Press Releases

19 October 2004

Arts Minister launches Web Design Challenge for schools

Budding young web designers will be given the chance to make their mark in a new initiative to celebrate internet design skills in the classroom. Arts Minister, Estelle Morris, launches the Web Design Challenge today, a joint project from the Hansard Society and the Design Museum.

Commissioned and funded by Culture Online - part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport - Web Design Challenge gives young people a unique opportunity to develop their design and computer skills while exploring issues of Citizenship.

The national competition has been designed especially for 11- to 14 year-olds (Key Stage 3) and all schools across England are invited to take part. Prizes include laptops, games consoles and design resources as well as the chance to attend a master class from top web designer, Daljit Singh. The overall winner will see their site go live in summer 2005.

Arts Minister, Estelle Morris, said: “We all know that you should ask a child if you want the video to be set correctly. Young people have always embraced technology. This project from Culture Online brings together technology and art and allows young people to explore issues of Citizenship in a contemporary environment.”

The competition takes place in two phases. Through their schools, children will be invited to come up with ideas to design their own home pages. Pupils will work in small groups to create personal home pages based on a wide range of Citizenship-related issues, such as environment, criminal justice and religion. The results will be judged in January 2005 by an expert panel, which includes Danny Brown, winner of the Designer of the Year Award 2004, and Alice Rawsthorn, Director of the Design Museum. More than 200 shortlisted young designers will attend master classes in February 2005 at Urbis, Manchester; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Watershed, Bristol; and the Design Museum in London.

Alice Rawsthorn comments: "We are delighted that the leading web designers, Daniel Brown and Daljit Singh have agreed to support the project. Encouraging young children to think about design issues now is one of the best possible ways of nurturing our design talents of the future."

In the second phase, the children will be asked to design a new site under the title Being Heard. Teacher resources will be published to support the ICT and Citizenship curricula in England. In Summer 2005, five shortlisted schools will be invited to a prize-giving celebration at the Design Museum and the winner of the top prize will see their site go live.

Fiona Booth, Director of the Citizenship Education Programme at the Hansard Society, said: “We are delighted to be leading this initiative. Web Design Challenge marries together the pre-existing interest in the net with issues of Citizenship. It’s a great project because young people see the internet as a very natural platform for exchanging creative and intellectual ideas.“

Schools can sign up for the competition by visiting www.webdesignchallenge.org

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Culture Online: Culture Online, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, commissions and funds a portfolio of regional and national projects to extend access to the Arts. Many of the projects encourage mass participation and encourage people to interact with Arts, heritage and cultural organisations in a fresh and exciting way. Culture Online brings organisations together so they can use technology more effectively to reach new and existing audiences. For more information visit: www.cultureonline.gov.uk

The Hansard Society: The Hansard Society exists to promote effective parliamentary democracy. Its work aims to strengthen parliament by encouraging greater accessibility and closer engagement with the public. For more information visit: www.hansard-society.org.uk

The Design Museum: The Design Museum by Tower Bridge in London is one of the world's leading museums of modern and contemporary design. It is also the largest provider of design education resources in the UK. The Design Museum’s annual Designer of the Year award is the UK’s pre-eminent design prize and the Design Museum website is the world’s most visited design site. For more information visit: www.designmuseum.org