Families across London can enjoy art, music, drama, filmmaking or dance together at Tate Britain, British Film Institute and five other new projects, funded by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG).

Funding announced today of £1.4 million comes from BIG’s Family Learning programme which brings together grandparents, parents, carers and children from disadvantaged areas and encourages them to develop new skills through creative techniques and learn from each other.

With its award of £480,000, Tate Britain will work in Westminster and Lambeth to ensure that families with children under five years old from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds can participate in a range of creative and learning activities together.

The Big and Small project will develop a programme of weekly workshops and regular holiday events that offer learning opportunities involving music, drama, poetry and art, including painting, photography and collage to help develop communication skills. Project partners include the Soho Family Centre, Marsham Street and Portman Children's Centres, Pimlico Toy Library, Cardinal Hume Centre and CityWest Homes.

Felicity Allen, Head of Learning at Tate Britain, said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Big Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of this significance to Tate Britain’s Family Learning programme. The grant will help us to build on our award-winning programme of creative, play-based and informal learning with Westminster and Lambeth families. There is a huge demand for arts-based activities locally, and this generous grant will enable us to lead the way over the next five years, in engaging children and their carers, both at the gallery and in the local community.”

Participatory workshops are also at the heart of the IROKO Theatre project, which will use its £158,308 award to enable families with children aged five to 16 in the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge develop communication skills together through traditional African storytelling and numeracy skills with the Ancient Benin Kingdom Rule of the Thumb.

Alex Oma-Pius, Artistic Director, IROKO Theatre Company, said, “This grant is good news indeed and the benefit to our immediate community is huge.  Most of our target group is families with English as a second language or who may have had negative experiences of education and are in need of a different approach to learning or acquiring life skills in a fun, relaxed and non-judgemental environment. “

In the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, organisations are working together to develop greater opportunities for families and strengthen the community. The Big Family Story: Pathways to Learning project, organised by Melcombe Primary School in partnership with the parent-run Family Learning Association (FLAME), will use its £115,951 award to involve families in after-school clubs and holiday activities.

The clubs will include activities such as family story making, father and child web page design, family music, fitness classes, swimming lessons and cooking sessions.  There will also be trips to local leisure and cultural facilities and to the countryside and seaside.

Lucy Richardson, Chair of the Steering Committee for the Big Family Story, said: “The Big Lottery Fund grant will enable us to offer real opportunities to experience a healthier lifestyle and to get to know the local area and facilities. We will bring together families, including those from ethnic groups, with English as a second language and refugee families, to improve their skills, knowledge and confidence.

The project will contribute to a greater understanding of how to learn and how to assist children in their learning. It will also promote knowledge and appreciation of different cultures. “

The Airborne Families project, awarded £177,621, also aims to improve the skills, confidence, self esteem, educational involvement and relationships of family members. The project, run by Scarabeus Theatre, uses aerial and flying techniques, physical theatre and yoga to work with parents and carers and their children at ten Islington Schools, from early years to secondary, including special needs.

Daniela Essart, Artistic Director, Scarabeus Theatre, said: “This grant will enable us to benefit lots of families in deprived areas of Islington.  Apart from helping families to bond, our workshops are a fantastic opportunity to encourage parents to support their children and demonstrate to the families that it is fun to learn together.

“Well beyond flying, this work will engage and raise aspirations of families in a fun, safe and creative environment - improving skills, confidence and self-esteem in the participants and enabling stronger working partnerships between the schools and families."

The Akademi South Asian Dance, based in Hampstead, will use media technology as well as music and dance in workshops and performances at local art and community centres exploring cultural heritage and migration. With a £171,104 award, its Who We Are project will target socially and economically excluded families with children aged 11-16 in Brent and Barnet. The project will result in a public production to family, friends, peers and the wider community to demonstrate the family’s skills and their enjoyment of family learning.

Christina Christou, Akademi’s Education and Community Consultant, said, “We are delighted that we can now develop a structure that gives time and space for families to develop creative ideas together whilst learning and having fun. We are especially pleased that the Big Lottery Fund is supporting the involvement of a learning advisor to develop participants’ appetite for further learning and to give them support on the programme.”

In addition, the British Film Institute and Futurelab partnered Campaign for Learning will use its award of £268,911 to offer children aged two to 16 and their dads, granddads, step-dads or other male carers enjoyable, innovative and stimulating family learning opportunities in film, animation, new media and technology.

Activities in their project, Dads in Demand: Developing a New Family Learning Curriculum for Dads with Dads will include model making, mask making, drama and digital technology. The project will develop family members’ learning skills relating to language, communication, analysis and ICT. It will be piloted in North Solihull and then extended next year to locations in Newcastle and London.

Debbie Pippard, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for London, said: “Through these projects many families in the capital that face disadvantages or hardship will be able to share new positive experiences, enjoy being creative and build better relationships with one another.  The funding announced today will help strengthen the families involved, which in turn will lead to a positive impact on their local community.”

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• The Family Learning programme helps parents to understand more about how their children learn and encourages adults and children to learn together as a family. It closed for applications on August 29, 2008.
• Up to £40 million is available through the programme and applicants can apply for grants of a minimum of £10,000 and a maximum of £500,000.
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.