STOP Children's Arts Programme Cuts at The Junction

Petition to Challenge suddenly announced decision by The Junction to end Childrens Arts Programmes.

We ask for an explanation as to why the Junction, in conjunction with the Arts Council, and Cambridge City Council, have made their decision to end all Children's Arts Programmes.

We ask why this decision was taken without any consultation with the parties involved in the childrens programme, i.e. the children, the families, the artists involved in delivering the programmes, and the wider community.

We are reminding the Junction, the Arts Council, Cambridge City Council of their declared commitment to the community of young people, and ask them to justify publicly their decision to turn their back on this community.

We are objecting to the bleak prospect of a Cambridge that will no longer have any publicly supported venue in which young people can participate in the Arts and in Creative Practice.

We object to the discrimination against young people and their community that is inherent in this decision.

We are reminding the Junction of their charitable status, supported by taxpayers money, and we remind them of their declared objective, last updated in 23 November 2006:

1. To promote, maintain, improve and advance the education of the public, in particular young people in Cambridge, in the arts of music, theatre, mime, dance, media, film, video, fashion, design and other aspects of the arts;
2. to provide or assist in the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupations for persons of all ages, in particular for young people in the interests of social welfare, with the object of improving their conditions of life;
3. to relieve poverty, sickness and distress among young people by the provision of facilities for a counselling and advice service.

We demand continuation of the Children's Arts Programmes at The Junction, Cambridge.