Spotlight on University for the Creative Arts: Delivering visual arts programmes online

Holly Rogers and Louisa Clements are lead Arts Award advisers for the Kent and Medway Collaborative Outreach Programme (KaMCOP) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), a creative specialist university with campuses in Kent and Surrey. UCA is a Trinity Champion Centre for Arts Award and, at the start of the pandemic, they adapted their Bronze Award programme so that it could be delivered entirely online. They share with us an overview of the programme and their top tips for delivering Arts Award digitally.

At UCA, we aim to increase the number of young people from under-represented groups who progress into creative progress into creative pathways. Through a variety of outreach activities with young people aged 13-18, we promote social mobility, widen access to arts and culture, and realise the aspirations of young people from targeted areas in Kent and Medway.

We started delivering Arts Award to give young people the opportunity to achieve an arts qualification and develop their transferable skills, supporting their progression into future study and creative careers. Since 2018, we have supported over 440 young people to achieve Arts Award at all levels (primarily Bronze).

Our Bronze Arts Award programme typically lasts for four days during the school holidays. Previously we delivered these in real life, with young people visiting us at one of our campuses and being supported by advisers in person.

Moving to digital

The pandemic brought new challenges and a pilot programme for Bronze Award was delivered in August 2020 via Blackboard Collaborate, an online classroom platform. Since then, we've delivered many successful online Bronze programme, covering the criteria virtually:

Part A Explore the arts as a participant: We deliver live creative workshops using simple materials which have been posted to young people at home. We also upload a selection of tutorial videos and guides to a share area, which young people can use to learn further creative skills.

Part B Explore the arts as an audience member: We often take young people on a virtual tour using Google Arts and Culture. We have also reached out to local galleries who have delivered virtual tours or asked young people to watch online plays and movies (animations or musicals are especially great for identifying multiple art forms).