Major BBC campaign launches to encourage the UK to Get Creative
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
The BBC has launched a major campaign to challenge people to get creative
Radio1 DJ Nick Grimshaw VanGosHimself for the launch of BBC's Get CreativeIn London, Cardiff, Belfast and Nottingham launch events have been extolling the virtues of creativity with celebrities sharing some of their artistic hobbies – from Alastair Campbell playing the bagpipes, to Radio 1 Dj Nick Grimshaw recreating a painting with the help of Culture24’s VanGoYourself website.
The year-long celebration of British arts and culture has been created by the BBC in partnership with the cultural movement, What Next, which seeks to bring together arts and cultural organisations to highlight and strengthen the role of culture in society.
As well as calling on a range of cultural partners including Culture24, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Arts Council England and many others, the Get Creative campaign will be backed by a raft of BBC programming on TV and radio. A new series of web pages within BBC Arts online will lead visitors to creative resources, courses, events and ideas.
Culure24 is providing visual art listings drawn from the UK’s museums and galleries on a web page designed to help people find creative courses, workshops and exhibitions for inspiration.
A group of 100 champions - drawn from amateur and professional arts organisations across the UK - have also signed up to the campaign and will actively encourage people to try a range of cultural activities from picking up a paint brush to having a go at dance or theatre.
BBC Director General, Tony Hall, said the BBC was “linking with more organisations than ever before” to get the campaign under way.
“What I hope we can offer – and it’s something only the BBC can offer – is the ability to reach people everywhere. To inspire everyone to make art or do something creative,” he added.
A series of Get Creative BBC radio debates highlighting the value of engaging in a range of art forms from dance to painting will investigate whether the arts improve the quality of life. BBC Arts TV programming will also back the campaign, beginning with the Big Painting Challenge, which airs this Sunday.
Among the celebrities backing the campaign are Dame Judi Dench, Kate Moss, Frank Skinner, Claudia Winkleman, Michael Palin and Johnny Vegas who was on hand at today’s London launch to show off his pottery skills with a demonstration on how to make a teapot on a potter’s wheel in under a minute.
Vegas, under the watchful gaze of BBC’s Creative Director Alan Yentob, also revealed how pottery “literally saved me” when he was struggling at school . “It gave me a real belief in my ideas,” said the comedian.
Actor Timothy Spall also revealed how at school he veered between a career in the army or as an artist and was helped by “teachers who showed me the connections”.
“I was liberated by creativity,” said the award-winning actor who also said one of his formative artistic experiences was being allowed to make an art installation at school with pubic hair and apples, which he nailed to classroom walls.
"Art is the most wholesome bed of soil in which to plant a seed in a young mind" he added.
- To find out more about Get Creative visit the website www.bbc.co.uk/ get-creative
- Visit Culture24’s Get Creative page at www.culture24.org.uk/get-creative
- To make a cultural selfie visit www.vangoyuorself.org
