers and the local authority on a rainbow bench that will be installed later this year. This summer, Littlehampton will be brought to life by a series of outdoor arts interventions showcasing everything from local young talent to international artists.

Strategic creative projects have improved children’s mental health while shaping best practice in evaluating clinical outcomes in arts projects - we have drawn these findings together into an online toolkit, that was recently launched by the National College of Social Prescribing: www.artswork.org.uk/making-it-better

5. What’s the most rewarding thing about working in the arts and culture sector?

Just seeing the difference that creativity can make to people’s lives – their confidence, mood, sense of self, and feeling of connection with others. What we do brings people joy, space to reflect and the chance to express themselves. That’s so powerful, particularly when it involves children and young people! It’s a huge privilege to see the transformative power of the arts, and in turn to learn from young people who have so much to offer.