The Artsmark award provides successful institutions with the expertise and support of arts education professionals in order to create a high quality of education in the arts, as well as broaden the number of institutions with this level of provision.

It will be next Wednesday when The Arts Council officially announces the successful applicants of the first round for the Artsmark award programme.

The FE colleges chosen for this award were those which sought to engage their students with creative industry and increase the level of their involvement with the arts.

Nineteen colleges were notified yesterday of their success, fifteen of which received the GOLD standard Artsmark, the highest of the three Artsmark awards.

The re-launch of the Artsmark programme last September saw the introduction of a new online application system and website which opened up the application criteria, to cover not only primary and secondary schools, but also FE colleges and youth justice settings alike.

The criteria of the Artsmark programme expands in a bid to broaden the network of schools, colleges and other institutions offering a high quality of education in the arts as standard.

Daisy Atkinson