Kidzone

28 June – 18 July 2021

Keep a close eye on Children’s Art Week with Engage: https://engage.org/happenings/childrens-art-week/ - they’re still deciding activities for 2021, but there might be an opportunity to get involved.

Children’s Art Week is a UK-wide programme run by Engage, the National Association for Gallery Education.

In 2020, Children’s Art Week took place online, at home and in schools across three weeks in June and July. Each week focused on a particular theme.

Our 2020 themes were:

Week 1 (from 29 June): The Natural World

Week 2 (from 6 July): Connecting across generations

Week 3 (from 13 July): Literacy and creative writing

Schools, galleries, museums and community groups were invited to plan and register visual arts activities for children and families. These activities gave children and young people and their teachers, parents, and carers the opportunity to participate in practical art activities with artists, makers, and educators.

This past year has highlighted how essential creativity and the visual arts are for learning, connecting and wellbeing. While our venues, cultural organisations, and some buildings may be closed, engaging in the visual arts is more important than ever.

Follow Children’s Art Week on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childrensartweek/

Who can organise an event or activity?

Due to the uncertainty of cultural and community venues safely hosting events, Children’s Art Week 2020 was focused online, with remote events, activities, and resources for home and school. 

Venues and organisations of all types and sizes were welcome to register events and activities — from libraries to community halls, heritage venues and country parks, schools and of course, museums and galleries. Individual artists and makers also took part. 

Activities ranged from a live-streamed session with an artist or special activity packs to digital challenges engaging with online collections, physical resources distributed by post or activity delivered over the phone — think outside the box! Events and activities were filtered by age and location. Think about whether you would like to connect to a specific type, or time in history or person from your local area, and what age groups you would like to engage. 

Organisers are welcome to revisit existing resources and activities to programme for Children’s Art Week 2021. So if you have activities, a campaign or a programme already in action, think about how you can respond to this year’s themes and join in! 

All registered events or activities, excluding private events registered by schools or organisations, must be free or low cost to participate in and must be able to be accessed or distributed remotely. Organisers will receive support from Engage to plan, run and publicise their events or activities. 

Registration will open at the end of May 2021. 

Bringing Children and Art Together, Children’s Art Week Children’s Art Week takes place in the UK and is organised by Engage. All over the country, various events will be held, giving young people and children the opportunity to get involved in various art activities. 

What is Engage?

Engage provides support and training for gallery education. Gallery education refers to a field that works to widen access to the visual arts for everyone. It works with gallery owners and visual arts organisations. The aim is to encourage families, young people, disabled people, older people and early years groups to be more engaged with visual arts. 

How Children’s Art Week is Celebrated

Engage invites various organisations such as schools, museums, galleries and community groups to organise various visual arts events. Support is provided for organisers with regards to planning, running and advertising events. 

Teachers who want to participate in the celebration can get hints and tips if they're going to plan a gallery visit. There are also ideas to include any gallery visits into the curriculum plan.