Creative Arts in FE 2025 – developing student voice through creativity

Following the success of the Creative Arts in FE 2024 programme, we are delighted to launch a new edition for 2025.

Creative Arts in FE gives students in FE colleges the chance to create their own piece of work in response to a brief set by UAL Awarding Body. The theme for this years brief will be ‘Love Letters’. Celebrating creative writing remains at the core of this opportunity, and we would love to see responses to the brief that also include photography, visual and fine arts, film, animation, performance and spoken word.

This is a great opportunity for students to creatively explore issues that are important to them. We of course welcome submissions from the whole college community and would particularly encourage students who might not be enrolled on creative courses to take part.

With the help of an editing panel, we will read, look at and watch every submission and select a number of works to be included an online anthology and gallery. We’ll also be sharing selected submissions throughout November in a social media celebration and at the AoC Annual Conference in Birmingham.

The key ethos of this programme is taking part, and we are so pleased that students have been encouraged to put pen to paper, transform ideas into designs and most importantly embrace their creativity since 2023.

The Creative Arts in FE 2025 programme has been supported by programme sponsors the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and UAL Awarding Body. It is facilitated and coordinated by AoC's Charitable Trust.

Click here to view the Creative Arts in FE 2024 anthology and gallery Click here to view the Creative Writing in FE 2023 anthology

Launch Event

We will be hosting a live launch and information event on Tuesday 29 April 2025 from 4-5pm. We will discuss the brief, resources available and the submission guidelines for this project.

We will record the launch event and a recording will be available here shortly after its taken place.

Register to attend the launch and information event here

Brief

Please use the ‘Love Letters’ brief to guide your students submissions and have a go at the letter locking template!

Resources

This session pack considers copyright and creativity. By the end of the session leaners will understand key copyright terms, and the interplay of inspiration and imitation, through discussion of copyright case studies. The session concludes with learners reflecting on how copyright can inform their original creations, and how they can protect themselves from imitation.

This session pack has been designed by the CLA.

Consent Form

All submissions must be accompanied by a signed consent form. You can download a copy here.

How to enter?

To register your interest and receive the submission link email projects@aoc.co.uk well in advance of the submission deadline.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions must be made through your college and by a staff member. In order to take part you must be an enrolled student or college staff member.

Submissions will only be accepted from AoC member colleges.

Each college taking part must have a member of staff who will oversee the submission process and be a point of contact throughout the project.

Each college taking part can submit up to 5 submissions (or 5 submissions per college campus if your organisation is across multiple campuses). There is no minimum number of submissions.

You can respond to the brief using any media but please consider that your work will be shown digitally. If you are making a physical piece of work you will need to document this and submit it digitally – consider the quality of your documentation photos as these are how viewers will see your work. Its important that these images are of high quality.

Submissions must be accompanied by a signed consent form. One consent form must be completed per piece of work. Submissions without an accompanying consent form will not be accepted.

Submissions are open from 9 April 2025 to 23 June 2025.

We hope to let you know which pieces have been chosen to be included in the showcase by early August 2025.

To enter, register your interest by emailing projects@aoc.co.uk well in advance of the submission deadline and you’ll be sent a link to share submissions via an online form.

Please ensure that any submitted work is original and not breaking any copyright.

Please note that all videos will need to be subtitled for accessibility reasons. Please supply videos with subtitles.

The decision of the project team selecting works for the online showcase, gallery, social media promotion and AoC Annual Conference display will be final. Selected works will be shown at the discretion of the project team. Any submissions that are likely to cause public offence, contain rude or discriminatory language, contain images of nudity or that are deemed to be inappropriate by the project team will not be accepted.

Creative Writing:

Maximum 500 words submitted as a Microsoft Word document.

Please ensure that each file is named as follows:

‘studentname_submissiontitle_college’

Please include the students name, submission title and college on the word document itself too.

Images:

This can be an image that documents a physical outcome or a photographic image which is the submission itself. If the work is a triptych or contains more than one image please make this clear on the submission form.

Images will need to be a maximum of 1200 pixels wide and no larger than 1mb.

Please ensure that each file is named as follows:

‘studentname_submissiontitle_college’.

Videos:

Videos should be a maximum of 2 minutes long and shared as an MP4 file.

If there is any speaking, spoken word or singing in the video please provide a full transcript and ensure that videos are subtitled.

Please ensure that each file is named as follows:

‘studentname_submissiontitle_college’.

Audio:

One file per submission. Please ensure this is submitted as an MP3 file alongside a full transcript and brief description of the piece.

Please ensure that each file is named as follows:

‘studentname_submissiontitle_college’.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Creative Practitioner Interviews

In 2024 interviewed 3 authors, artists and creative practitioners. These interviews provide insight into their creative practice and discussion around careers and the creative industries. These interviews are available below: