Our Youth Programme

Thanks to generous donations from our students and funding from our sponsors Taylor Money and St Ives Rotary, we are able to provide subsidised art classes for local young people.

SUNDAY ART CLUB 7-10 years

For budding young artists aged 7-10, the workshops run from 10am-12pm on monthly Sundays in term time. This is an art club like no other, where children get to work on easels and use the same high-quality materials as those on our adult courses. They are taught by experienced artist tutors and start to take their first steps as young artists. A brilliant introduction to the world of making art!

We offer Free scholarship places on this project for families on low income.

PORTHMEOR ART COLLECTIVE 11-16 years

This is our art project for young people aged 11-16 that want to have a creative outlet outside of school. Delivered by contemporary artists, these workshops give young people access to those working in the exciting contemporary art scene and giving them the tools to develop their artistic talents.

The workshops are designed to help young people discover new mediums, new ways of working and expand their comfort zones. They give them the chance to create art in a working art studio with exceptional materials and tuition, with a like-minded group of young artists.

We offer Free scholarship places on this project for families on low income.

Check out our Instagram page to follow what we have been up to lately.

Inclusion Projects

CULTURE CAMP

St Ives School of Painting’s Culture Camp is a youth initiative established in 2017. It aims to open the doors of St Ives’ cultural institutions to young people otherwise without access. Led by artists, they take part set of workshops, gallery visits and talks, opening their eyes to the possibilities of art. Bronze Arts Award is embedded in the project which gives young people a nationally recognised qualification.

From 2019, funding from Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust enabled us to turn Culture Camp into an inclusion project. This meant we could start working with different young people who had many barriers. This is due to being excluded from school, at-risk, in ill health and not in mainstream education, living in poverty and facing other challenges like being young carers. We work in ongoing partnerships with the Community and Hospital Education Service and Nine Maidens.

During Covid, we piloted an online Culture Camp for the first time. With referrals from Cape Cornwall School, Pool Academy and St Ives School, we worked with teenagers on their summer break to give them a host of cultural experiences and a Bronze Arts Award in the climate of Covid.

INCLUSION 2024

Funding from Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust finished in 2023, but we are continuing to deliver Inclusion projects for young people at-risk. Taylor Money family owned wealth management business in Falmouth are donating monthly to our Youth programme as they believe in supporting local young people. This sponsorship is being used to run the following projects:

+ Culture Camp for Nine Maidens. This will bring cultural entitlement to a group of young people who have been excluded from mainstream schools. They will have new experiences in the arts and work with an artist, as well as Leach Pottery and Tate St Ives. This project is accredited with Bronze Arts Award.

+ Culture Camp for the CLEAR Charity. These young people have experienced trauma and engaged with the CLEAR charirity for a period of time. They will be engaging in a project with us to get creative and achieve a Bronze Arts Award.

+ Artist Led Workshops for CHES. This project is for the Community and Hospital Education Service. These young people are too ill to go to school and attend the CHES part-time. It is an artist-led project to support them in their submission of GCSE Art and gives them new encounters in the arts.

+ In November 2024, we will recruit two emerging artists to join our Porthmeor Programme Online, for free. This is a 6 month online mentoring programme. Funded by Roy Ray’s legacy fund, this is an amazing opportunity to further your art career. He was passionate about emerging artists getting the support they need to launch an art career. If you are an artist aged 19 to 25 and live in Cornwall, do contact Cat Lee Youth Arts Manager to enquire: [email protected].