RACIAL intolerance is to be tackled in Pendle thanks to a £50,000 cash injection.

A major arts education programme is to be rolled out in secondary schools and colleges in Pendle before going into Burnley.

The Rossendale-based Horse and Bamboo Theatre has launched the initiative to promote racial harmony in the area.

Armed with the grant from the Big Lottery Fund the theatre will start visiting schools in both Pendle and Burnley next month.

The Horse and Bamboo workshop programme, called HoBo, has been specially designed to fit into the curriculum and also focuses on important issues about racial intolerance.

Inspiration for the programme has come from the life of Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish artist who died aged just 26 in Auschwitz concentration camp.

The project is being led by Horse and Bamboo's arts education officer, Frances Rogan.

She said: "Puppetry, visual art, mask work and performance will be used to explore the life and work of Charlotte Salomon. Students will investigate issues of migration, discrimination and tolerance in relation to the experience of the holocaust and to life in modern Britain."

The Big Lottery Fund is backing HoBo with funding until 2006 with the aim of using the visual arts and theatre to give students aged 14-18 the opportunity to use the story to investigate their own ideas and experiences.

Frances added: "Hopefully, by using Charlotte's art it will provide a springboard for development of individual ideas and self-expression.

"The workshops will explore themes of loss of home, personal and cultural identity, and storytelling, through drama and visual theatre techniques."

Horse and Bamboo has also created a study pack which gives background information about Charlotte and her life during the rise of Nazism in pre-war Germany, and the effects upon herself and other members of the Jewish community.

The pack will provide support to teachers exploring the material and the issues raised.

To book a workshop or for further details call Frances Rogan on 01706 220241 email frances.rogan@zen.co.uk