As the year draws to a close, join Bow Arts to reflect on some of our most transformative projects and best successes of 2022-23.

Over the past year, Bow Arts and our Artist Educators delivered an incredible 1,369 workshops for both teachers and children across 86 schools–nearly 4 workshops a day. As we look forward to continuing to provide inspiring, inclusive, creative learning in 2024, we are excited to look backwards, and celebrate some of the results of our outstanding Learning programme.

We are inspired by the possibilities nurtured by Bow Arts’ dedicated team of artist educators, and appreciate the hard work of our Learning team, behind the scenes.

Read the summary, or get the full, in-depth report at the bottom of the page.

Celebrating creativity

From our series of projects delivering Social Justice and Arts Learning in Schools, to our Early Years creativity project, to sessions including ‘Rights Respecting Animation’, putting into practice the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in our PACE Consortium, Bow Arts champions creativity that inspires and supports people in taking risks, exploring new ideas and challenging themselves. 

An important strand of our work takes place within specialist settings. We have delivered over 100 sessions in specialist settings across London.  We care about our work being inclusive and accessible to all, and we are committed to tailoring our projects to the diverse needs of learners. 

Nurturing social connection for our young people, Bow Arts has also supported students to achieve their Arts Award qualifications, as well as organising 4 exhibitions of pupils’ work produced as part of our Lewisham, PACE, Poplar and Thamesmead consortia projects.

Explore our programme highlights:

  

Celebrating local impact

Overall, Bow Arts is excited to produce a programme of learning that creates impactful experiences to improve attainment, confidence, and wellbeing for all students. From 2022 to 2023, we collaborated with 77 talented artists to spearhead 130 projects. Rooted in our local area of East London, Bow Arts’ outreach stretched across London to encompass 15 boroughs: 

Providing emotional and creative space for children and young people in these areas to explore, play and experiment with new ideas is key in supporting them to grow.

Celebrating teachers

Central to our mission is empowering teachers. Our Learning department provides teachers with opportunities to add nuance to their professional practice. Whether through specific skill-development or strengthening classroom delivery, our teacher CPD sessions reached a staggering 518 teachers. Our sessions offer new perspectives and let teachers reflect on what is an engaging, sustainable and inclusive education practice. 

Bow Arts also worked with 8 schools across the academic year to provide creative cover for their PPA time, leading art sessions specially designed to reference classroom topics.

‘[I gained] ideas for diversity in the curriculum, having a base to start from.’ (Teacher) 

‘I learned that everything I was scared of is actually doable when taught by an artist thinking about the process not the convention.’ (Teacher) 

Explore our upcoming season of CPDs here.

Celebrating artists

Bow Arts works with a pool of 66 artist educators to deliver our learning programmes, nurturing relationships that seek to create opportunities for them to grow and develop as artists and educators.

As part of our wider programme, we provide free training and Continuing Professional Development sessions to our Artist Educators on a regular basis.

These sessions encourage artists to continue refining their learning practice and creative development through skill sharing and collective learning. In the 12 CPD sessions held between 2022 to 2023, topics included delivering projects within SEND setting and promoting engagement in the classroom. 

Skills Exchange workshops were also a place where our artist educators could teach and share their specialisms with each other in hands-on practical sessions, experimenting with new and useful techniques.

‘It was a very useful day, and a rare opportunity to share the difficult and challenging aspects of my practice with other artists. I feel very grateful for this opportunity.’ (Artist Educator) 

 ‘Getting an overview of other artists’ practice and projects helps to understand different approaches and possibilities.’ (Artist Educator) 

‘There were lots of examples of how to interact with pupils that were very helpful and practical’ (Artist Educator) 

Read the blog about our Artist Educator Trainee programme.

What’s next? 

As we step into 2024, we will continue to build on the successes of the past year and continue to produce innovative opportunities for young people to engage with their creativity.

Coming up, we are looking forward to… 

• Our annual Educators’ Retreat in February, providing artist-educators with a space to invigorate their practice
• Three Access to Creative Careers fairs across Thamesmead, Lewisham and Barking & Dagenham, illuminating young people with career pathways in the arts
• An exciting programme of Artist Educator and Teacher CPD sessions, equipping education practitioners with creative and innovative ways of inspiring children and young people 

Read our report below

For more a comprehensive overview of programme highlights and impact, you can find the full 2022-2023 Learning Impact report below.