LONDON.- A multi-media award show will be held on 31 July at Bow Arts Trust to celebrate the achievement of nearly 100 young Arts Award recipients from 15 Arts Award centres from all parts of London. 450 young people in London have achieved an Arts Award since the programme launched in 2005.

The Arts Award is the first qualification to nurture and recognise young people’s development through the arts and celebrated its 1000th achiever in June this year.

The programme will include music, dance, photography, web design, film, fashion, sculpture and painting, and 40 Arts Award young artists will be presenting their work and helping to run the event.

Supported by figures from arts and popular culture including Graham Norton, John Hegley, Richard E Grant, Benjamin Zephaniah and Sam Taylor-Wood, the Arts Award offers young people aged 11-25 a unique opportunity to use the arts to develop their creativity, communication, planning and leadership skills.

Amongst the first Arts Award achievers is Jessica Costello who achieved her Silver Arts Award at Sedgehill Scool in Lewisham. It was through the Arts Award programme and access to Canon equipment that she developed an interest in digital photography.

Jessica has created an exhibition of her work for the London Arts Award Celebration, where she will receive the prize of a Canon camera & photo printer in recognition of her achievement. It will be presented to her by Neil McLeod from Canon’s London Business Centre.

Osman Bah recently completed his Bronze Arts Award with Project Phakama, an arts exchange programme which has been working mainly with young, unaccompanied refuges and asylum seekers in London. For part of his Bronze Arts Award Osman worked with the London International Festival of Theatre’s radio artists on the Sultan Elephant event which took place in London last year.

Head of Arts Award, Diana Walton comments: “The arts have tremendous power to engage young people. As well as encouraging young people to enjoy and take part in the arts, the Arts Award develops skills that will help young people to be versatile employees in all sectors. It’s about young people setting themselves challenges and learning to experiment and take responsibility as well as developing their creativity.”

Since it was launched in 2005, young people from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances have taken part in the Arts Award. These include young people in schools and in youth projects, young artists, participants in youth orchestras and youth theatres, young offenders, young parents, refugees and young people with disabilities.

The scheme recognises the whole spectrum of arts and media activities including performing arts, visual arts, craft and design, literature, media and multimedia and new art forms. Young people can take part in many different ways from creating their own work and performing to DJ-ing, editing, promoting or operating a camera. As well as participating in the arts, young people visit arts events, research jobs in the arts and lead their own arts projects.

The Arts Award is run through a partnership between Arts Council England and Trinity Guildhall, supported by Canon (UK) Ltd. It is an accredited QCA qualification and sits on the National Qualifications Framework at levels 1, 2 and 3.