​How to...present your arts practice

You've decided you're going to take up dance classes or start learning to play the guitar as your arts practice for your Arts Award. Great!

​How to...present your arts practice

It's going to be a lot of fun and you're going to develop your creative skills a whole deal. That being said you're also going to have to evidence yourself taking part and learning this new practise but how do you go about doing that?

Of course there are so many different mediums using which you can go about presenting your Arts Award; it doesn't have to be just writing. Photos, vlogs, feedback from friends, videos, drawings, crafts – as long as it does the job it needs to, which is telling us what you've been up to in order to achieve your Award. When doing my Arts Award, in this particular section I found it easiest to follow this structure: Tell me, show me, make me. In those six words lies the key to achieving the Arts Practice section of your Arts Award and I'll explain how.

Tell me

This means you need to show to the moderator who looks at your Award what it is you're doing. Treat them as if they're an alien and don't even know what 'acting' or 'sewing' is and explain it to them to help them understand. Then, you need to let them know how you intend to go about doing this. Are you attending an after school club? Learning from YouTube videos? If you're beginning your Arts Challenge at Silver level, then what is it and how are you going to go about achieving it?

Show me

This refers to the fact that you need to demonstrate what it is you've been doing. This is where things can start to get more detailed. Show us exactly what it is you're learning and what you need to do in order to be a pro at it. How exactly do you hit that really high note? We want to hear it. What's the key to creating a new recipe? We want to see the dish. Show the examiner that you really are doing the new Arts Practise you say you are and make sure you include things that physically show this, like photos of you making artwork or feedback from a friend you performed to.

Make me

Last of all you need to make me want to do it, too – or at least think of it like this. Look back on what you've achieved while doing your Arts Award and tell us what you've learnt and what skills you've developed. Demonstrate to us what got you excited about this art form in the first place and tell us what you think. Reflection is crucial; even if it's negative and you hated whatever you've been doing from start to finish let us know what it was like. I would also suggest asking yourself 'why?' as much as possible. Telling us how you felt about something means so much more if you express why.

If you do all of this and present the information in a way that's understandable, you'll pass easily. Just remember if I were looking at your work you'd need to tell me what you've done, show me how you've done it, and make me want to do it myself.

Image courtesy of Flickr/veronicajenn

Author

Carli Green

Carli Green Activist

Hi, I'm Carli. I'm part of this years team of Arts Award Activists. I'm an aspiring actor with an interest in anything dramatic. I am currently working for Prime Theatre in Swindon running workshops and leading performance projects. Generally just trying to learn as much as I can and pass on as much knowledge as possible.

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