Fourteen organisations across the UK have been announced as recipients of £92,598 in grants from the second round of the Clore Poetry and Literature Awards funded by the Clore Duffield Foundation
The Awards are worth a total of £1m over five years, 2011 to 2015, with two funding rounds a year. The Clore Duffield Foundation is a grant-making charity which concentrates its support on cultural learning, creating learning spaces within arts and heritage organisations, leadership training for the cultural and social sectors, social care, and enhancing Jewish life.
Dame Vivien Duffield, Chair of the Clore Duffield Foundation, said: ‘We remain amazed at the array of applications which flood in for this programme and we are delighted to be funding such a diverse range of projects, which reach out to so many children and young people in such varied ways. We want all young people to experience the power of literature, whether within or outside school, and whatever their circumstances.’
The programme is designed specifically to target the development of imaginative new poetry and literature initiatives for children and young people, in and out of school. The recipients are:
NATIONAL:
Artichoke Trust for InTents
This project is part of Peace Camp, a four-day installation exploring love poetry that is taking place in eight coastal locations around the UK as part of the London 2012 Festival. InTents will see cross-curricula artist residencies for students of English and Art & Design in eight secondary schools, culminating in local public exhibitions, live poetry events and display on London’s South Bank as part of National Poetry Day.
Award: £8,000
SCOTLAND:
Glasgow Life for The School Library Magazine Project
Glasgow’s cultural agency aims to develop and celebrate the talents of the city’s young people with the launch of a creative writing magazine. A series of workshops and events will be open to pupils from all 29 Glasgow secondary schools, who will then produce the magazine and publish it in print and online. Funding covers the initial two issues of the magazine: the first celebrating Glasgow Libraries’ annual book festival, Aye Write!; the second due in June 2012 to coincide with the Olympics. Award: £6,539
NORTH WEST:
Formby High School for Slam Our Town!
Each of the school’s six Year 7 classes will be taken ‘off timetable’ for a day to work with a local performance poet, with a final day culminating in a competition. The structure will then be mirrored in seven local feeder primary schools and representatives from all the schools will take part in the final ‘Formby Slam’.
Award: £4,000
Kendal Brewery Arts Centre for Word Up
This project will extend the Centre’s annual collaboration with the Wordsworth Trust in staging the Anne Pierson Awards for Young Writers in Cumbria. A new outreach project will see up to 24 young people receive practical support beyond the Awards through ‘Write On’, with a further six who were shortlisted for the Awards taking part in ‘Write On Plus’, a dedicated mentoring scheme set up by the Wordsworth Trust.
Award: £10,000
Me 2 You for Take a Leaf out of our Book
Young people who have experienced personal loss will benefit from the therapeutic effect of creative activities. Through on-going weekly group workshops sessions led by a professional creative writer and visual artist, 15 young people will create a book of personal narratives and poems that can be continually added to and read by newly bereaved children.
Award: £1,000
LONDON:
Emergency Exit Arts for PENt UP
A project using improvisation techniques to explore life writing (poetry and prose) and inspire 40 young people from George Green School, Tower Hamlets to develop written work from their own experiences. Culminating in two community sharing events, including a creative writing salon at the local library.
Award: £10,000
The English and Media Centre for Poetry Player
Exploring the potential for mobile technology to bring poetry directly into the lives of young people ‘on the go’. Two North London schools will help develop a free App that will be publicised through social media sites and the Centre’s mailing lists.
Award: £8,000
House of Illustration for Picturing Poetry
Approaching poetry writing through images to allow children to create inspiring poetry, whatever their literacy level. Key Stage 2 pupils from two primary schools will take part in three days of workshops, creating images with professional illustrators and then working with a professional poet to draw out poetic writing in response to the images.
Award: £7,000
Southbank Centre for Poetry Parnassus Envois
Taking place in June 2012, Poetry Parnassus will bring together poets from the 204 participating Olympic nations. This project will recruit 10 young people aged 16 to 19 to work with poets and producers to curate and deliver their own age group related events during the main festival. It is envisaged that the young people will continue their involvement in the Southbank Centre’s literature programme as regular advisers and bloggers.
Award: £10,000
EAST ENGLAND:
Romsey Mill Trust for Strong Words
In reply to demand from existing participants, the project will offer up to 10 disadvantaged young people, aged 14-18, weekly sessions exploring how different styles of poetry and creative writing can empower them to express themselves and address issues in their lives. The project will culminate in a live performance.
Award: £2,499
EAST MIDLANDS:
Nottingham Writers Studio for Heroes
A creative writing project aimed at young people with refugee or asylum seeker backgrounds for whom English is a second language. Two groups of 12 will explore the theme of ‘heroes’ through prose or poetry, fact or fiction. A collection of work will be launched at a community event and participants will be encouraged to submit work to the Nottingham Refugee Week newspaper.
Award: £3,870
WEST MIDLANDS:
IF: BOOK for POETMORE
National organisation IF:BOOK will work with Year 8 students from three Birmingham schools, looking at classic poems featured in the National Curriculum and discussing, preparing and presenting a ‘transmedia’ anthology. This will be used as a lasting resource within each school, and replicated as a digital package for use in other schools or by general readers.
Award: £8,400
School of Education, Birmingham University for Olympics Poetry Competition
Children from 200 of the School of Education’s partner schools will be invited to enter an Olympics-themed poetry competition. PGCE students will shortlist the entrants and devise and run writing workshops for the shortlisted entrants. All shortlisted poems will be printed in an anthology.
Award: £3,350
Writing West Midlands for West Midlands Young People’s Poetry Festival
A core group of 10 young people from disadvantaged areas of the West Midlands will be engaged over five months to create and curate a one-day young people’s poetry festival that is expected to reach over 500 young people live and 3,000 through its website.
Award: £9,940
The closing date for entries to Round 3 of the Clore Poetry and Literature Awards is Tuesday 17 April 2012. For full details go to www.cloreduffield.org.uk