The purpose of the Local Cultural Education Partnership meeting last week was a simple one: to present a plan to bring arts and culture to all children and young people across Kirklees. CapeUK had invited arts, education and community organisations to contribute to the project. As someone who just about fits into the 0-25 age range set out in the partnership’s plan, the meeting inspired me to contemplate the role the arts have had in my development and growth through the years.

My first arts memory is of a four- year-old version of myself launching paint balloons at a stretch of white linen in my best friend’s garden. I remember the explosions of colour being met with cheers and laughter. Whilst it may seem as though children making a colourful mess is relatively insignificant, that joyful feeling and drive to create things has been present in all aspects of my life to this day.

For the better part of my childhood I liked to call myself a musician. I made up songs in the playground, tried to master any instrument I could lay my hands on and sang in any choir that would have me. If I could manage to play Au Clair de la Lune on a broken school oboe with fingers so small they could barely reach the holes, I could do anything. I knew I was brave enough to do anything if I could sing a solo in a hall full of my peers.

Giving children and young people the opportunity to learn about and take part in the arts is such an integral part of early education. No one expects every young person exposed to the arts to become an artist, but the lessons the arts have to offer are essential to the academic, social and emotional development of a person.

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on.” – Albert Einstein.

For more information about Local Cultural Education Partnerships in Yorkshire and the Humber, click here.