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29 March 2022
TuneUp Arts, the arts education programme based at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Edgbaston, is delighted to announce that it will be part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
It has been selected to deliver a Creative City Project, generously funded by Birmingham City Council, which will engage schools around the theme of “Culture in Common”.
The project will work with professional artists to develop six workshops covering performance poetry, dance, visual art, music, street theatre and photography. The workshops will be delivered “live” by the artists at a number of Birmingham primary and secondary schools during the summer term, and digital resources will be created to enable other schools to take part. Young arts ambassadors will also be trained to support workshop delivery.
Kirsty von Malaisé, Co-founder and Executive Director of TuneUp Arts, and Principal of King Edward VI High School for Girls (KEHS), which hosts TuneUp, said: “We are thrilled that TuneUp will be part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to support an event that will raise Birmingham’s profile not only on the national stage but also the international stage.
“In less than 18 months, TuneUp has grown from the seed of an idea germinated in a challenging time for the arts, to a fully-fledged arts education programme, reaching more than 570 UK schools who access our free online resources. Through ‘Culture in Common’, we will develop stronger connections with young people and schools in Birmingham, and we are looking forward to facilitating a range of arts workshops across the city.”
Hannah Proops, Co-founder and Creative Director of TuneUp Arts, and Director of Drama at KEHS, said: “By choosing six different media, we aim to give young people a wonderful grounding and introduction to the wide range of disciplines in the creative arts. Ideally, we will inspire the next generation of artists and performers and at the very least we’ll hopefully ignite a hobby and offer a new and uplifting experience.
“Questions that will be asked in the workshops will include ‘what is culture and how does it affect who I am and how I live?’ and, ‘how has growing up and being educated in Birmingham made me who I am?’ With the eyes of the world on our city for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, we’re looking forward to the insights that young Brummies give into life in this wonderful place.”
Established by a team of KEHS teachers in September 2020 in response to the impact of COVID-19 on the arts, TuneUp aims to provide outstanding access to the arts and artists. It held its first free online art school in November 2020 – an event known as TuneUp Tuesday – reaching more than 100,000 children aged 4-18 in 440 schools across the UK, and others around the world.
The ongoing programme provides opportunities for school pupils to learn creative expression through a variety of media, experience the value of performance arts and their impact on community and have exposure to a spectrum of arts careers and the routes into them. More than 130 arts professionals working in a wide range of specialisms have donated bespoke digital content to TuneUp to date, from grassroots contributors to household names including Darcey Bussell, Rankin, Giles Terrera, Emma Rice, Michael Grandage, Evelyn Glennie, Alex Lacamoire, Greg Davies and Adil Ray.
More information on the Culture in Common project will be released soon. In the meantime, schools in any location can register their interest in TuneUp Arts at www.tuneup.life
