Culture Camp
Culture Camp is an innovative cultural programme for local young people. It is a set of five artist-led sessions including artist studio visits, talks, visual arts workshops and trips to cultural institutions.
Recent Culture Camps featured
- Painting and drawing at Porthmeor Studios overlooking the sea,
- A tour of Leach Pottery museum, a throwing demo and making a clay bowl using slump moulds,
- A visit to Tate St Ives to see the St Ives collection and current exhibitions,
- Q&A session with a contemporary artist and tour of their studio,
- A visit to Porthmeor Beach and a walk on St Ives Island to gather inspiration,
- Bronze Arts Award accreditation.
Who do we work with?
Youth partners, alternative provisions and we take referrals from secondary schools.
Since 2019, we have worked in partnership with 10 different schools and educational partners across Cornwall, reaching those most in need.
Culture Camp supports young people to re-engage in learning. All of the young people chosen have low cultural engagement, and having the Culture Camp experience, with Bronze Arts Award embedded, brings huge benefits to such at risk groups.
We work with local secondary schools as well as pupil referral units and the Community and Hospital Education Service (CHES). All referred students from secondary schools are chosen because they are pupil premium and live in low income families. The young people attending the pupil referral units are excluded from education, while others in the CHES are too ill to go to school. We feel it’s important that local young people feel invited to arts spaces that often feel out of reach or exclusive to them. Breaking those barriers to engagement transforms young peoples aspirations. We want to help create the artists of the future!
St Ives School of Painting recognises how art and creativity can transform lives and change perspectives. We continue to support local young people with our resources, experience, artists and passion.
Create Room
This inclusion project, was piloted in Summer term last year, and was delivered onsite at Pool Academy. It is another way of engaging with young people who would otherwise not access the arts. The artist Emma Saffy Wilson supported by an art technician from School of Painting took over an area of the art department and worked with two sets of young people from low income backgrounds. All the art activities surrounded mindfulness and wellbeing and young people were given 1 hour out of their school day to take part. We are looking to expand this in 2025.
Colour Your Summer
Last summer, we worked in partnership with the Salvation Army in St Ives. This was to deliver a targeted arts project for the local young people who access their Friday night Youth Club. The project took place in their building and a set of 5 art workshops took place on Tuesday afternoons, after a lunch which was provided. Three different artists alongside a technician, delivered varied sessions, from painting on wood and monoprint drawings to throwing clay cups. This will be developed in 2024, starting with a taster session in February.
“I loved just being creative for a week. I loved the peace of being at the studios.”
Quote by excluded young person
“The cultural capital that Culture Camp has given our students is immeasurable. It gave our students cultural opportunities they would never otherwise get and the quality of them felt so exclusive.”
Quote by PRU staff
“I get art now, it’s really clicked!”
Quote by referred young person
“I enjoyed meeting new people this week. I rarely leave the house as I am an introvert
so I have surprised myself by how I have been this week.”
Quote by referred young person