Creative Schools Ambassador Event (March 2023)

Children from schools participating in the Creative Schools Partnership Programme had an opportunity to come together to meet one another and take workshops designed to share learning, teach new skills and build confidence through the arts.
The three Creative Schools Ambassador events were held at the end of March. Belfast Boys’ Model, Blessed Trinity College and Mercy College Belfast met at the Duncairn Arts Centre in North Belfast. Ashfield Girls’ High School and St Vincent’s Centre met at Linenhall Library in Belfast City Centre and St Joseph’s Boys’ High School and St Cecilia’s College met in Derry/Londonderry. The sessions were facilitated by a range of artists: Ayesha Mailey, a dancer with Echo Echo, Shena Kelly, a dancer with Du Dance, DJ Cahir Glen, filmmaker Graham Ginty, singer/songwriter Dan Ferguson and actors Jazzmin McClure, Christina Nelson and Rob Crawford.
The events brought together, for the first time in three years, schools involved in the Creative Schools Partnership Programme - a pioneering cross-government programme funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through National Lottery funding, the Education Authority and The Executive Office’s Urban Villages Initiative. Eleven schools, located in Urban Villages areas in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry, are currently engaged in the programme. Last year they were awarded up to £15,000 each to develop a two-year project that would bring professional artists into the classroom to teach new skills, support educational learning and strengthen community connections.