Click to hide: Schools FAQ : Artists FAQ
Arts Council England is not currently able to offer guidelines on rates of pay for artists.
The daily fee that an Artist will charge will vary. When you are agreeing a fee you should take into account:
For more information, see the links below:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications
The Forge holds a database of artists in the region who specialise in participatory arts projects.
The database includes artists working across the following art forms:
Ceramics Circus/street theatre Craft Dance Drama Glass Graffiti Music Painting/drawing Photography/new media Printing Puppetry Sculpture Storytelling Textiles Writing
Once you have considered the art form which your project will focus on we can send you a list of artists that you might like to contact to discuss your project with.
Please email or call us on 01207 284 515.
You might also like to check with colleagues to find out what type of artists they have been working with or even advertise locally.
Finding the right Artist to work in school should be subject to good recruitment checks.
Those suggested before employment would be:
You might like to interview potential artists devising some questions to find out about the type of work he/she does, why arts education work is important to them and to discuss the project to make sure their ideas are what you are interested in. Prior to short listing and interview, you might like to think about having an external representative on your panel e.g. arts development officer, a funder, arts education specialist.
Although the Artist you choose will have much experience of working in arts education, it’s important to remember that they bring different skills to that of teaching staff and won’t be experienced or responsible for the pastoral care of the children/young people. Therefore, a teacher should be present at all times the Artist is in the classroom.
Identifying funding to enable you to run projects can often take time and require a good strategy. It’s a good idea to develop a brief proposal outlining what your project’s aims and objectives are together with plans about how you plan to deliver your programme and what it will cost.
Also worth considering is how the project will contribute to the school development plan and overarching arts policy.
There are various options for funding that you may like to consider:
Most organisations that distribute funding will expect to see that your project has attracted match funding.
The project proposal will help you to identify:
Once you have recruited your artist, you will need to negotiate a contract which both parties will sign before agreeing practicalities.
Working with your artist you will need to consider:
The London School Arts Service (LONSAS) provides an overview of setting up an arts education project which you may find useful. Please see the link to their website: www.lonsas.org.uk
The Artists & Learning Information and Support Service (ALISS) offer a website giving guidance on sample contracts, setting up projects and evaluation. Please see the website: www.aliss.org.uk
Artsmark is a national award scheme by Arts Council England that recognises schools with a high level of provision in the arts. The award scheme is open to all schools in England - primary, secondary, special schools and pupil referral units, both maintained and independent.
Providing a benchmark for arts provision the scheme encourages schools to consider the opportunities offered in art, dance, drama and music. Artsmark schools show their commitment to the wider development of young people and teachers and raise the profile of the arts in the school and local community.
The scheme aims to:
Artsmark also:
Across The Forge’s region (County Durham and Sunderland), there are currently over 20% of schools in receipt of the Artsmark award - already showing a fantastic arts provision across these areas.
The Forge organises seminars (normally held in early September) which can help familiarise you with the application form and supporting documents to help you ascertain whether your school is in a position to make an application.
Please email for further information on the seminars or see the Artsmark website www.artsmark.org.uk for further information on the scheme.
You will need to audit your existing arts provision in school:
The aim of the audit should be to identify:
The audit should ideally cover:
Ideally, a team should be appointed to undertake the audit and should have the backing of the whole school. Consider how you will involve Governors, parents and children, the time scale over which your audit will take place and how your audit will be presented - it will need to be a working document and a written report might not be the most appropriate way of sharing your findings!
For detailed guidance on auditing the arts in school, please see the RSA publication, A guide to auditing the arts in school, which you can access via www.qca.org.uk/artsalive/steps_to_success/rsaguide.pdf
Many schools already have policies for each art form and an overarching arts policy does not have to completely replace these.
If your school is applying for Artsmark, you will be asked as part of the application to provide copies of your overarching Arts policy. Alternatively, if you have just completed your Arts Audit, the next logical step would be to action the findings to form your Arts policy aims and objectives.
The QCA ArtsAlive! www.qca.org.uk/artsalive provides guidance on writing an arts policy. The website suggests that an arts policy usually includes:
Your arts policy does not have to be long, up to two sides of A4 should be enough to get your message across, and the policy should complement other working documents. It’s important to get your policy endorsed by the Board of Governors together with a date for reviewing and updating if necessary.
