CFL Wish 7 spotlight: Leeds33, ArtForms and the Leeds Music Education Partnership

Across Leeds, there are organisations working hard to ensure that children and young people have a broad range of opportunities as they grow up. This includes opportunities to develop on talents within the Arts, Film and Sports, and to have cultural experiences which nurture a wider understanding of the world and provide new skills. You might have heard of ‘cultural capital’, which is all about children and young people having as many cultural experiences as possible growing up as it gives them a broader skillset and more ‘tools’ for life.
Here, we are shining a spotlight on three organisations who help to bring Culture, Arts and Music to children and young people across Leeds by working in partnerships with other groups across the city: Leeds33; ArtForms; and Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP).
Leeds33, formally known as ‘LeedsCEP’, know the importance of cultural education and the positive impact it can have on us. They are a partnership of organisations who make sure that cultural educational opportunities are available for children and young people in Leeds.
By ‘teaming up’ in one partnership, the organisations can work together better. Leeds33 help to promote the offers from all their partners and celebrate amazing things happening. By sharing good practice, Leeds33 helps to push cultural education forwards so that more children and young people have better opportunities.
We work in partnership to empower children and young people through arts and culture in Leeds.
Leeds33
Leeds33 projects…
Last year, Leeds33 championed partnership working by delivering the Cultural Education Conference alongside LEEDS 2023, bringing together over 125 stakeholders from across sectors.
We had a series of talks and panel discussions with experts from the sector with our keynote speaker Erica Whyman OBE, the former Artist Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She spoke on leading with courage, reflecting on working in long-term creative partnership.
Another key project that explored cultural capital was Culture on the Doorstep. Working in partnership with two primary schools, their teachers, young people, community members, and local organisations and artists, we delivered a suite of interrelated activities. These included deliberative forums and workshops, participatory mapping, and co-design activities, exploring relationships between place, learning, and cultural capital in the curriculum, through the concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods.
As part of the 0-19 Learning Improvement Team within Children and Families, Leeds City Council, ArtForms is committed to providing high quality arts and cultural opportunities, including continuing professional development training and practitioner led projects delivered in school
ArtForms
ArtForms work across Music and the Arts ensuring that children and young people in Leeds have access to services. As well as providing training to teachers, to help integrate the Arts into more schools, ArtForms write updates on their website to keep everyone in the loop with the latest.
ArtForms is another partnership organisation, working alongside Leeds33 and LMEP as well as many other teams and services, to provide opportunities.
Leeds Music Education Partnership (LMEP)

Click on the image to be taken to the website.
The LMEP have a number of key aims. They want to make sure that:
- children aged 5-18 have the opportunity to play an instrument in an ensemble group.
- there are opportunities to perform in groups from an early age.
- children can progress in music, and that this is affordable
- every pupil has regular opportunities to sing, and that there are singing groups available in their area.
They also:
- provide training to school staff
- provide instrument loan services
- provide opportunities for children to access bigger, high-quality music experiences.
LMEP’s lead partner, ArtForms, is delighted to have been awarded Artsmark Partner status. Schools embarking on their Artsmark journey can be confident that music activities and support services provided by LMEP are approved and appropriate for inclusion in their Artsmark music development plans.
LMEP



