Expression of Interest: Creative Connections
13 February 2025
Deadline: February 27, 2025
The Creative Connections Programme aims to promote collaboration, encourage creativity and enhance educational outcomes for children impacted by social disadvantage in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Building on the success of the Creative Schools Partnership Programme in Northern Ireland and the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) and Creative Clusters initiatives in Ireland, Creative Connections gives children and young people the unique opportunity to work with creative practitioners, bringing creativity and the arts directly into their learning.
It will provide creative and collaborative learning opportunities for 20 schools in Northern Ireland and 20 schools in Ireland to work together in clusters, enabling students to weave creativity into their lives and learning.
Welcoming the launch, Minister Givan said:
“Creative Connections is an exciting opportunity to bring the transformative power of creativity into our classrooms. The programme provides invaluable learning opportunities for our children and young people, enabling them to work directly with a professional artist on a bespoke project.
“By working together across countries, we can create a model of collaboration and innovation that benefits students, teachers, and communities alike.”
Expressions of Interest will be open from 7th February to 27th February.
Please find link to guidelines for expressions of interest and application form here: https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/publications/creative-connections
Schools can contact the Department of Education at teachereducation@education-ni.gov.uk for further information.
About Creative Connections – The pilot programme will see schools work in clusters of four, with two schools from each country collaborating on bespoke creative learning projects. Each school will be paired with a professional creative practitioner, involving 40 practitioners in total. Participating schools will include primary, post-primary and special schools. Joint professional learning for teachers and artists will begin in the coming weeks, with school projects set to commence in the 2025/26 academic year. All schools in Northern Ireland are eligible to apply. The Department would particularly encourage expressions of interest from schools supporting pupils living in RAISE localities and will endeavour to ensure representation in the programme from all such localities.