Artemis

Background to Artemis

In April 2000, Northumberland LEA created a partnership with ISIS Arts to establish an Arts in Education Agency for Northumberland. The agency is called ARTEMIS. Three fifths of the funding for the agency comes from the Standards Fund Schools Causing Concern Budget.

From 1998 to 2000, Northumberland has benefited from a regional, lottery funded project "The Arts are Ours". Northumberland chose to focus activity on issues which schools wanted to tackle. These Making a Difference projects used the arts as a process to help achieve non arts outcomes. The overall success of Making a Differ ence, together with a deeply held belief amongst the agency's partners that well targeted and planned, good quality arts work can provide an effective intervention strategy, has provided the confidence to invest more money in this area.

Background to ISIS Arts

Founded in 1991, ISIS Arts is a non-profit making, artist led, community business, Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear. ISIS inifiates and manages artist residencies, productions and exhibitions and works with approximately 50 artists a year on collaborative projects and events. It has a track record of providing quality arts projects to benefit individual artists, schools and communities alike, whilst promoting the profes sional status of the artist. With a busy digital studio, ISIS energetically promotes an interdisciplinary approach to the use of new media in the arts.

Since setting up ISIS has carried out a broad range of artists in schools projects as well as working closely with the youth service to develop out of hours schools projects. During the past 9 years we have placed artists in 121 schools in North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead, Northumberland, Cumbria and County Durham.

ISIS Arts is managed by a committed team of directors who aim to make a significant contribution to improving the cultural climate in the Northern Region. To this end, ISIS Arts seeks to introduce and make accessible the arts to a wide audience and broad section of the community.