We worked in five settings running after school and holiday clubs in Lowedges, Jordanthorpe and Batemoor in Sheffield (Abbey Lane, Norton Free and Lower Meadow Primary Schools, Meadowhead Secondary and Jordanthorpe library).

120 children (aged 6-14 years) worked with a professional artist to create their own artworks based on local heritage, folklore and stories. Each setting had their own celebration event at the end of the programme where teachers and parents were invited to see what the children had produced through exhibitions and films. The children supported and curated their celebration events.
As part of the project four of the groups visited a local sheltered housing scheme for one session each- exchanging stories and creating artwork together.
 

77% of children said they felt like an artist with a marked increase in this feeling from before they started to the end of project evaluations. One parent said their child now wants to be an artist and one boy was reported to be finger knitting at home after being taught this at a session.
One artist reported "two of the boys seemed very disengaged, under confident and really unsure when they arrived (at the holiday club in the library) and it was fantastic to see them let their guards down and get fully involved. At the end I heard one of them say to his dad on the phone "It was awesome we did all this different stuff, I'll ask if there will be another one" The other lad took a photo of his own collage...he was really keen to take it home which was great as he seemed to have so little confidence earlier in the day... It was good to see their pride in their work."

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Children in Need funded