Education Partnerships. EMPOWERING ADULTS AND CHILDREN ACROSS A GLOBAL NETWORK.

Community Education Program, UK

Through our ongoing work with communities aimed at promoting sustainability through the arts, Artfully AWARE is organizing and supporting partnerships between schools and communities in the United Kingdom and Africa through our Community Education Program. We are currently working on forming new relationships with communities in additional countries. The aims of our Community Education Program are to:

- Create projects for use in the school environment that can be easily integrated through many different subjects, both individually and cross-curricular, with a specific emphasis on arts based projects
- Focus on communities’ strength, cultural understanding, breaking stereotypes and finding ways to overcome challenges
- Mutually benefit all participating communities within both the developed and the developing world by encouraging all participants to look beyond their own school, community and country
- Enable schools to use the curriculum to cultivate the knowledge, values and skills needed for young people to act asglobally aware citizens. This will help achieve the national aim that by 2020, all UK schools are models of good global citizenship

Artfully AWARE has close links with the British Council, as they completely value our work with schools to develop international partnerships. By working in partnership with AfA, schools will be able to meet the International Schools Award’s (ISA) expectations that they develop through:

- An international ethos embedded throughout the school
- The involvement of the majority of pupils within the school in international work
- Collaborative curriculum-based work with one or more partner schools overseas
- Curriculum-based work across a range of subjects; in particular, those which are arts-based
- Year round international activity
- Evaluation of the learning outcomes on pupils from a variety of sources allowing for an improvement of cultural activities

The Forest, UK

Creativity, Community, Sustainability

Introduction
The Forest is a 12 month creative initiative that will take place in Bristol from Dec. 2013 – Dec. 2014, and we have teamed up with Alchemy Productions, a production company that specializes in outdoor arts and festivals. Using trees as a universal representation for growth, change and renewal, the project aims to unite community, education and business to create a unique artistic intervention. It will provide a local, national and international platform to raise awareness of environmental issues such as sustainability and climate change, encouraging people to become responsible global citizens. The project will grow in three phases:

Phase 1 – Creation
The Forest will begin with a large-scale outdoor commission that will take place in the centre of Bristol on the Winter Solstice in 2013. The aim of this commission is to launch the project; providing a starting point and focus from which to move forward. Internationally renown artists including pyrotechnicians, musicians, circus artists, theater makers and visual artists will come together to create a spectacular event. During the launch event representatives from 11 partner schools will be presented with ten trees each to begin the physical development of The Forest; this will play an integral part in the legacy of the project. Each school will look after and nurture the trees for the next 12 months.

Phase 2 – Commissions
Following the launch event, from Jan. – Nov. 2014, the Forest will enter its next phase. A series of 11 visual art, site specific installations will be commissioned to take place across the city of Bristol. Each commission will be installed for a period of one month, with a new commission appearing each month. The commissions will form the core of our partnership work bringing together an artist, an environmental charity, a business sponsor and a school. Each commission will be developed around the themes pertinent to the charity/business involved with the overall aim of the commissions being to highlight a number of different environmental themes. All the work created will uphold the project’s mission: to be sustainable and to have minimal impact to the environment. A workshop program will also be undertaken with partner schools during this time, again to enhance the learning and understanding of the project’s themes.

Phase 3 – Legacy
The final aim of The Forest is to create a sculpture park and outdoor performance/event area within the city which will be used and enjoyed by members of the community for years to come. The space will be created by planting the trees nurtured by the 11 partner schools. The founding works within the sculpture park will be those that have been commissioned throughout the year. We also hope to develop a relationship with the M-Shed to create an exhibition of The Forest to tell its story.