About the Project

youthartsonline.org is being developed as a dedicated directory or “portal” aimed at two main audiences:

• young people who want information about opportunities in the arts wherever they live in the UK
• youth arts practitioners and organisations who want to provide young people with information about workshops, training, courses and events.

youthartsonline.org also provides a place online for networking, exchange of information and the promotion of young people’s work.

The project is based at Paddington Arts in West London. Paddington Arts is committed to developing talent and creativity in the community by encouraging young people to use the arts for self-expression and career development. There are workshops in dance, drama, video, singing and design, and productions of original work for stage and screen. We are sure that the values at the heart of our work – access, excellence, education and fun – are shared by all the organisations listed on youthartsonline.org

The team responsible for developing youthartsonline.org is led by

Steve Shaw, Founder and Director of Paddington Arts who has overseen the growth of the company from once a week dance and drama workshops in a church hall, to an organisation that owns and manages its own Performing Arts and Media Centre for Young People, open seven days a week. Developing Youth Arts Online is a new and exciting challenge and Steve is responsible for overall Project Management and Development.

Christopher Wyld has edited much of the content on the site. He has worked at the BBC and Business in the Community, and most recently was Chief Executive of Children’s Express, a charity running a national programme of learning through journalism for young people. He is now a director of Duckdriver Ltd, which develops network web directories for businesses.

Fabia Claris was the main researcher for youthartsonline, finding out about and contacting hundreds of organisations all over the country. She is a freelance arts manager and researcher whose recent projects include work for London Youth Arts Network and the Jelly Leg'd Chicken Arts Centre in Reading, where she was education co-ordinator. She has both a visual arts and an academic training and her other freelance work includes teaching, examining, translating and copy-editing. She has 4 children and lives in Camden.

Tanya Harris, who conducted the interviews featured on the site has worked as a visual arts project manager, artist, photographer and filmmaker. She worked in the film and television industry for seven years in America and the U.K. Currently running educational arts workshops around London, Tanya is interested in working with a variety of groups on large-scale public arts productions and believes art can be an agent for change.

Angela McConville, who has developed the online “portfolio” space for young artists, is Head of Community Learning for The Erinaceous Group. Queens Park New Media Centre in west London is one of the projects under her direction (www.qpnmc.com) Previously Angela was a Learning Solutions Management Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Her interests include theatre, reading and travel.

Juliet Maingay-Cooper has developed the marketing and publicity strategy for youthartsonline. Graduating in Drama & Film from Bristol University, she has worked as a publicist for many films, including Amelie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Billy Elliott, and for the Michael Clark dance company. She teaches dance to children at a number of London venues including the Tricycle Theatre.

Youthartsonline has been built and designed by Adaptive Technologies, a Brighton based company which produces leading-edge interactive media including websites, kiosk presentations and authoring tools. Adaptive Technologies creates products tailored to the information they deliver, the people who use them and the environment in which they are placed. Clients include Somerset House, the Gilbert Collection and the Museum of London.

Youthartsonline is funded by A Glimmer of Hope UK, which seeks to make a significant and lasting improvement to the lives of excluded young people in the United Kingdom. It funds projects that directly benefit young people under the age of 25 which show an enterprising approach and focus on building self-esteem and life skills.

As an independent funder, A Glimmer of Hope is able to take risks and fund innovative projects. While the foundation does fund projects that employ tried and true solutions to social exclusion such as sports, the arts, the performing arts and information technology training, it is also willing to consider programmes trying to help hard to reach young people through previously untried methods.

A Glimmer of Hope’s trustees will consider all project proposals based on individual merit. Since it began in 2001, A Glimmer of Hope UK has contributed more than £650,000 to 22 projects.