Z-arts has been awarded one of 3 awards for the 2015 Get Creative Family Arts Festival.

The annual Get Creative Family Arts Festival is a national festival offering families an extraordinary range of arts activities to enjoy.

Voted for by a panel of expert judges from the arts sector, the Awards recognise the outstanding events that took place within 2015 Festival and the organisations and venues that participated.

Z-arts joined over 800 other organisations in delivering events as part of the 2015 festival, which took place between 9 October and 1 November 2015.  Around 500,000 family members attended one of the 4,000 festival events across the UK.

Z-arts is the lead venue in the Manchester Family Arts Network bringing together best practice for family arts engagement across Manchester. In 2015 the Z-arts festival programme reached thousands of children and families of all shapes and sizes through 21 days of arts events and activities.

The Get Creative Family Arts Festival celebrates at an awards ceremony on Wednesday 30 March at the Albany in London, recognising the Festival’s most engaging family events as well as highlighting the outstanding organisers amongst the huge variety of participating organisations

Liz O’Neill, Chief Executive and Artistic Director proudly accepted the award:

“It’s a fantastic achievement for the venue to be recognised with this award! The team at Z-arts have been working hard since we rebranded in 2012 to transform the converted church into Manchester’s primary venue for children, families and friends and what a journey it’s been! We now have a year-round programme of children and family theatre, fantastic accessible facilities, a welcoming team and all this right in the heart of the city!”

The Festival is run by the Family Arts Campaign, whose recent evaluation report found that 61% of organisations reported an increase in work shown for families across the country. Since its beginnings in 2013 the Festival has also included over 500 pieces of newly commissioned work specifically for families.

Phil Cave, Director of Engagement and Audiences at Arts Council England said:

“Encouraging arts organisations to develop their family offer, and to consider the diverse needs of families in Britain today is really important. We are very pleased to continue to support the Family Arts Campaign, it has been a huge success to date and has reached a wide range of people. The Campaign continues to inspire artists, arts organisations and families to engage in a vast range of arts activities across the country. It provides time for families to get together and create shared memories, and to experience the power of engaging with the arts.”

Planning is already underway for the next Get Creative Family Arts Festival, which will take place throughout October 2016. With extended dates, this year’s festival aims to involve even more families in exceptional programmes of events later this year. Visit the Family Arts Festival website to find out more: familyartsfestival.com.

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For more information about Z-arts contact:

Laura Stevens, Marketing and Audience Development Manager

0161 232 6089
laura@z-arts.org

Notes to Editors:

The Get Creative Family Arts Festival is a national Festival of arts events for families. An initiative of the Family Arts Campaign, the Festival aims to increase the amount and range of high quality arts available across the country for family audiences. Running since 2013 as the Family Arts Festival, the festival was established to foster a lifelong interest and passion for the arts, and encompasses all of the visual and performing arts. 2015 saw the start of a partnership between the Family Arts Festival and BBC Arts’ Get Creative initiative to form the Get Creative Family Arts Festival. The festival is supported using public funding through Arts Council England and Arts Council Wales. Visit familyarts.co.uk/family-arts-festival for more information.

Z-arts is Manchester’s venue for children and families we pride ourselves on providing a welcoming, vibrant and safe environment for the whole family to enjoy. Our mission is to inspire and enable generations of young people from Manchester and beyond to use creativity to maximise their potential.