We brought 110 young people from Newham together with 10 real professional artists for a day of creative exploration and fun. And the results were amazing!
Our Be Creative! event on 30 May saw 10-16 year olds from different parts of the borough choose sessions from a list of art, photography, film-making, music, design, dance and drama. See how the day went on social media with #BeCreativeNewham and check out the Facebook photo album.
Artists included Hannah Fox, Director of Projects and Programmes for Derby Museums; Tanya Vital, RADA trained British actress who appeared in Emmerdale as Adele Allfrey; Marie Williams, multi-disciplinary engineer and digital innovation specialist; Vicki Igbokwe, Creative Director and Choreographer of Uchenna Dance; Luana Di Pasquale, London-based artist/filmmaker; Tony Nwachukwu, a producer and Musical Director of Attica Blues and founder of CDR, which provides a platform for people to take the next step in their music careers; Aisha Nain, calligraphy and art specialist; and professional photographer Trisha McCauley.
So what did the young people think? We asked them to share their thoughts on post-it notes and here were some of their responses:
What things did you learn to do?
- How to express myself in dance and using prints in art
- Learnt more about the media
- How to make a film
- How to make cool pictures in photography
- Learn about different roles in film
How did it feel to take part in the activities today?
- Much better than sitting at home
- Calm
- Good
- Wonderful
- Very fun. But just to say the dance teacher WAS AMAZING
- The music teacher was amazing . Love him! So much to learn
- I was quite nervous because there was lots of people that I didn’t know, but once I got to know them I felt more and more comfortable
- Extraordinary
- Amazing
What would have made today better?
- More time for one thing
- Fewer people
- More types of sessions
- More hands-on activities
We wanted to enable Newham’s young people to explore opportunities in a safe space, and to work with our artists to identify the art forms, projects and processes they would most like to see as part of the programme. The full programme for Be Creative! has since been announced.
This Be Creative! event was a part of a HeadStart Newham and National Lottey-funded project promoting emotional resilience for children and young people in the borough through creative experiences with our partners from Newham Youth Services.
