Role of Creative Agent

We have an established team of Creative Agents in Cumbria.  All of our Creative Agents work with the Schools to developThe team consists of Alex Jacob-Whitworth, Brenda Fishwick, Debby Akam, Di Clay, Emma Aylett, Hank Williams, Jane Dudman, Jane Hanlon, Kerry Howarth, Liz Clay, Maddi Nicholson and Mike Willoughby, Julian Longcake, Heather Tipler and Russell Burbush.

We currently looking to expand the pool of Creative Agents. if you are interested in joining our team please click here.

Our Creative Agents meet at Networking Days, 6 times a year, to share good practice and review the programme.

What is a Creative Agent?

A distinctive feature of the Creative Partnerships approach is the role of the Creative Agent.
Creative Agents are experienced creative practitioners who are highly skilled in working in educational settings in an advisory and enabling capacity. They are skilled in:
• building relationships
• managing partnerships
• developing and delivering programmes
• brokering contractual arrangements with other practitioners
Most importantly, Creative Agents are skilled at developing reflective practice through fostering the growth of creative learning communities in schools. While Creative Agents are recruited from a broad range of professional creative backgrounds – from the arts, culture, science and beyond,
they all have one thing in common – a commitment to working in partnership with schools to help realise the creative potential of all learners and to help to make learning more engaging and effective through creative approaches.

Creative Agents draw on their practical experience of creativity and act as a catalyst, responding imaginatively to a school’s specific context rather than applying a predetermined process.

The Creative Agent will:

• help you to identify the creative practitioners who will bring appropriate skills to your projects
• advise on programme development and project management
• act as a ‘critical friend’ to challenge your thinking and practice
The critical friend role has the greatest potential to enrich your project, so it is very important that you establish a constructive and positive relationship with your Creative Agent. You should see them as an essential part of your team.
You can expect your Creative Agent to:
• develop an effective working relationship with the school
• stimulate thoughts and ideas
• help you to develop a reflective approach
• ask questions that will challenge your thinking
• bring a different, but related, perspective
• help you plan the programme, project or area of enquiry
• broker the engagement of appropriate creative practitioners
• help you to meet all monitoring and evaluation requirements

It is important that you do not think of your Creative Agent as the progress chaser, quality controller or source of all knowledge and wisdom. The planning, development and successful realisation of your project are shared responsibilities between the Creative Agent and the school.
Creative Partnerships will match your school with a Creative Agent who will support you for an agreed number of days, depending on your programme.

Hints and tips

• Early on in the programme, make sure your Creative Agent has an opportunity to meet key people in the school informally so they can develop their understanding of the school’s context and priorities

• It is important that the relationship between the Creative Agent and the school is underpinned by an understanding of the ethos that drives both parties. Making this explicit and agreeing on commonalities will ensure the relationship gets off to a strong start

• Don’t expect too much too soon. Allowing time for a working relationship to develop is an important foundation for future success

• A simple but structured induction programme may be the most efficient way to help your Creative Agent to get to know your school. The best person to guide your Creative Agent through this process will probably be the school’s Creative Partnerships Coordinator