Who’s Who:
Carol Leach, BAHons, BSc, DipM, Director
Carol has led the Arts Award since it's inception in the UK, and was a Moderator for five years. She has led the Arts Awards for a variety of different organisations, including schools, youth groups, home education groups and clubs, and currently supports an online programme and several youth programmes and groups, and is leading in the way in provision for home educators. Carol is an experienced textiles artist who has exhibited locally and sold several important pieces, a scientist and a historian, who leads workshops for youngsters in most visual art forms. Carol is the chief organizer of the holiday schools for AAI.
Michaela Stephens BSc, Teacher and Adviser
Michaela is a bio-medical scientist with a profound interest in the arts. Her forte is specifically scientific illustration, but she is interested in all aspects of the arts and is a capable artist in many artforms. She was one of the first people in the UK to take a Gold Arts Award at age 14, and has worked for AAI for 10 years, collecting national awards from NAGC and PPUK for her progression of the arts for young people. Currently she leads workshops in science and art and tutors in most aspects of the national curriculum and particularly enjoys offering cross curricular experiences for young people.
Eloise Leach, Adviser
Eloise is the youngest member of the group, at 20. Her forte is geometric mandalas and digital illustration, working with pen and compass to create intricate patterning, which she recreates online. As a home educated student she enjoyed spending a lot of time on art, and passed her Bronze, Silver and Gold Arts Award very young. She has also passed Crest Bronze and Silver, and enjoys experimental science which results in works of art.
What's What? What can Arts Award Initiative offer you?
Are you a student who wants to take an Arts Award?
We can help you to make decisions about your arts programme which will help you to achieve your potential in artforms of your choice; and show you how to structure your work to your best advantage. Our programmes are normally online and you will get a lot of support as you work, but we can also offer online tuition through Zoom.
Are you a parent?
We can offer programmes for your child which will suit their needs and requirements at an affordable price and with a minimum of fuss.
Are you the leader of a youth group?
We can tailor programmes to suit your group, supported remotely, and cheaply and efficiently. Please discuss your individual needs with us on 07973846731.
Are you a school?
With tailored school programmes we can offer gifted and talented clubs, or full school year programmes at a cost which you can afford. Please discuss your individual needs with us on 07973846731.
What is the difference between an Arts Award and other qualifications?
Arts Awards suffer from being misunderstood, whilst being equivalent to GCSE/A levels they are not GCSE's and they are not A levels; they are a different kind of qualification with a different focus.
Obviously, all these the qualifications are focused on learning about different art forms and media and all levels of the Arts Award focus on expanding and enhancing art skills and understanding.
However, they do so in slightly different ways to GCSE/A levels.
They are equivalent to them in 'points' value but have different expectations.
Subject matter varies much more with Arts Award, you can learn about any art form or media as it encompasses everything which can be called ‘art’ - and at AAI we have seen just about all the different art forms there are, from fire juggling, oboe playing, jazz dance, cake decorating, and illustration, to name just a few. Arts Awards accredits the young person as they undertake work they would have undertook anyway, they follow their passions.
Arts Award allows you to specialise. Although Art is the foundation for this qualification, and art skills are explored at Discover, Explore and Bronze level, and progressed exponentially at Silver and Gold level, Arts Award has a different depth of learning. Particularly, when taking Silver and Gold Arts Award, you study specific art forms/media in depth and you learn a lot about how artists in your field work in the community - it is, therefore, a very practical qualification for a young person who wants to work in any artistic profession and some professions, such as illustration, value this deeper understanding of the artistic community and the way it communicates with the world.
When Arts Award was conceived it was granted its accreditation as a qualification different to GCSE/A level for the strength of the researching, reviewing and reporting skills which the student learns. Hence it is a valuable qualification to take if you want to learn skills for life - and many students use it to get into professions which value these skills - not just the practical arts such as illustration, architecture etc. but others such as science, teaching etc.
To clarify ‘points’, follow through with the most up to date information from Trinity which compares them as qualifications: http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=1971; there are links on this page which you should follow for further information.
Please be aware, some colleges/6th forms prefer the Arts Award to GCSE/A level Art, but not all will -because the content is different. If you are taking an Arts Award because you want to take a specific course you MUST speak to your course administrators in advance.