Challenge, change and achievement - reflections on a year like no other
Across Autumn 2020, 99 young Londoners aged 18-24 connected with their peers and learnt about Product Design, Photography, Podcasting and Content Production with access to world class industry partners
From 29 June to 03 July 2020 we opened the virtual doors of I Am At Home Festival for a unique online celebration of creativity with SEND settings and disabled-led organisations
Launched in response to coronavirus, A New Direction partnered with Crafts Council and Mayors Fund for London to assemble and deliver thousands of Let's Craft arts packs to over 8,000 children across London
Schools are now able to attend Artsmark Development Days online and can continue to access bespoke support from our Artsmark Advisers.
With many Year 6’s primary education coming to a rather abrupt end and much of the usual transition support to secondary school being curtailed, we designed a resource and offer to support Year 6 students transition and achieve an Arts Award.
At the end of April we launched a new and improved version of our LookUp platform. LookUp allows London teachers to engage with offers from across the arts and cultural sector.
This year we developed new functionality which allowed organisations to share details of resources and long-term schools programmes in addition to one-off events. We also gave the platform a visual refresh, making it even easier for teachers to navigate and find content which is most relevant to them.
Since the relaunch...
and
...have been added to the platform by arts and cultural organisations.
The arts enrichment programme aims to:
(Credit: We Belong March 2020 / Jessica-McDermott for A New Direction)
The programme was co-designed by a collective of care leavers in partnership with A New Direction in 2019. Through creative mapping and research, conversations, creative writing, visioning, arts and project design activities, the Collective produced a series of four project designs.
These designs centred on the themes of Healing (or Breathing Space), Creative Expression, Connections and Awareness, which emerged as core to the process and came to serve as the ethos and foundation of We Belong.
The first phase of We Belong took place earlier this year, with creative sessions running from January to March 2020, along with some virtual keeping-in touch sessions for the group over the summer.
We are currently planning the second phase of delivery, which we anticipate to take place in Spring or Summer 2021.
When taking part on this programme, I did not know what to expect. This project helped me to build my confidence as I am shy and reserved individual. I met other people like myself from the care system which later developed into new friendships which is nice because I have never had a friend who went through the care system like myself. I learnt new things such as making short awareness videos. Overall it was an unbelievable experience and a memorable happening.
Member of Care Leavers Collective
Following the creation of the ABC of Brent resource developed with Brent educators, support was delivered through online meetings and the online Teams channel for Cultural Leads and Champions during lockdown.
On 01 December, educators from across Brent came together for an hour-long online session where they worked together to create a book commemorating Brent's year as London Borough of Culture.
Led by B+A, facilitators guided participants through their BookInAnHour method – a strategy they’ve devised to get people working intensely, creatively and collaboratively. They've previously run this session with some of the world's biggest companies and brands, including Barbican, Nike, Manchester International Festival and Nestle.
We will be sharing details of the book in the new year.
This year I’ve gained a better understanding of how to support parents with educating their children at home. We’ve had to pivot, creating and sending homework via email to families.
I’ve loved introducing my children to Mahogany Arts, and one particular child called Max was put in touch with them 10 years ago. His contact with the organisation has built his confidence to go to university, study ceramics, and he now works as an Artist and visits Mahogany Arts to help other children on their journeys.
This year we’ve offered 11 peer learning sessions, including Summer Meet-ups and our Connected Lab programme, reaching 20 unique local partnerships serving 21 London boroughs and the City of London.
85% of attendees at our Connected Summer Series rated the four sessions “Extremely Useful”.
"A very thoughtful and well organised forum that should grow and remain.”
Alfred Cardona, ELCEA.
The Young Challenge Group met six times this year, bringing together 11 young creatives from across London to advise us on £276,000 worth of partnership investments.
“The number one thing has been […] having a voice […] I hadn’t been given that opportunity before […] it’s massively built my personal confidence.”
Amy Walker, Young Challenge Group,
interviewed for Sound Connections Youth Voice Week.
The content produced during this time is relevant in any context, and will continue to be so beyond Covid-19, but speaks very much to a time when we were all adapting and coping through unprecedented change and challenge. The fun and simplicity of the creative ideas and approaches within these resources resonated strongly.
