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Our Youth Programme
Thanks to generous donations from our students and funding from our sponsors Taylor Money and St Ives Rotary, we are able to provide subsidised art classes for local young people.
SUNDAY ART CLUB 7-10 years
For budding young artists aged 7-10, the workshops run from 10am-12pm on monthly Sundays in term time. This is an art club like no other, where children get to work on easels and use the same high-quality materials as those on our adult courses. They are taught by experienced artist tutors and start to take their first steps as young artists. A brilliant introduction to the world of making art!
We offer Free scholarship places on this project for families on low income.
PORTHMEOR ART COLLECTIVE 11-16 years
This is our art project for young people aged 11-16 that want to have a creative outlet outside of school. Delivered by contemporary artists, these workshops give young people access to those working in the exciting contemporary art scene and giving them the tools to develop their artistic talents.
The workshops are designed to help young people discover new mediums, new ways of working and expand their comfort zones. They give them the chance to create art in a working art studio with exceptional materials and tuition, with a like-minded group of young artists.
We offer Free scholarship places on this project for families on low income.
Check out our Instagram page to follow what we have been up to lately.
Inclusion Projects
CULTURE CAMP
St Ives School of Painting’s Culture Camp is a youth initiative established in 2017. It aims to open the doors of St Ives’ cultural institutions to young people otherwise without access. Led by artists, they take part in a set of workshops, gallery visits and talks, opening their eyes to the possibilities of art. Bronze Arts Award is embedded in the project which gives young people a nationally recognised qualification.
From 2019, funding from Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust enabled us to turn Culture Camp into an inclusion project. This meant we could start working with different young people who had many barriers. This is due to being excluded from school, at-risk, in ill health and not in mainstream education, living in poverty and facing other challenges like being young carers. We work in ongoing partnership with the Community and Hospital Education Service, Nine Maidens and young people from the CLEAR Trauma charity.
INCLUSION 2025
Funding from Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust finished in 2023, but we are continuing to deliver Inclusion projects for young people at-risk. Taylor Money family owned wealth management business in Falmouth are sponsoring our Youth programme as they believe in supporting local young people.
In 2025 we are running the following Inclusion projects:
+ Culture Camp for Nine Maidens. This will bring cultural entitlement to a group of young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools. They will have new experiences in the arts and work with an artist, as well as do a pottery workshop at Krowji and visit Tate St Ives. This project is accredited with Bronze Arts Award.
+ Supporting young people at the CLEAR Charity. These young people have experienced trauma and been receiving support from CLEAR, emotional trauma and therapy specialists. We support groups of young people during their CLEAR Ideas sessions to engage them in the arts for their wellbeing.
+ Artist Led Workshops for Pool Academy. The Create Room project enables selected pupils to experience art in a different way to usual school lessons and provides arts for wellbeing support. Arts Award will be embedded into this project so young people can achieve a Bronze Arts Award.
+ Artist Led Workshops for CHES. This project is for the Community and Hospital Education Service. These young people are too ill to go to school and attend the CHES part-time. This is an artist-led project to support young people in their submission of GCSE Art and gives them new encounters in the arts to help them feel more motivated.