Youth Music, the UK’s leading young people’s music charity, has today announced Bristol Old Vic as one of 11 UK recipients of its unique £1.5million Energiser Fund, dedicated to preschool creativity.
The fund, open to Early Years experts, leaders and innovators, will allow the selected organisations to accelerate change in their early years practice.
Youth Music believe that babies and toddlers should have the opportunity to influence the organisations and activities they are involved in. However, the Early Years sector is in crisis, with practitioners reporting an increase in the number of settings closing down, staff shortages and ongoing retention issues, as well as the de-prioritisation of creative education when it comes to policy and resource allocation.
Image: Bristol Old Vic
Create Space is a Bristol Old Vic project, in partnership with Redcliffe Nursery School. With the help of Youth Music, the theatre’s Engagement team will be working with a core group of children aged 2-4 years to co-create playful spaces within our theatre.
Redcliffe is a culturally isolated area, yet it’s only a 10 minute walk away from Bristol Old Vic theatre, a leading cultural venue in the city. With Bristol Old Vic’s resources, Redcliffe Nursery’s Early Years expertise and lead artist Edwina Bridgeman’s experience of co-creating, we will foster an environment where the children can explore and take ownership of their local area.
Image: Youth Energiser Fund, credit Arts Council England
"We are very happy to have secured funding from Youth Music to continue to grow our Early Years work. Creativity is crucial for young people’s development and all children have the right to access the arts to progress their wellbeing, confidence, and communication skills through participation in theatre. Our engagement programme for young people aged 5+ has developed over years of learning, developing, and refining. We want to do the same with our early years’ programme working with valued partners at Redcliffe Nursery and local artist Edwina Bridgeman. As a producing theatre which makes shows for this age range, it is crucial to focus on developing our work, spaces, and programme with Early Years children and their families" - Lucy Hunt, Engagement Director.
Matt Griffiths, Youth Music CEO, said: “Investing in Early Years is a matter of equity and inclusion, and with reports from early years practitioners that the suggested measures from the government feeling inadequate, it’s clear that work needs to be done to support the creativity in this age group.
“We’re really excited by the progressive work happening at these projects already, and can’t wait to work with them to change the creative landscape for early years children nationwide over the coming years.”
To discover additional information on Youth Energiser Fund, please visit: https://youthmusic.org.uk/energiser-fund.
Related
Comments
Comments are disabled for this post.
