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What is AccessArt - who is it aimed at

AccessArt will be a valuable meeting place for teachers, gallery educators and artists to exchange ideas as well as a fun, creative and dynamic learning tool for pupils across all the key stages, and for home-users. From this site, you can access:

• A series of visually exciting and innovative 'online workshops', specially created by AccessArt. The online workshops will condense and articulate events, ideas or workshops that take place in museum and gallery education programmes or schools. The workshops will be aimed at various ages, and the selection of workshops will grow as the site expands.
• Teachers Notes and Printable Resource Material. Each online workshop will be accompanied by explanatory notes for the educators and printable resource material which can be used directly by the workshop participant.
• Web sites of particular providers/recipients of the workshops featured.
• External links to related and complementary sites.

What is special about AccessArt

AccessArt gives users access to arts educational activities that would otherwise reach only a small audience. It's important for us that the activities represented on this site are immediately engaging - we want to make sure that using AccessArt is as enjoyable as possible.

Rather than present the workshops in a text-based format, we are committed to creating a visual online experience. Each workshop will be pitched at the end target user, and represent the flavour of the actual workshop which took place in a museum/gallery or school.

Although the online workshops are based on actual workshops we are most excited about the possibilities of making material specifically for the Internet. Printable material will provide a way for the participant to take the ideas they have experienced through the online workshop a step further and to use in the creation/understanding of other artwork.

Who manages AccessArt

AccessArt is the web site of The Arts Education Exchange, a non-profit making organisation, which was constituted in April 1999. The Arts Education Exchange was founded by Paula Briggs and Sheila Ceccarelli, graduates of the Royal College of Art, London.

Paula and Sheila founded a second organisation in 1995 called Cambridge Sculpture Workshops. It was through their work in arts education in schools, galleries and museums that they identified a need for a central and engaging source of information relating to arts education issues, in particular to sharing good practice amongst teachers, educators and artists. The Arts Education Exchange was born.

During its first five quarters AccessArt was funded by the Department for Education and Employment's Museum and Gallery Education Programme, and The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. From April 2001 to March 2002 AccessArt will be supported by the East England Arts Regional Arts Lottery Programme.