ArtForms, the Music Service within Leeds City Council, has been the lead organisation for the Leeds Music Education Partnership since 2011 (one of 118 nationally) and has been very successful in both drawing in Arts Council England, DfE, Youth Music funding, and utilising it to support children and schools in the city.
In 2023, Arts Council announced a national retender for Hub leads and included a reduction to 43 Hub areas nationally and, from 1st September 2024, the Leeds LA area will fall into a wider Music Hub covering all of West Yorkshire and encompassing Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees.
A rigorous application process opened in summer 2023 for interested parties to apply to be the new hubs leads, of which ArtForms along with Bradford Music and Arts Service, Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services worked relentlessly to propose a strong West Yorkshire Hub model to secure ongoing funding and to further increase opportunities in each area that both addressed the needs of each locality, as well as achieving the aims and ambition of the new National Plan for Music Education.
Following a national announcement from Arts Council England in May, we are excited to announce that the strategic consortium group of ArtForms, Bradford Music & Arts Service (representing the group as named Lead Organisation), Calderdale Music Trust, Musica Kirklees and Wakefield Music Services have secured ongoing £3.5million of annual funding into the region and a further £1.2m for refreshing Music Instrument resource. You can read the Arts Council release here Arts Council England announces new Music Hub Lead Organisations | Arts Council England.
We look forward to being able to not only continue our exciting range of opportunities for Leeds but also to developing it further for West Yorkshire by:
- appointing a range of Lead Schools to share good practice (information to be released in 2024-25)
- increased progression routes for children
- collaborative activities with a range of local, regional and national partner organisations
- increased support and opportunities for Musical Inclusion
- secure more funding streams to support high quality music experiences for children
- and so much more!
From September, look for information from both ArtForms AND the West Yorkshire Music Hub!
You can find out about all cashback and bursary offers for schools in Leeds here.
