AccessArt has always advocated for the role artists can play in creating dynamic, engaging and relevant art education experiences for the whole community. We have seen through the AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum how activities that were devised, trialled and tested in community settings, led by artists working with small groups, have then been very successfully transferred into more formal education settings. Artists bring to education an opening of what is possible, together with a depth of understanding and clarity of purpose. Artists help educators ask important and often challenging questions: What is the purpose of art education, and how can we best inspire and enable?

AccessArt has been at the forefront of this approach for 25 years, and we have helped thousands of schools, organisations and individual artist educators transform their practice. Our recently launched Tiny Art School Movement is helping to encourage artists to reflect upon their potential as educators and to work with local communities.

Now we are ready to open the first ever AccessArt Lab as part of our continuing commitment to push the boundaries of what is possible when artists and educators from all settings work together. Led by Paula Briggs, Creative Director of AccessArt and the AccessArt Lab, the studio at Stapleford Granary, Cambridge, will provide a space for an ongoing creative (and practical) conversation between AccessArt and our audience.

“We are very excited about the potential of the AccessArt Lab. We’ll be using the space to devise and test new content, especially around the creation of resources for teenagers, and around how we nurture creative thinking for all. But over and above these key areas, we’ll be exploring (and celebrating) what it is like for learners to enjoy being in a space of “not knowing.” Too often, education focuses on the accumulation of precise and nameable knowledge, and then on measuring knowledge retention. Art provides a valuable alternative to this kind of thinking, providing opportunities to acknowledge there are other types of intelligence, and that there is real value in helping learners and teachers experience the benefits of operating in a space of play, feeling safe but inspired in the space of “not knowing… yet,” and empowered by personal discovery.

As a predominantly digital organisation with a national and international reach, the AccessArt Lab will provide an opportunity for us to engage with audiences in new ways, and of course everything we learn and create in the Lab will be shared with all our audiences via the AccessArt website. We are excited to see how this develops into what we hope will be a vibrant and meaningful creative conversation, helping our combined voice and expertise to be heard across all settings, and to help affect change.”