Many schools, especially primary schools, do not have the capacity to offer drama as a separate curriculum subject and offer the provision through other subjects.
It is important to ensure that you have clear aims and objectives for the drama provision in place so that you can monitor the activity you are providing and ensure there are plans for progression in place for all pupils.
Drama in schools: second edition, published by Arts Council England in 2003 provides guidance on the role of drama within the curriculum together with information on providing opportunities for ensuring pupil progression across all key stages.
There is also a really useful wall chart that offers useful level descriptors across all the key stages that is available free of charge. You can find more detail on this and download the publication through the Arts Council England website:
www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/
With the implementation of new Government policies including Every Child Matters and Youth Matters, Arts Council England North East has been working to develop a framework to support the contribution that the arts can make to Government aims and objectives.
The resulting following three documents developed or commissioned by Arts Council England, North East should be read in conjunction with each other (each document can be downloaded from Arts Council England’s website).
It is recommended that self-employed people check their situation with regard to Public Liability Insurance. If you are visiting and working in other organisations, you should consider taking out Public Liability Insurance to cover you should you cause any injury or damage during the course of your work. As with other types of insurance, the cost and cover may vary, so make sure you shop around for the best deal for you.
As part of a contractual arrangement, some organisations may ask to see evidence of Public Liability Insurance cover prior to employing you. The standard cover required is now £5,000,000.
Please see the link to the Business Link website for further information and finding insurance quotes:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.s=sl&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074301656
Keeping Arts Safe published by Arts Council England provides the following information on the Disclosure service:
provides a regulated onestop’ service for England and Wales, offering access to records held by the police, together with those held by the Department of Health (DH) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). It enables organisations to make more thorough recruitment checks, particularly for positions that involve regular contact with children and vulnerable adults
The Disclosure service can currently provide two levels of Disclosure:
Both Disclosure checks will provide information on criminal records (both spent and unspent), the List 99, Protection of Children Act and Protection of Vulnerable Adults lists. The Enhanced Disclosure will also provide details of any current investigations.
Prior to recruitment, employing organisations are likely to request confirmation that Artists are in possession of a current Disclosure certificate (current has not been defined and will vary from organisation to organisation), or agree to complete the process.
Individuals can not apply directly for their Disclosure check and will need to go through a Registered Body, who they will receive the application form from, and have to provide evidence of identity to. A list of Registered Bodies is included on the Disclosure website. Once a check has been processed, the applicant and the Registered Body will receive written confirmation.
A Disclosure check is one part of good employment practice and is not designed to replace:
Arts Council England’s publication keeping arts safe provides guidance for artists and arts organisations on safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults:
www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications/publication_detail.php?sid=9&id=489&page=3
The Criminal Records Bureau (who run the Disclosure service) website
www.disclosure.gov.uk
Arts Council England is not currently able to offer guidelines on rates of pay for artists.
The daily fee that you might charge will vary. When you are agreeing a fee you should take into account:
For more information, see the links below:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
www.artscouncil.org.uk/publications
Identifying funding to enable you to run projects can often take time and require a good strategy. It’s a good idea to develop a brief proposal outlining what your project’s aims and objectives are together with plans about how you plan to deliver your programme and what it will cost.
Also worth considering is how the project will contribute to your practice as an artist and the aims and objectives of your partners.
There are various options for funding that you may like to consider:
Most organisations that distribute funding will expect to see that your project has attracted match funding.
The project proposal will help all partners to identify:
You will need to negotiate a contract which both parties will sign before agreeing practicalities.
Working with the school you will need to consider:
The London School Arts Service (LONSAS) provides an overview of setting up an arts education project which you may find useful. Please see the link to their website:
www.lonsas.org.uk
The Artists & Learning Information and Support Service (ALISS) offer a website giving guidance on sample contracts, setting up projects and evaluation.
Please see the website:
www.aliss.org.uk
There are several ways you might consider to gain the necessary experience to enable you to work effectively with groups of young people. Those include: