The Gallery saw the relocation as an opportunity to educate and involve local children and young people in the design and planning process, in the hope that they will go on to comment and influence future developments affecting their area.

The Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne are relocating from an historic Georgian building in the Old Town to a new state of the art landmark building close to the seafront, scheduled to open Spring 2008.

The major design and planning process was used as part of the Gallery's education programme to inform a series of projects and activities involving local children and young people.

A programme was established in local schools which directly informed the design of key learning spaces within the new building.

Towner Art Gallery began meetings and discussions with professional organisations in April 2005 to develop the education programme; this took the form of four half day workshop sessions across two local schools.

The education programme included an introduction to the language of art, architecture and spatial planning; a visit to both the existing Towner Art Gallery and proposed new Gallery; and examining the classroom environment to address poor design issues and to create ideas for improvements.

The education programme involved 25 young people from one secondary school and 25 young people from one primary school, providing a better understanding of the language and issues relating to design, art and spatial planning.

Lessons learnt include effective forward planning and more formal content on the spatial planning system may be of benefit for older children so that they are aware of the legal framework that assess development proposals.

Local children and young people

Partner organisations provided staff and learning material. The project developed a 'teachers resource' to enable other schools in Eastbourne and elsewhere to run similar programmes.

South East Planning Aid
Georgia Wrighton (Community Planner)

/04/2005

case

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Integration of social groups

Young people