Creativity is increasingly being seen as vital ingredient for economic development and growth as well as for personal and social health. The Creative Industries form a significant part of our social fabric and there has been a growth rate or around 16% in this sector compared to 6% overall in the UK.

The government has understood the need to embed creativity in the education system and have developed a number of strategies to promote creative activities in the classroom and beyond. In this section of the Digital Schools website we briefly explain some of our initiatives and programmes designed to promote and support arts and creativity in the community.

Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum and there are other conditions that need to be met in order to support and sustain cultural development. As well as being actively creative we also need to develop other competences. The ability to be an audience, to listen and empathise; the ability to share experiences and to value other’s experiences; the ability to work as a team, to cooperate and collaborate, and of course the ability to celebrate – with passion and with energy.

As teachers we know how important these are for our individual well being and we increasingly understand the significant contribution these skills and competences make to our social well being. The arts provide one of the few ways to develop this complex set of abilities and this is why new ideas such as ‘artist led learning’ are gaining ground and why the government are developing programmes such as Creative Partnerships and Culture Online.

Extract from 'Arts and Media in the Community - a primer for working with artists in community projects' currently in preparation at Trilby Multimedia.