Welcome to Shout Out for the Arts!

We are Shout Out for the Arts – Warwickshire. A group of young people and organisations who get together to ensure that children and young people in Warwickshire have a voice to ‘shout’ for access to arts and culture.

The areas we represent are:

Rugby
Nuneaton & Bedworth
North Warwickshire
Central Warwickshire
Stratford-upon-Avon

We are ’youth-led’ which means this entire project is managed by a ‘Youth Board’. The Board are working to recruit ’Young Arts Ambassadors’ who will carry out the aims of Shout Out for the Arts.

Youth Board

The ‘Youth Board’ is a group of students who meet regularly to discuss the missions of Shout Out for the Arts. Our Board currently has 15 young people aged from 9-25 from across Warwickshire and we are in the process of recruiting for more Board members.

Our Board members are crucial in making sure the voices of young people are heard, listened to and acted upon. Things we discuss in Board meetings include: “what is important to young people?”, ”what should our partnership be like?” and ”what are our goals?”

“Right now, [the Board] are working on a project to gather information from young people across the county through schools about the arts opportunities, or the lack of them, in their area. This way, we can understand where cultural openings are available, and where they are needed, so we can help bring a change to the arts and cultural education in Warwickshire.”
Saanvi, Youth Board Member

Young Arts Ambassadors

Our ’Young Arts Ambassadors’ are recruited via workshops and ambassador training in schools. They are given the tools to take Shout Out for the Arts forward – to run competitions, plan and produce art events and more.

Shout Out for the Arts is youth-led. That means that our Youth Board and Young Arts Ambassadors are given the skills, training, encouragement and inspiration to make decisions, develop confidence and become leaders and creators in the arts.

Pictured: a Shout Out for the Arts school workshop.

Our vision

When we met for the first time in 2020, our Youth Board and adult partners decided upon key words that represented what this partnership is trying to achieve: ’Warwickshire, ’Youth’, ’Arts’, ’Access’, ‘Voice’, ‘Culture’, ’Experience’, ’Link’, ’Awareness’, ’Engagement’, ’Community’, ’Inclusivity’, ‘Partnership’.

Our first strapline that we wrote to express what we wanted to achieve was: “We believe we should be listening to young people about what they want to access in arts, culture and heritage and how they want to access it.”

This has now evolved to:

”Ensure that children and young people in Warwickshire have a voice to ‘shout’ for access to arts and culture”.

Partners

Partner organisations of the project include Barnardo’s, Compton Verney, Heritage & Culture Warwickshire, Motionhouse, Royal Shakespeare Company and Warwickshire County Council. Staff involved from these organisations listen to the Board and its community, give feedback, create opportunities, facilitate workshops and more.

We’re supported by Arts Connect through the Partnership Investment Fund.

The first of its kind

We are a ’Cultural Education Partnership’ (CEP). A Cultural Education Partnership is a group of local partners and people who join up their offer to support children and young people to fulfil their creative potential and access high-quality cultural experiences.

There are CEPs all over the country and this one in Warwickshire is the first in the country to be youth-led.

What we are planning

Over the next 10 months our Youth Board and partner organisations will work on various things, including:

Recruiting more young people to become Young Arts Ambassadors.
Carrying out workshops in local schools with Young Arts Ambassadors.
Producing and running art, heritage and culture events across Warwickshire – ideas so far include an open-mic night and a ’Cultural Tea Party’.
Launch other arts projects and events including a venue ’takeover’, a competition and a podcast.
Holding careers fairs in schools.
Training young people to sit on cultural boards across Warwickshire.

All of these events will be managed by the cultural organisations involved but will be led by, and will have at their heart, the children and young people of Warwickshire.

“Our aim is to increase access to music, theatre, dance, performance, creative writing and visual art for young people around Warwickshire. We want to make sure young people lead on amazing opportunities in Warwickshire including creative workshops to participate in; organising annual takeovers; programming open mic. nights; training for creative careers in the arts and more.”
Youth Board