‘Arts Award was the perfect stepping-stone to kick-start our creative career.’ #ArtsAward15

For 15 years, Arts Award has been supporting the development of creativity and leadership skills for all young people through its flexible and accessible qualification. Here at IVE, the Bridge Team are delighted to be part of the Arts Award’s community as a supporter organisation for the Yorkshire and Humber region. To celebrate, we’re encouraging Arts Award alumni who completed the award over 10 years ago to share with us their thoughts on how it’s affected them. If you have a story to share, please get in touch.

Yorkshire-born, twin sisters Abigail and Chloe Baldwin completed the Level 2 Silver Arts award in 2010-2011 whilst at secondary school. They told us, ‘Arts Award was the perfect stepping-stone to kick-start our creative career.’ Together, they are now Directors/Graphic Designers of their own Design Studio, Buttercrumble, based in Leeds. Abigail and Chloe continue:

“We completed our Arts Award, over two years, at secondary school during our weekly art lessons.

We grew up in the seaside town of Scarborough. There were few creative opportunities for young people, so this opened our eyes. We were able to explore lots of art forms and creative ideas! We experimented with photography, sculpture, painting, and drawing, as well as planning projects. It taught us that art can be a vocational skill and helped to cement our passion for creativity. By practising across a range of media, we discovered a love for design.

One activity we loved was visiting London’s Lyceum Theatre to watch The Lion King musical. It was the first time we had ever experienced [a] West End production and is something we will never forget.

Furthermore, Arts Award helped us to gain further arts qualifications such as BTECs. It pushed us to study Graphic and Communication Design at Sixth Form and then the University of Leeds. This eventually led to us setting up our own creative business. We could have missed this fulfilling career path if we hadn’t received the encouragement received through Arts Award.”

If you’re thinking about doing Arts Award, Abigail and Chloe’s advice is to ‘go for it!’

“It’s a rare opportunity to experiment creatively and take risks. You’re able to guide your project in a way that suits you, whilst still feeling the safety of the framework.”

You can find out more about how we can support you on your Arts Award journey here. We are also running free, online support sessions for those who are interested in pursuing Arts Award here – more to be announced soon!

Happy 15^th Birthday Arts Award.