Art Bytes: Online Art Competition to Celebrate Visual Arts in Schools

Art Bytes, a not-for profit social enterprise, is a new national Ed-Tech programme, born from nine years success of the dot-Art Schools programme in the North West region. Art Bytes is an online, inter-school art competition taking place annually, with a mission to champion creativity at a national level. The competition is designed to build confidence, raise ambitions and nature talent, allowing children and young people to see galleries as places "for them" and encourage future cultural engagement.

In a society where we need to continue to build valuable cultural capital in our students and tackle the disadvantage gap that we know the pandemic has increased markedly, Art Bytes is a wonderful partnership to any school setting. Pupils in Year 5 and Year 9 across all school settings, Primary, Secondary and SEND, are encouraged to participate, with the finalist's art work of each school displayed in the Art Bytes bespoke virtual gallery in June 2022.

We are very proud to be partnering with cultural venues in each of the regions across England and we are delighted to have Arnolfini as our partner venue in the South West. The cultural venue is where the celebration event will be held and we will live stream the prize giving, so schools who cannot travel, remain connected. The pandemic has undoubtably changed the way we experience visual arts and future-proofing this was at the heart of the Art Bytes mission.

To celebrate the diverse art work being created in schools, as well as give teacher and educational stakeholders the opportunity to see the variety of art movements, styles and skills taught in schools, there is intentionally no theme for the entries.

As an Artsmark Partner, Art Bytes is committed to not only supporting Artsmark schools' journeys, but supporting all schools' creative journeys, through our partnerships with our cultural venues, working closely with our bridge organisations and teacher networks all across England.

Register your school now and start getting excited about planning your scheme of work or extra-curricular activity for September!

For more information, please see the Art Bytes website or email Emma Griffiths directly.