Arts Council England MOU

Introduction

In February 2020 Anglian Learning and Arts Council England created a formal partnership through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by Darren Henley, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, and Jonathan Culpin, Anglian Learning’s CEO.

The Arts Council is the national development agency for arts, museums and libraries in England, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery and so Anglian Learning is very proud to have this formal agreement. We believe we are currently the only Trust in the country to have such a relationship with Arts Council England.

At the formal signing Jonathan Culpin said: “We are delighted to be working in co-operation with the Arts Council England as we advance our ambition of embedding arts and culture across our academies. The formalising of this MOU demonstrates our commitment to work with arts and heritage partners in designing a culture-rich curriculum that enables all pupils to advance their creative skills and literacy regardless of their background or starting point.”

Members of Anglian Learning met with members of Arts Council England in December 2023

School Improvement Project

An initial joint project resulting from this partnership saw Anglian Learning and Arts Council England looking at the impact of arts and culture on whole school improvement, with Howard Community Academy the focus of this project. The project ran over an Artsmark cycle, following the school on its journey, which ended with the school’s award of Artsmark Gold. Consultant David Parker charted the school’s progression in a report, which you can read in the downloads section below.

Pupils of Howard Community Academy celebrate their Gold Artsmark Award