Give someone the chance to fall in love with art

Too many young people are being deprived of arts education. It impacts their career choices and mental well-being. We need to act now.

Completing a course at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation enriches your life, it introduces you to new skills and opens up a world of creative possibility.

Can you imagine your life if you couldn’t spend time being creative?

Arts and craft subjects are being dropped from schools all over the country due to intense focus on literacy and maths. Young people are losing opportunities to develop creative and practical skills which will enrich their whole lives, and which puts traditional crafts at risk of dying out.

Give a young person the chance to fall in love with art by funding a bursary for a one day taster course or a Saturday club session for school age children. For as little as £50 you can set a young person a creative journey of discovery.

Read more about the problem and what we're doing about it

Your gift will open doors for young people to develop their practical skills, improve their mental well-being and may even help them on a path to become a professional artist or maker.

* £50 will pay for a young person to attend the Art and Design Saturday Club for one day
* £130 will enable a young person to complete a one day course which ignites their passion and develops their confidence

In a recent BBC survey, 90% of schools said they had cut back on lesson time, staff or facilities in at least one creative arts subject.

As technology races to replace us in the workforce, the need for art is more important than ever; machines cannot ever replace creativity.

Not only that, in the UK one in ten secondary-school age children have a diagnosable mental health problem; that’s an average of three children in every classroom according to Young Minds.

But research shows that children who are involved in the arts at a young age have a happier, healthier childhood and adulthood. It builds self-confidence, a sense of identity and helps them feel a part of their community.

And the impact is more wide-reaching; The Arts Council report showed that school-aged children who engage in the arts are twice as likely to volunteer and are 20 per cent more likely to vote as a young adult.

Art improves mental well-being and can inspire a lifetime love of creativity. Whether it’s to start a fulfilling career or as a cherished hobby, it can help the mind in so many ways. Your donation is a potentially life-changing act for a young person.

We are developing new initiatives to open up access to the College, including a partnership with the National Saturday Club scheme to run an Art and Design Saturday Club for young people aged 13-16 to discover new skills they love. Run by qualified lecturers and Fine Art students, it is already encouraging students to commit to GCSE Art.

With your help we can establish a permanent Art and Design Saturday Club for 13-16 year olds hrere, and help more young people access arts education.

“Many of my students did the Art and Design Saturday Club at West Dean. It’s the only College locally to offer the club and they were absolutely thrilled. Lots of my year 9’s have now chosen Art GCSE because of their experience at West Dean.” Andrew Lean, Art teacher at Chichester Free School.

“It was interesting being in a college environment, I have more of an understanding of how I could do art in further education”- Maddi

“I learnt new interesting mediums including printing, which I would never do anywhere else” – Ella

A gift of any amount really will make a difference to someone’s future.

I want to give someone a chance to fall in love with art

The Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain Trainee Horticulturalist Fund

Give a Trainee Horticulturalist a great start - a year working in West Dean Gardens.

It is with thanks to your generous support that the Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain Trainee Horticulturalist appeal has so far raised an incredible £54,000.

We caught up with Jim and Sarah recently and they were delighted with the progress of their fund, Sarah says;
"What better place than the diverse West Dean Gardens to start a career in horticulture under the dynamic tutelage of new Head Gardener Tom Brown."

Tom says "There is a great shortfall of people with experience in gardens like this, so every person we can help will help to ensure horticultural skills aren’t lost. We have now developed an excellent training programme where the individual will be exposed to a number of seasonal tasks across each area of the gardens. Now that we have this in place we have capacity to roll it out and help as many people as we can."

Meet new Trainee Horticulturalist Laura Mellor as she settles into West Dean Gardens

Your response to the Trainee Horticulturalist appeal in recognition of Jim and Sarah's great contribution to West Dean Gardens, was amazing! You joined them to give a new trainee early-career experience working in a great historic garden, and here she is.

Head Gardener Tom has made the placement into a two year programme to ensure that Laura, as the first trainee on the scheme, can spend year one learning the basic elements of work in a historic garden, and develop her competencies in specific areas in year two. This will give her many more employment opportunities when her training at West Dean comes to an end.

We were delighted to welcome Laura to the gardens team in September. We caught up with her to see how she is settling in.

Click to read the interview with Laura

Q: How have your first few weeks been?
A: Amazing! I have thoroughly enjoyed every day so far, it’s been 6 weeks already and has gone so quickly. West Dean is an incredibly vast place and I am still getting to know where everything is, but everyone has been so warm and friendly. It’s great to have colleagues who have been here for so many years and have such a knowledge of the gardens – I am learning a lot, very quickly.

Q: What have you been up to since you started?
A: Tom has created a fortnightly rota for myself and fellow trainee, Chantal, funded by Perennial to share. One week working in the glasshouses and display boarders, the next week working in the grounds and arboretum. This week I have been helping tend to plants in the glasshouses. My jobs have included taking cuttings, pot washing, cleaning all the glasshouses and moving plants – today I moved a display of succulents from the Spring Gardens into a glasshouse ready for the winter.

I have also started my RHS Level 2 qualification, the course is once a week for a year and includes two exams. It covers botany, plant propagation, classification and much more and is a fantastic theoretical part of my traineeship.

Q: What does the traineeship mean to you?
A: It’s a complete starting point for me, I came from a ‘Pick your own fruit’ farm and thought I had a fair amount of knowledge, but coming to a garden like West Dean I have realised how many different elements there are to horticulture. For example, I hadn’t expected to be working in the arboretum and I am really enjoying learning about all the different trees and getting exposure to so many landscapes. There is a huge variety of skill involved and I am excited to learn about each different area of the gardens and to see which pathway I will be drawn to.

Q: What are your future career goals?
A: I want to work in a large established garden, and this traineeship is going to give me the knowledge and practical experience I need. I’m not yet sure exactly which path I will take, but being here for two years is fantastic as I can learn all of the areas in year one and specialise in a specific area in year two. I am confident I am on a good path now and am very excited about my future in horticulture. I would like to thank everyone who has helped make this possible for me.

Help preserve our future

West Dean is part of a registered charity and relies on the support of generous donors, friends, legacies to help us deliver world-class education in conservation and the creative arts and maintain our award-winning gardens.

Find out how you can help support us

Appeals