May seems to have disappeared in a blur. Projects, planning, funding applications, and unexpected opportunities seems to have filled all the spaces inbetween.
One question I’ve been returning to is what helps young people feel genuinely in control of their creativity. Is it the materials, the environment, the facilitation? Or the combination of all three?
I’m delighted to have received an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant to explore these questions over the coming year. As the project unfolds, I’ll share what I’m learning about creating the conditions for young people to shape their own creative experiences.
Alongside this, we enjoyed a wonderfully soggy day in Glossop as part of Derbyshire Makes with Lady of the Loom, and she appears again this weekend as part of Derby 50:50 and we’re continuing to develop new projects that we hope to share with you soon.
Photo Credit: Richard Tymon
The Studio
We launch our new project “The Studio” today (Thursday evenings 5-7pm The Community Space, Spring Gardens) and we are reallly excited to welcome the young people that have chosen to embark on this adventure with us. We will be playing drawing games, looking at exercises that unlock our creativity and building mini worlds. This will culminate in an open door evening to the studio space, on Friday 3rd July 5- 6.30pm, where anyone can come along an see what we have been exploring.
We held a drop in session on the Thursday of half term and it was great to see people come by, ask questions and have the opportunity to play with the materials we had on hand.
Rec Youth Theatre Are In The Fringe
Two of our Youth Theatre groups will be in Buxton Festival Fringe this year. Our Junior group are performing the folktale “The Dragon’s Pearl”, while the Senior group will showcase “The Night Has Many Eyes” a collection of original sketches and scenes created by the young performers themselves. We incredibly proud of their creativity, commitment and talent and can’t wait to share their work with audiences.
