Archive opportunity to enhance learning

Six archive services in the East Midlands and the North West are being sought to take part in the Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA) Council’s Young Cultural Creators Programme (YCC). The programme supports archive services in developing skills and confidence in delivering sustainable learning programmes. The programme is designed so that archive services without education officers can deliver inspirational learning activities.

The Programme is a partnership between archive staff, teachers, writers and or illustrators to create excellent educational resources based on the archive’s collection. 

Through the project school groups will be invited to participate in a series of structured visits to an archive where they are introduced to the collections by children’s authors, illustrators or creative practitioners. During the initial ‘inspiration sessions’ the young participants engage in discussions about literary themes and cultural heritage and are encouraged to research and draft their own pieces of written work, using items from the collection to stimulate creative expression.

The project will also involve a visit to a local library to enable young people to undertake independent research and wider reading around the topics and themes introduced by the author. Follow-up activities in the classroom provide opportunities for further crafting of creative ideas before the project culminates in a celebratory presentation of the completed pieces of work.

Archives participating in YCC have benefited by working with a learning consultant to develop a scheme tailored to their collections, using a tried and tested model. They also benefit by developing:

• increased awareness about the use of collections as an educational resource 
• higher visitor numbers, through sustainable links with schools 
• partnerships with other archive, library and museum practitioners in the locality 
• practical experience of the Inspiring Learning for All (ILFA) framework as an evaluation tool
• project management experience  

Level of commitment
The archive service will have to commit staff time to: 

• have initial planning meetings with the YCC consultant, teacher, author and library staff [3 days] 
• plan YCC activity and select and prepare materials from archive [1 day] 
• host the visit by the children and author [1 day] 
• join the celebration at the school or archive [½ day] 
• evaluate the YCC scheme's success [½ day] 

The closing date for applications is noon on Monday 3 September 2007.  For more information see the outline and application form below or contact Caroline Pick at MLA East Midlands on 0116 285 1356 or email Caroline.

Young Cultural Creators draft criteria (890 kb)

Young Cultural Creators Programme 2007 application form (895 kb)