Photo: up for this year's Artworks Award for Working with Galleries, pupils from Biddick School embarked on a programme of visits to their local gallery, Baltic.

July 1 is Children’s Art Day and tens of thousands of children, their teachers and their families will be flexing their creative muscles all over the UK.

Special events will be taking place up and down the country from Trafalgar Square to Pontypool, Ballymena to Glasgow, in schools, galleries, museums, streets, hospitals, parks, playgrounds and even buses.

The highlight of the day is the Turner Prize for kids – the annual Artworks Young Artists of the Year awards taking place at Tate Modern – the UK’s largest and most prestigious art awards scheme for the under 18s.

Children and their teachers from winning schools throughout Britain will collect awards totalling £60,000 and a specially commissioned, limited edition, signed print by Marc Quinn.

The winners will be announced by Artworks Patron Loyd Grossman OBE and presented by Damon Albarn, Antony Gormley, Estelle Morris and Dame Vivien Duffield.

Photo: this animated piece, shortlisted for an Artworks Award, was based on Hindu epic, The Ramayana and created by Welsh schoolchildren.

Speaking at the awards ceremony last year Artworks patron and Turner Prize-winning sculptor, Antony Gormley explained why events like this are so important.

"Art gives back to you what you put into it and is central not only for learning at school but learning for all of us, for all our lives," he said.

"I won a prize for my art at school. It made a huge difference to me. If I hadn't won that prize, I might not be here today."

An exhibition of the winning works, curated by artist Richard Wentworth, will be on show at Tate Modern until July 18.

Elsewhere there’ll be fairs, workshops, outdoor displays, competitions, exhibitions, drop-in activities and chances for kids to work with artists.

Photo: children all over the country will be painting, drawing, printing and generally getting artistic.

Hundreds of events being held at museums and galleries will be open to the public including a giant interactive art workshop in Trafalgar Square on Sunday July 4.

At Discover in Stratford, east London, children will be able to build story sculptures reflecting themes of the environment and journeys on July 3 and 4, while at Jorvik on July 1-3 they’ll be reincarnated as Viking warriors and get a chance to sketch each other in their costumes.

On July 3 Ruthin Gaol in Denbighshire is offering up a life of crime Victorian style. You can go along, risk a lifetime of incarceration and create art works inspired by your experiences.

Artworks Young Artists of the Year Awards and Children’s Art Day were founded in 1999 and are organised by the Clore Duffield Foundation, Britain’s leading grant-giving trust in the field of art education.

The Artworks programme has become the most innovative programme of advocacy, research and grant-giving in the field of visual arts education in Europe.

Photo: shortlisted in the Working from Other Sources category Identity - this piece was created by students from Trinity Catholic Technology College and inspired by a visit to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp.

This year its Children’s Art Day Grants Scheme has facilitated over 50 art events nationwide, including a project offering children the chance to film their own animation projects at Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Stalybridge.

GCSE students created a textiles/dance collaboration with the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, while another group took inspiration from the Paul Ramirez exhibition at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham to build interactive 3D sculptures.

The results of many of these projects will eventually be displayed in special exhibitions.

Some children have also been chosen to become Art Shadows and spend the day with key art world figures including Tate Director, Nicholas Serota, Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery and Sir Timothy Clifford, Director-General, National Galleries of Scotland.

To find out what’s on in your area, click here to visit the Artworks website.