Some of Bermuda's budding young artists now have a new inspiration thanks to a collaborative art programme between several Bermuda art galleries.

A pilot version of the Art & Me programme kicked off last Friday, despite the approach of Hurricane Igor and consists of a partnership between the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG), Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Arts to create a new "field trip" experience.

Throughout the school year, primary five students from Gilbert Institute, Paget Primary and Victor Scott will be paying regular visits to these galleries, on a rotating basis.

Each student will receive their own booklet and sketchbook, and also the chance to enter their artwork in student exhibitions. "It is answering a need for more art in the government primary schools," said Rebecca Ausenda who runs the Bermuda Education Network (BEN), the non-governmental group that organised Art & Me.

"It is also responding to the tremendous benefits that learning about art can give to children of that age. There are cross curricula benefits."

Mrs. Ausenda said the programme did not mean that there would be no art taught in participating schools.

"Some of the smaller primary schools share an art teacher with another school," she said. "It was apparent that it could help schools if we could bring in an art teacher to do some additional classes."

A key player in discussions to create the programme was Eunice Jones, who recently retired as principal of Gilbert Institute.

"She is an advocate for more art to be taught in primary schools," said Mrs. Ausenda. "She was the first person I talked to. We explored if some of the art organisations were interested in helping. I suggested there might be some way for the art organisations to come to the school, but she said she would really like for students to go to the galleries.

"She really inspired me to go away and start talking to some of the art organisations."

Mrs. Ausenda arranged meetings between the three schools and the art organisations. "When BEN suggested a collaboration, all three art organisations were very enthusiastic. What they have produced is an amazing curriculum that will provide a rich educational experience. BEN's role has been to facilitate the participation of government schools in this programme."

Fiona Rodriguez, founding director of Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation said: "Kaleidoscope is thrilled to join with BNG and Masterworks to bring a programme to the public primary schools that shows the strengths of each organisation. Each foundation has their own niche in the arts.

"BNG investigates 'what is art' through their shows of local and international artists. Masterworks teaches and exposes the public to works of Bermuda by local and international artists and at KAF we are focused on the technical hands on creation of art. I am especially excited that the children will be able to come and have a full hour and a half of art every week."

Elise Outerbridge, curator at Masterworks said: "For all of our organisations, education is key, but this is also about community outreach.

"We didn't create the Masterworks collection to keep it to ourselves – we want to share it with the whole community. We'd like it to be part of everyone's life."

Lisa Howie, director of Bermuda National Gallery said: "We think that the educational benefits from learning about art are huge and if the pilot is successful, we'd like to expand it.

"Our research indicates that art education promotes self-esteem, critical thinking and literacy. To support this theory, we're planning to evaluate what the children have learnt during the programme.

"If the data supports our belief that arts education is vital, we'll be looking for more sponsors to help us to offer this programme to other schools".

Mrs. Ausenda said these particular schools were chosen, to start with, because of transport issues.

"Even though we would have liked to do something with other primary schools in St. George's, Sandys and St. David's, it would be difficult for them to come to us," said Mrs. Ausenda. "It is very powerful for the child to get out of the classroom and go somewhere new."

But she said if the programme was successful, and they could obtain the necessary funding, they might expand in the future.

"It is too early to say how we would do it, but we will definitely be looking at how we would do it at either end of the Island," she said. "We might also expand it to other art organisations and artists who would like to get involved."

Mrs. Ausenda said that this was BEN's second project. It was recently involved in a project to provide internships and maths tutorials to students at The Berkeley Institute.

BEN's mission is to provide every Bermuda student with access to excellent education. BEN consults with school principals and suggests joint ventures with community partners.

For more information about making a donation to the Art & Me programme, contact rebecca.ausenda@gmail.com">rebecca.ausenda@gmail.com or telephone 505-5020.