With the support of the Goldsmith’s Mocap Streamer Residency, Newhaven Grassroots Arts Award and Arts Council England National Lottery Project Funding we set out to answer the following question:
How can we build inclusive digital and movement-based artistic settings where people can contribute toward a shared vision and discover their sense of play and creativity?
This was important to us as we were observing many missed opportunities for meaningful connections on a daily basis within our community and in the communities of those we were working within. We therefore wanted to create something that would help young people who identified as from/who:
- Low social economic backgrounds
- Struggled with communication
- Did not engage in physical activity/dance
to find more confidence in their ability to contribute creativity and playfully to their own environment as well as that of their communities.
This nine month R&D project benefited 1812 people living in areas surrounding Newhaven, Brighton, Staines, Woking, London and internationally.
The project included bringing performances, workshops and opportunities to contribute to the creative process directly to schools, local youth club and people’s homes enabling us to reach people who face barriers to seeing performances. 10 out of 16 young people we engaged at a performance in Newhaven for example had never been to the theatre before.
We engaged young people aged 4-26 experiencing some or multiple forms of social exclusion. Circumstances included young mothers with children in foster care, those living with mental health challenges, receiving free school meals, in temporary accommodation, within the care system, who have different learning/communicative needs or/and who have identities that have been marginalised incl. people from the LGBTQIA+ community. We also engaged adults and dancers in training wanting to up-skill in digital arts practice who were finding the cost of this training inaccessible .
We are very proud of this project and look forward to delivering phase 2.