The Max Reinhardt Charitable Trust, NAWE and engage (National Association for Gallery Education) are now working together on the inaugural Max Reinhardt Literacy Awards for creative writing and literacy work with schools, galleries, art museums and visual arts venues.
Galleries, art museums and visual arts venues in England submitted proposals to host the Max Reinhardt Literacy Awards 2014-15,
which granted three venues an Award of £3,500 to support a dedicated
programme of creative writing and literacy work with schools. The galleries chosen are Falmouth Art Gallery, Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and Manchester City Art Gallery.
The
Max Reinhardt Literacy Awards (MRLA) is a new initiative that will run
as a pilot in 2014-15. Galleries, art museums and visual arts venues
across England were invited to submit a proposal to host an Award, to
support a creative writer to work with a school and a gallery/art
museum/visual art venue. Three Awards of £3,500 each have just been made to the
selected venues for an activity, which will take place in Spring 2015.
The aims of the Awards are:
- For
a creative writer to work with a school and a gallery/art museum/visual
arts venue on a creative writing or literacy project, exploring the
venues collections, displays or building
- For resources to be
developed by the writer and NAWE with the school, gallery/art
museum/visual arts venue on using creative writing to explore the venues
collections, displays or building
- For these resources to be
shared with the arts and education sectors in order to encourage the
greater use of galleries/art museums/visual arts venues by schools for
creative writing and literacy work
Programme Description
Applications were invited from galleries, art museums and visual arts venues with
experience in working with creative writers and schools, and those with
little experience and for whom this would be a good opportunity to
develop work in this area. Over thirty excellent applications were received.
The Awards are being used towards costs
relating to a creative writer working with a school and venue, and
creating resource materials for the school to work with the venue on a
creative writing or literacy activity e.g. the fee to the creative
writer for five days work (inclusive of planning, working with
participants and evaluation), the writer’s travel costs, the schools
travel and staff cover costs, workshop materials or equipment,
developing digital or paper resources, documentation of the activity,
the costs of the gallery/art museum/visual arts venue undertaking the
activity.
NAWE has been supporting the
selected galleries/art museums/arts venues and schools to recruit
creative writers. A training day took place at The Photographers’
Gallery in the week of 3 November, which was attended by teachers
from each of the participating schools, a member of staff from the three galleries and the creative writers they are working
with.
In November and December the venues,
schools and writers will plan their programme of activity, which will
take place in the Spring 2015 term. Activity will include the creative
writer and school visiting the gallery/art museum/arts venue at least
once, and the creation of resource materials devised with the school and
the venue showing approaches to using the gallery/art museum/visual
arts venue with the school for creative writing or literacy work.
NAWE
and the MRLA Coordinator will support schools and venue staff to plan
activities. The MRLA Coordinator will support and monitor the delivery
of the activity. There will be a sharing event for the creative writers,
teachers and venue staff involved in the Award in April 2015 in London,
to reflect on the Awards. NAWE, with the creative writers, will collate
resources produced during the activity into a single digital resource,
which will be disseminated to the arts and education sector through
engage and NAWE’s networks.
Evaluation
The
Award will be evaluated by a consultant, who will devise a methodology
with the support of NAWE and engage, and attended the training day to
introduce the evaluation approach and methodology to the teachers,
creative writers, gallery/art museum staff/visual arts venue. The
evaluator will visit each activity, and support the school, venue staff
and creative writer to collect evaluation data.
Findings from
the evaluation will be used to plan future Awards. A public facing
sharing event on what has been learnt though the Award and the potential
for galleries and art museums to work with creative writers and schools
is planned for Autumn 2015.
Important dates
- Late-September 2014: Shortlisted venues selected
- October: Creative writers appointed supported by NAWE
- Wb. 3 Nov 2014: Induction session at The Photographers’ Gallery, London
- November & December: Venues, schools and creative writers plan activities
- January-March 2015: Delivery of activities
- April 2015: Sharing event
- May-July 2015: Resource material collated and material for dissemination prepared
- September 2015: Evaluation report delivered
- October 2015: Sharing event engage and NAWE