W A C Performing Arts & Media College

General information

We offer drop-in sessions for the under-fives and weekend classes for five to twenty-five year olds. There are evening sessions, holiday courses and play-schemes. We also organise alternative education provision and professional level Diploma training. We even provide a range of business and career development projects for those entering the performing arts as a career. To see full details of everything we provide at Wac Arts, please follow the courses and projects link. This lists all our activities and also gives details of who they are designed for.

At Wac Arts we have fully developed a practice of arts education which values the key, transferable skills that young people learn from arts experiences. We specialise in training arts trainers to work in educational contexts and are an accredited NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) centre.

We have a national and international reputation for innovative ways of teaching and learning. This has evolved so that we are now involved in a number of strategic research projects and partnerships and aim to influence the development of the education system both in this country and across Europe.

The History of Wac Arts:

Wac Arts began thirty years ago as Weekend Arts College offering training in the arts for young people from low income families. As now, we provided professional standard teaching to help talented young people to apply for further or higher education in the performing arts.

We started with drama classes on Saturdays in a community hall for a handful of students. From these beginnings, we grew and developed and, in 1980, moved into the Inter-Action building in Kentish Town. There, we were able to take advantage of the studios and large hall space available. We extended the range of subjects we offered and increased the numbers of young people we could take.

As the first intake of children grew up, we began to offer classes for older pupils and Senior Wac Arts began to take shape. We offered holiday courses and playschemes and employed our first administrator to deal with the increasing demands of all our new projects.

In 2000 we moved into our new premises at the Hampstead Old Town Hall, which gave a new generation access to state of the art facilities. It also provided the opportunity for us to extend our provision still further to include weekday and term time projects for young people who have difficulties within the mainstream education system.

Over the years, Wac Arts has developed a comprehensive portfolio of arts training opportunities which take children and young people from drop-in projects for the under-fives all the way through to the professional Diploma for the eighteen plus age group. Throughout our history, we have worked hard to ensure that we are fully inclusive so that we can sustain equality of opportunity for all our students. In this, we have developed a significant reputation in the field. We are known for providing a platform for those who want to excel, but lack support, or who would otherwise be unable to gain access to mainstream provision.

We look forward to taking this further in the next thirty years!

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