Our Boredom Busters resources were designed to support families to get creative, have fun, and make the most of the school holidays, compiling free, engaging, fun and covid-safe activities.
Each week in the summer holidays we shared a roundup of some of our favourite arts and culture activities to help keep families entertained. We encouraged people to stretch their imaginations, explore the natural world, make positive change and celebrate their community.
This series of blogs and resources written by teachers and cultural sector partners shares tips and advice on working during covid 19, and forms part of our Reset programme of support.
Though COVID-19 has caused huge disruption to our lives, our professions, and our learning, it is important to remember that we are resilient, strong and good at what we do.
We know that we can adapt and work differently, move quickly and innovate. Let’s take this chance to reset and move forward with what we know works, leave behind what doesn’t, and introduce new ways of working, together.
Our Keeping Creative at Home blog series was designed to help teachers and parents support their children through lockdown.
Responding to the pressures being faced by home education, the activities in the series were designed to be fun, creative experiences but there was also potential for learning in all of them, getting imaginations working.
We’d like to thank all the practitioners and organisations who generously contributed to this series, and Greg Klerkx and Sarah B Davies for curating it.
We love this series of fun #creative activities & experiences for children(& adults) put together by the fantastic team @A_New_Direction
Camden Spark via Twitter
Fab blog!
Art Teacher @ms_williams100 via Twitter
Advice and guidance from A New Direction's Create Jobs team.
Our very own ‘Grand Designs’ that like the popular TV show didn’t quite go to plan (!) but eventually developed into an innovative collaboration between an exciting set of designers and makers.
In late 2019 we commissioned Studio Weave to be our lead architects who have been amazing throughout – coaching us to make decisions, helping us to find the right specialist contractors and going above and beyond when everything changed.
After a pause to reset after Lockdown, we picked up with our design team – textiles designer Georgia Bosson; social enterprise fabrics manufacture Fashion East; furniture makers Hub Workshop; and interior experts Gibb & Cotter. All were affected by the pandemic in different ways (e.g. manufacturing PPE for NHS, cancelled contracts) but have remained committed to the project whatever the external environment has thrown up – thank you!
In June we worked with Georgia Bosson on a sub-project called ‘Work from Home // Home at Work’ – a co-creation process for all staff working from their homes to design the themes, colour and pattern of large-scale fabrics for the space. Over a month in June we explored our creativity and responded to inspiration and reflective tasks; we watched and listened to artwork, films, music and podcasts and read blogs; we observed what makes our home a home – what gives us comfort and is personal; we gathered and shared artefacts and things with colour and texture that felt like home; and we did still life drawing exercises on Zoom which created a body of work which is informing the design of textiles which will form the backbone of the space.
The experience was a lovely way to reflect on the strangeness of the situation and build creative confidence as a team.
Through these sessions I want to delve into what makes your home feel like home and offer up some insight into some of my favourite artists homes in return. The same four walls may be starting to close in a bit, but perhaps we can expand the horizons by engaging with our spaces in a new way and finding pockets of joy amongst the chaos.
From Georgia’s welcome note
The project is nearing its final stages. We will share an update next year when it’s complete and you’ll have to come visit when that’s possible, hopefully in the not too distant future!
We’ve got you covered this holiday season with another round-up of creative ideas to keep the family entertained, engaged and happy
Hannah Wilmot shares statistics and research outlining issues faced by young people in the wake of coronavirus, and considers them through the lens of our six Challenge London themes
Author and illustrator Andrew Hammond breaks down the creative process and offers advice on how to support your students with their own creative journeys
Adam Annand, Speech Bubbles' National Lead, tells us about their experience of going back into schools post-lockdown and shares his tips for other arts practitioners
Filmmaker & cross-arts facilitator Justin Allder specialises in working with at-risk and vulnerable young people, as well as those with special educational needs. Here he shares some accessible photography activities to try at home
Marina Lewis-King highlights some of our existing creative learning resources which could be particularly useful for re-opening schools adjusting to new spaces, split class groups and reduced equipment use
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