See Why Project

Canterbury for Culture received funding from Artwork and the University of Kent to investigate the current cultural provisions for children and young people in Canterbury, to discover how young people engage with culture and to facilitate new projects by children and young people in the field of cultural heritage and performing arts.

This project, implemented by Canterbury for Culture and the Centre for heritage will:

  • Commission an audit of existing cultural provision and engagement for children and young people in the district
  • Research cultural provision within schools via formal schemes such as Arts Awards in relation to cultural providers and other informal and community-led initiatives
  • Stage a large scale collaborative workshop such as an open space event that will allow us to build cross-sector partnering
  • Deliver collaborative initiatives involving young people and the organisations that represent them
  • Review the progress of the Network, evaluate its on-going impact and share its learning

It will also contribute towards the following outcomes:

  • Secure the involvement, at an appropriate level, of both cultural and children and young people based services/organisations
  • Utilise local knowledge in conjunction with evidence and data, to identify, assess and evidence areas of key priority in terms of the children and young people’s cultural offer
  • Develop a coordinated, joined up, approach in connecting arts and cultural organisations, Local Authorities, schools, youth/community sectors, music education hubs and/or other such bodies
  • Develop young people’s voice, influence and leadership in cultural planning
  • Build action planning to join up the CYP offer, matching cultural provision against identified needs with a clarity of outcomes
  • Identify the network’s capacity, building needs and facilitating solutions
  • Help education and cultural practitioners strengthen their joint working within the CYP sector
  • Facilitate and build knowledge exchange