Early arts fears for new portfolio

Fears that Arts Council England’s (ACE) new National Portfolio does not involve many organisations that deliver arts for, by or with very young children has raised questions as to how ACE will fulfil its national objective “that children engage with the arts early in their lives”. The only funded organisations that will have a brokering role between the arts and education sectors will be ten ‘bridging organisations’, and EarlyArts, the professional development network for people working with very young children and families in the arts and cultural sector, is concerned that there will be no specific early years brief in their remit. It fears that organisations currently delivering work for very young children will “have to reposition themselves within a schools remit if they are to take advantage of any partnerships with the bridging organisations”. Earlyarts, which has almost 6,000 members, is now preparing a map of creative early years practice, to raise the profile of early years arts across the world. Arts organisations involved in this type of work are invited to register to put themselves on the map and submit case studies of their work which can be linked to the map.