Get involved in one of our projects

Art Clubs at The Courtyard

Digital Arts Club on a Monday and the Messy Arts Club on Wednesdays are back every week during term time. The workshops cost £4 per session. To book your place contact admin@oyap.org.uk or call Liz or Helen on 01869 602560

If you're a budding film maker, photographer, music producer or just interested in design and digital media then Digital Arts Club is for you

but

If you'd rather get messy painting, printing, sculpting and exploring lots of exciting creative activities then its Messy Arts Club all the way.


 

 

 Digital Challenge at The Courtyard

Digital Challenge: Using professional digital photography, animation, music and film equipment, young people work with professional artists to create their own digital art.

This project grew out of our Media Mouse Trap project and was a collaboration between MAP, Autism Oxford and Autism Family Support

If you would like to set up a Digital Challenge for your group contact us here

Image by Luke Morgan aged 18
 

PIMP MY BIKE
 

Pimp My Bike is a community-building arts project. While a bike mechanic teaches bike maintenance and safety, a professional spray artist helps young people turn their rusty, unsafe old bikes into one off works of art.

OYAP Trust, working with young people and community groups across Oxfordshire, piloted the project in 09/10, and it has been proven to increase community participation, levels of confidence and engagement in young people. For more pictures click here
 

photo courtesy of www.oxford-photography.co.uk
 

Stepping Up - Young Creative Leaders Training Programme.
 

Now in its third year Stepping up gives 10 artists, arts managers and emerging creative practitioners the skills, training, mentoring, accreditation and confidence they need to make a successful start to a career in youth arts. In addition a network of established creative professionals across the region will be trained as mentors on the programme. The project is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

“The project addresses the lack of opportunity many young people (18-25) are encountering in the current financial recession, and the gap in this type of provision in Oxfordshire. The tailored programme will create a successful transition between learning and work and create opportunities for young people to participate in creative workshops and youth arts projects across the County”. Helen Le Brocq, Director OYAP Trust

The project grew from a successful pilot programme developed with funding from the Big Lottery Fund via Awards for All and Creative Junction with advice and support from Oxford Brookes and Bucks New University. Graduates from the 2009/10 pilot programme are now actively working as arts practitioners across the county. ‘Anyone that wants to go into anything to do with being an arts practitioner or organising in the arts should do this course.’ Participant comment – May 2010








 

Oxfordshire Youth Theatre Collaboration
 

OYAP Trust have been driving this exciting collaboration between all of the youth theatres of the county, to share their resources, experiences, and to work together to bring new experiences and skills into the county since 1998. In 2008 we gained significant funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Youth Opportunity Fund and the Chill Out Fund to deliver an ambitious year-long programme called ‘All Together Different’. This saw youth theatres working together to stage a residency with international circus, street theatre and physical theatre company, Electric Cabaret, during October half term culminating in a platform performance led by young people at the Mill In February 09. Additionally over the course of the year each youth theatre hosted a master class and hosted an exchange visit with at least one other youth theatre. The results of All Together Different were evaluated and together with a professional consultant. OYAP Trust produced a ‘How To Toolkit’ is available her to download for free.
 

Work with Looked After Children

Over the past twelve years OYAP Trust has been building a strong relationship with the statutory agencies working with Looked After children. We have seen the powerful impact of quality participatory arts experiences to change these young people’s lives. Although the arts are a powerful tool in the ‘at risk’ agenda, it is the quality of the arts work and the artists that has been the most significant factor in determining the success of the project. We always aim for a fantastic artistic experience first and foremost – the fact that we have the pool of skilled artists and a wealth of experience in this field allows us to access and meet the needs of young people at risk.

OYAP Trust is working with Children, Young People & Families, (Social Services) to make these projects possible, involving young people in the Looked After system from across the county:
 

• Hill End residential project. Multi-artform residential week, involving 15 artists, 20 volunteers, and 75 young people that are Looked After, with their outreach and support workers. Bronze Arts Awards are now successfully offered to young people on this project. OYAP works to ensure that this is an experience of the highest quality, and is a fun and rewarding life-changing experience for all involved in this unique event.
   
• Every year we choose a theme and the artists and young people and all of their support workers work together towards creating a spectacular young person-led performance, and this project has attracted significant interest at a national level.
   
• Celebrating Children. OYAP Trust will produce an annual celebratory event, with its project elements (performances made for the event). Looked After children are often ‘invisible’. Their achievements are well below the average, and are often forgotten due to the chaotic nature of their lives. The Arts provide a perfect way to make their achievements more noticeable and therefore valued, by their natural and foster families, but more importantly by their statutory parents, Oxfordshire County Council. The more visible, the more valued, the more supported the work becomes.

Arts Awards

OYAP Trust is the Training and Support Agency for Arts Award in the South East we are also an Arts Awards Welcome organisation. We offer regular Bronze/Silver Arts Award Adviser Training and also offer in house courses for organisations in a range of settings. We have trained in schools, arts organisations, statutory agencies, and local authorities. For more information please contact Helen and see the Arts Awards website, www.artsawards.org.uk.
 

Artsplan Training Courses

Helen is a qualified trainer for Artsplan and delivers a number of training courses at OYAP Trust. Artswork have developed a wide range of relevant, practical, creative training opportunities for professionals and volunteers currently using or looking to use the arts with young people. Courses are consistently reviewed, evaluated and up dated to ensure the best possible training opportunity is provided. Participants are provided with a certificate of attendance upon successful completion of each. For more info visit the Artsplan website

ENYAN

The English National Youth Arts Network (ENYAN) is a membership body designed to create connections throughout the diverse youth arts sector at national, regional and grass roots levels. ENYAN aims to raise the profile and support for youth arts within England, and by doing so create more opportunities for the creative and personal development of young people, especially young people at risk. Helen is the chair of the South East Regional Advisory Panel (RAP), with the intention of raising the profile of youth arts in Oxfordshire, and raising awareness in Oxfordshire of opportunities that are emerging country-wide. www.enyan.co.uk