In the final year of the Creativity Collaboratives Nottingham project we focused on how we
can sustain the work we’ve done so far. Not because we felt that we had got to where we wanted to be, but because we wanted to make sure we could build on the foundations laid. Nottingham, like many other cities is experiencing tough times, financially and politically. This made us even more determined to focus our efforts on working together to support and strengthen creativity in our city as we move forward.
Specifically, what this means is:
• That we have strengthened the partnerships between schools and the creative and cultural sectors to develop and embed Nottingham’s cultural rucksack.
• The principle underpinning the cultural rucksack was that everyone who goes to school in Nottingham is entitled to access and enjoy the cultural and creative resources of their own city.
• We’ve been turning this principle into a practical reality by establishing networks, making new connections, recognising complementary skills, planning together, creating a brilliant new directory and working with city
transport.
Year three has been about embedding and further developing this work that crucially relies on:
Partnerships
We’ve established a strong community of practice between the 12 schools in the project and a wide array of creative practitioners. At the end of year two, we hosted a huge professional development event in one of the city’s most vibrant cultural quarters, inviting in potential partners and establishing the links between the work of the creativity collaborative and other city initiatives, including Nottingham’s bid to UNICEF for child friendly city status and the work of the educational charity Ignite! which focuses on developing young people’s
curiosity. This year we have supported and strengthened these civic, charitable and other partnerships, through practical activities, sharing outcomes and making sure we understand one another’s work.
We recognise, though, that these partnerships rely on, strengthening practice in the schools in our collaborative; building links local to each of the schools and working with other schools in the city and beyond. This has been the central core of our work in year three. We wanted to extend and embed the commitment to teaching for creativity within each of the schools, through sharing, modelling, working with school leaders and governors and with each school’s community. Like any city, Nottingham is diverse, with distinctive localities.
Schools are central to these localities. So that is why we focused on strengthening local links on the estates and in the different areas our schools served, building creative partnerships with other schools and organisations to celebrate local culture and creativity and appreciate the history and heritage.