October 19

The Connect and Create arts conference, organised by Surrey County Arts, will explore “culture” and how it enriches our society at Farnham Maltings, Surrey. John Fox, of Welfare State International, will launch the debate and contributors will include teachers, artists, performers, youth leaders, community workers and the StopGAP Dance Company. Fee: pound;90 + VAT.

Contact Smart Audiences for details.

Tel: 01372 825123 www.smartaudiences.co.uk

World music workshops

Musiko Musika has devised a series of five-week world music workshops, to be led by specialist musicians from a range of cultures. The accompanying resources, comprising eight sets of printed five-week lesson plans for Foundation, key stage 1 or KS2 and a CD, include such topics as links between KS2 maths and Indian scale patterns. In-service training events will be held in Hackney and Enfield this autumn to launch the resources.

Telfax: 020 7690 9128 www.musikomusika.org

Book award seeks judges

The Booktrust charity, which runs the Nestle Children’s Book Prize scheme for fiction and poetry, is offering schoolchildren the chance to become young judges this autumn. Young judges are selected from entrants to a class-based cross-curricular competition based on the shortlisted books.

Open to age categories 5 and under, 6 to 8 and 9 to 11, it offers the chance to win a class outing to the London awards ceremony in December.

Tel: 020 8516 2986 www.booktrusted.co.uknestle

Global art competition Closing date October 8

In 1995, two days after the Dalai Lama named six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as Tibet’s 11th Panchen Lama (an important religious leader), the boy and his parents were kidnapped by Chinese authorities and have not been seen since. To mark the 10th anniversary of his disappearance and to contribute to worldwide efforts to secure his release, the Free Tibet Campaign is inviting children aged 6 to 16 in four age categories to submit a drawing, painting or a poem about his plight. Winning entries will receive book vouchers and entry into an international competition, “Stolen Words, Forbidden Images”, and winning artworks will be used on greetings cards destined for the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urging him to send a UN representative to meet the Panchen Lama.

Tel: 020 7324 4605 www.freetibet.orgpanchenlama