Arts Centre Melbourne Launches 2014 Education Program

Australia's largest performing arts centre, Arts Centre Melbourne has recently launched their 2014 Education Program for performing arts, music and learning workshops.

Arts Centre Melbourne Chief Executive Judith Isherwood said, "This education program a particularly important part of our organisation because it is through engaging young people today that a vibrant arts culture will be ensured for the future - creating audiences, artists, supporters and donors, with the aim of keeping the performing arts relevant and an important part of people's everyday lives," she said.

"In 2014, the program for primary and secondary students contains a kaleidoscope of activities that celebrate reinvention, from live performance and workshops to an online learning program and programs based on arts and technology. There is also a specific program aimed at teacher professional learning," she said.

With performances, digital learning tools and workshops for primary and secondary students, Arts Centre Melbourne Education Program is designed to facilitate quality learning and lasting engagement with the performing arts.

In 2014, highlights include productions such as Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton's best-selling book reimagined in a stage show The 13-Storey Treehouse and direct from Sweden Aston's Stones.

Other highlights include, direct from Ireland's Theatre Lovett a season of The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly and direct from Denmark a Gruppe 38 production of Hans Christian, You Must Be An Angel.

Workshops include an acting and storytelling workshop called Stories That Sing: Performance Making and a Circus Oz Workshop by acclaimed Circus Oz trainers and performers. There are also workshops in the purpose-built Digital Learning Hub teaching video editing, script writing, music composition and arrangement.

There will also be arts access funds available including the First Call Fund as well as ArtsConnect9, of which their own program will be launched early next year.

Supported by Arts Centre Melbourne donors, the First Call Fund provides a subsidy towards the cost of participation in programs for schools. Established in 2008 by Arts Centre Melbourne supporters and generously supported by Victoria's art lovers, the First Call Fund provides subsidy to primary and secondary schools facing barriers of access to live performance and related programs owing to distance, disadvantage or special circumstances.

Since it began in 1997, ArtsConnect9 has introduced regional Year 9 students to Melbourne's cultural treasures - its theatres, galleries, museums and libraries - and the outstanding local, national and international events they present.

Arts Centre Melbourne Education Program takes place onsite, in schools and online and are designed to develop key competencies, critical thinking and creativity. It supports teachers by aligning to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and AusVELS, and has been thematically curated to align with curriculum learning areas such as sustainability, identity and theatre arts.

Since it began in 1983, Arts Centre Melbourne Education Program has engaged between 50,000 and 70,000 primary and secondary students each year, with up to thirty creative programs and special events.