£55,000 grant to make your mark in art

A pioneering arts-leadership programme for young Oldham people not in work, education or training is being funded by a £55,000 grant.

The Artsmart grant will help young people to get jobs and training, and will enable them to act as arts ambassadors among their friends.

The money, from the Arts Council North West, will be used by Oldham Council’s Arts Development Team for the young arts leadership project.

Oldham Council has approved a new co-ordinator for the Artsmart scheme, working 21 hours a week.

It follows on from the successful youth-inclusion project, called Gallery 37 Plus.

The three-year, Lottery funded £180,000 project worked with 50 young people aged 16 to 25, to target excluded and disadvantaged youngsters and offer them skills-development, work experience and training in the arts.

It involved arts organisations businesses, the arts development team, Brook Advisory Service, Youth Inclusion Project, the youth service, Connexions and the education service.

Gallery 37 Plus was used as an exemplar case study by the Arts Council after it became one of the most successful in the country, with 80 per cent of the participants later enrolling on college courses relating to the creative industries.

Now the arts-development team will work with 26 of the young people who participated in the pilot programme to take their development to the next level.

The latest scheme will offer accredited training and opportunities for young people to offer arts projects in collaboration with arts organisations in Oldham and to act as arts ambassadors.