News and Blog – Page 7 – Southampton Cultural Education Partnership

SCEP EXPO in Pictures

Cultural practitioners and organisations alongside educators, health workers and youth agencies came together at the John Hansard Gallery on 21 November 2022 for the Southampton Cultural Education Partnership (SCEP) EXPO.

Photographs: Nosa Malcolm

This well-attended event, the first in-person event for over two years, was held to showcase the diverse, cultural education offer of SCEP member organisations available for children and young people across Southampton. It included networking opportunities, a gallery tour, a stunning vocal performance by a student from Redbridge Community School. Sam Cairns, SCEP Transition Manager and Lucy Marder, Artswork presented how Arts Awards and Artsmark can enhance learning for children and different settings.

Louise Coysh, SCEP Interim Lead and Associate Director of Arts and Culture, University of Southampton, said, “The SCEP’s power is connecting people. It was amazing to have our growing community back together again, joined by our Creative Mentors and Cultural Connectors, to share the city’s exciting cultural offers and ambitions for children and young people.”

If you want to learn more about SCEP, become a member, hear about future events, or to join our mailing list, please email us

OPPORTUNITY – Closes 14 Dec: Creative Mentoring Opportunity for Young People

Do you work with children and young people? Do you know a young person who would benefit from having a Creative Mentor

10 people gathered together in white room - 6 Creative Mentoring Scheme participants, SCEP Programme Manager and SoCo Music Project trainers. — SCEP Creative Mentors Scheme, Day One, 11 November 2022

SCEP is offering a mentoring opportunity for six young people (aged 11 to 18) with one of our Creative Mentors, as part of the Better Lives Through Culture Programme:

One-to-one mentoring for young people from our trained Creative Mentors (early career creatives) from Southampton
Fortnightly mentoring sessions (approximately one to two hours) from January to March 2023
Mentors from a range of backgrounds including Photography, Visual Art, Theatre and Drama, Craft, Textiles, Film, Music, Sound Technology, Spoken Word and Poetry
All Mentors DBS Enhance checked

Updates & Intros: Better Lives Through Culture

In partnership with Artswork

SCEP Team and Cultural Curriculum Partners

After months of work behind the scenes, the SCEP team is excited to share our progress on the Better Lives Through Culture programme (BLTC) and introduce you to some new and familiar faces joining us.

Through BLTC, the SCEP sets out to increase the number of children and young people benefiting from cultural education from priority groups in Southampton, through a strengthened cross-sector framework.

After months of preparation, call-outs and recruitment for partners and creative practitioners from our SCEP community, we’re thrilled to be entering a busy period of delivery. Here we share what we have been up to, behind the scenes, across the programme’s two strands:

Understanding Cultural Capital

How Arts and Culture can enhance Southampton School Curriculums

Connecting Culture, 2021.
A student at Mount Pleasant Junior School, Bevois, Southampton, with their Arts Award Discover certificate. — Connecting Culture Research Project, 2021.
A student at Mount Pleasant Junior School, Bevois, Southampton, with their Arts Award Discover certificate.

The SCEP is a consortium of diverse organisations working together, hosted by the University of Southampton, to nurture creative and cultural education for all children and young people in the City. 

This workshop, held online on Monday 4 July, is part of the SCEP Transition Programme training offer of Southampton Cultural Education Partnership (SCEP), in partnership with Artswork.

Colleagues listened to five presentations given by cultural leaders and educators from the Cultural Learning Alliance, Mount Pleasant Junior School, The Polygon School, Redbridge Community School and Regents Park Community School, that discussed how they defined cultural capital in their own setting and how we could all work together across Southampton to ensure every child has an arts-rich education that develops their potential.

Below is the introductory presentation to Cultural Capital. Additionally SCEP Members can view three of the five event presentations via the SCEP Sharepoint Site.*

What is Cultural Capital?

Sam Cairns, Co-Director, Cultural Learning Alliance

*SCEP Membership is free and open to individuals and organisations engaging in cultural education for children and young people in Southampton. For more details and how to join, visit our Members page.

SCEP EXPO comes to John Hansard Gallery

Monday 21 November 2022, from 3.30pm

Southampton Cultural Education Partnership will be hosting an open event for those working in education to discover the Cultural Education opportunities Southampton has to offer.

Join Southampton Cultural Education Partnership for socialising, light refreshments and networking at John Hansard Gallery.

This event will bring together cultural organisations, education settings, youth agencies and health professionals to understand the cultural education offer in Southampton.

Refreshments will be provided.

The timetable for the Expo is as follows:

3.30pm SCEP members arrival
4.00pm Teachers, youth agencies and health professionals arrival
4.15pm Talks, networking and gallery viewing
5.30pm end of event

SCEP Members have the option to hold a stall during the Expo. There is limited availability, so early registration is a must. Once all slots have been taken, we will run a waitlist and may release more places closer to the event date.

Book now

Many thanks to our SCEP partners at John Hansard Gallery for providing the venue for this event, and our partners at Artswork.

For any further questions, please get in touch with the team at scep@soton.ac.uk.