Inside the Delivery of Bronze Arts Award

By Darlene Galabe

As one of the engagement assistants for Children's Capital of Culture since April this year, I have so many wonderful opportunities for meeting local young people, connecting with the community and creating arts experiences.

Back at the end of May, during the school half-term, me and the team took part in delivering a four-day Bronze Arts Award programme. This took place at the Rotherham United Goal Zone as a series of fun and creative sessions split across the day. We had a lovely group of ten young people all interested in the creative arts and different backgrounds of creativity.

Bronze Arts award is part of a wider delivery of arts award programmes with a range of different levels from early years for the Discover programme. Along with the other levels of Explore, Bronze, Silver and Gold Arts Award for up to age 25 or below. Anyone can take part in Arts Award through a registered Arts Award centre and delivered by trained Arts Award advisors. It is designed for young people to gain artistic skills and a recognised qualification that informs and gives insight into the world of the arts.

The key focus for our Bronze Arts award was looking at storytelling and creative writing. There was so much amazing work and amazing stories which unfolded across the days. These were stories of wild imaginations from creatures that hunt for rare jewels, an owl with the mistaken identity of a cow, and original songwriting about the bittersweetness of growing up.

It was a great feast of stories for the eyes, ears, and the creative senses. Transporting you from one world to the next and differing perspectives of fictional and reflective writing.

There were many moments of play, joy and laughter as the group was full of different characters. I had the opportunity to lead a drama workshop based on the stories they created and bringing them to life. I remember on the Thursday afternoon we started our warmup with a series of quick games and exercises. One of these included a movement sequence circle as each participant and staff went around adding their own dance move. We gave ourselves a challenge using a range of movement from kicks, flicks and dancing tricks. The music was pumping through us as we danced away to Queen’s ‘Don’t stop me now’ but eventually and not long after we did have to stop for now.

Then towards the end of the drama session, participants had the chance to share back some of their storytelling. Two of the participants had written an original song which they had developed over the last few days. They brought in their guitars, a catchy tune and took us on a musical journey.

Some of the lyrics referencing ‘In with the new, I’m out with the old ‘and ‘I wish I remembered the stories you told’.

It was an authentic display of talent and a shared moment of common experiences in growing up. These little moments of being in the moment and watching the participants express themselves were truly the moments that made a special experience.

Here is an image of one of the creative activities. Participants were tasked with creating one word from random letters they wrote down. Here you can see their literal approach with ‘one word’. A very to-the-point sense of humour among the participants.

For more information on the Bronze Arts Award, you can visit the main website linked here!

You can keep up to date with our socials and keep an eye out for the next delivery of one of our Arts Award programmes.