Arts Award on the move: Prime Theatre’s Arts Award van!

In this blog we’re looking at how Prime Theatre deliver their programme with the use of an Arts Award van. They acquired the van after funding, and have used it to transport young people and arts equipment to new locations. In particular, the van played an important role in a programme for disadvantaged young people titled ‘If I can’. Read on for an explanation of how the van has impacted their Arts Award delivery from Helen Morley, Creative Arts Programme Lead at Prime Theatre, and an account of the ‘If I can’ programme from Riley Mathers, Prime Theatre’s Creative Arts Programme Assistant.

Prime Theatre’s Arts Award van

Prime Theatre was fortunate to receive a grant from the DCMS Youth Investment Fund, which was backed by the Arts Award team at Trinity who wrote a letter of support. This enabled us to purchase an ‘Arts Award van’, and a wide range of arts equipment to fill it with. We acquired tablets, a green screen, a diverse series of musical instruments and many craft materials such as clay and paints. Plus of course, plenty of logbooks!

The Arts Award van has enabled us to take Arts Award outside of our own setting and to groups and spaces that may otherwise not have access to any arts equipment.

(Helen Morley, Creative Arts Programme Lead at Prime Theatre)

The van in action: ‘If I can’

‘If I can' is an Arts Adventure week we ran for Pupil Premium students in Swindon named after a quote often associated with William Morris.

In the mornings we spent time together playing drama games and getting to know one another, then in the afternoon we experienced a variety of art workshops.

First, they learnt about the Museum and Art Gallery in Swindon from Mags Parker who helped them put on their artist’s glasses and ‘step into the world of art’. She explained how the art came to Swindon and talked through various pieces before leading a workshop on decoupage, letting the young people express themselves as they decorated masks with an exciting range of arts and crafts materials.

Artist Jamie Bullock then turned the group into Guerrilla filmmakers and taught them how to use the tablets and some free editing apps to create their own short films. Ideas ranged from statues turning people to stone, to nature documentaries, to a phone deciding it was time to run away! These skills turned out to be very useful, as the group were able to document the rest of their Arts Award journey and experiences digitally.

Finally, Aga Serugo Lugo led the young people on a walk around Swindon Town Gardens after displaying some of his musical talent on the keyboard – much to the delight of the young people who yelled out requests! He asked them to listen to the sounds of the garden and take note of what they saw before helping them write lyrics to a group song. Aga played the keyboard while the young people added in sounds from boom-whackers, digital drums and percussion instruments!

The young people really enjoyed having this opportunity to have fun and try new things – it was great that Prime were able to take a big range of arts equipment to Town Gardens via the van and introduce a new group of young people to both the arts and an under-used park in Swindon.

(Riley Mathers, Prime’s Creative Arts Programme Assistant and member of the Trinity Class of 2021)

Have you been inspired by Prime Theatre’s work? Learn more ways you can support learners you work with in November’s This is Trinity.