Cultural Capital

Participation in the arts and culture is an important factor in helping young people know who they are, and helps them to engage with and be curious of the world around them. Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a student can draw upon, and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. Cultural capital gives a student power. It helps them achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural capital is having assets that give students the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point, and promotes social mobility.

At CLV we recognise that for our students to aspire and be successful in the wider areas of their lives and in the future, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop their cultural capital. With this in mind, we have designed our projects to encourage students to be more aware of the places and communities they come from, to learn about the rich cultural heritage of the North East as well as from other cultures, to take inspiration from both local artists and those from further afield, and to develop a strong sense of identity and emotional wellbeing through the creation of personal and meaningful artwork. Take a look at some of our projects to see how we do this.