Welcome to ChalleNGe Nottingham
ChalleNGe is a city-wide partnership of arts organisations, schools and young people. We collaborate to engage more children and young people in shaping arts, cultural and creative opportunities in schools and communities.
Contact cathy@challengenottingham.co.uk to join, share news, find opportunities and connect!
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Discover organisations and groups that offer creative activities for children and young people in the city. Why not try something new? There are arts groups, dance classes, youth theatre and music opportunities all year around - to name but a few!
Read the December Holiday Parents and Carers newsletter to see a host of creative activities for children, young people and families!
Teachers - connect with us
Families - creative activities
Families - creative activities
Interested in bringing more creativity to your classroom, or wanting to develop new opportunities for your pupils? From teacher events and CPD to long-term partnerships, ChalleNGe brings you regular updates and boosts your creative connections. 2024/25 Wallplanner
Round-up of arts opportunities & network events: January 2025 Primary teachers newsletter and Secondary teachers newsletter.
Latest News and Opportunities
Producer opportunity with MishMash Productions
Beyond Green: Community Participation towards Resilient Urban Nature
Producer opportunity with MishMash Productions
Vacancy: Fixed term to March 2027 (Expression of Interest : Fri 31 January, 5pm)
There is an opportunity to join the dynamic MishMash team to support the development, management and implementation of their ambitious programme of work.
The new postholder will manage programmes from beginning to end supporting their vision to transform perceptions of what classical music could and should be, particularly for young, school and family audiences. The salary is up to £30,000.
Click HERE to find out more about MishMash
For the full application information, or an informal conversation contact Liz Muge: liz@mishmashproductions.co.uk
Young people's views of Nottingham
Beyond Green: Community Participation towards Resilient Urban Nature
Producer opportunity with MishMash Productions
Child Friendly Nottingham: Survey
(Deadline: Fri 21 Feb 2025)
Nottingham is working towards being recognised as a Child Friendly City. This means that the city is committed to improving the lives of children and young people within the city by fulfilling children’s rights as articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
To do this Nottingham needs to know what anyone under 19 who lives, works or studies in the city thinks and experiences now.
Please share these links and find ways to help your pupils and young people complete this 10-minute survey. Thank you!
Primary Age: Complete the Survey HERE
Secondary Age: Complete the Survey HERE
Post 16 Age (16-18) Complete the Survey HERE
Beyond Green: Community Participation towards Resilient Urban Nature
Beyond Green: Community Participation towards Resilient Urban Nature
Beyond Green: Community Participation towards Resilient Urban Nature
Part-time, Fixed Term Opportunity
(Deadline: Sun 2 March 2025)
This is a 10 week placement, starting 28 April 2025, with the University of Nottingham and GrowNotts to work on mapping Nottingham’s green spaces and their potential.
By mapping Nottingham’s green spaces and identifying stakeholders, the project will provide a tangible framework for future participatory initiatives focused on urban green space development.
There is a tax free bursary of £1,300 and potential for the opportunity to scope out ideas for a doctoral project which will be supported with a collaborative application for funding.
Nottingham Festival of Science and Curiosity 2025
Mon 10 - Fri 21 February 2025
The Festival of Science and Curiosity is an annual festival which is all about showcasing a world of science and curiosity that’s all around us every day. The first week of the festival is while schools are still in session, so there are a range of activities with scientists and researchers going into schools, pupils getting out and visiting science sites, as well as students presenting their own science investigations. School registrations have now closed for this year, but spaces are still available for the Science in Schools Symposium at Nottingham Council House.
Schools and any youth group/uniformed organisation can register, until 21 January 2025, to receive FREE copies of the FOSAC magazine suitable for Y5, Y6 and Y7 to distribute to pupils/young people. Use this form Magazine distribution to sign your school up for as many magazines as you like and they'll be delivered to you for free ahead of the festival in February 2025.
The second week of the festival is during the February half term holidays, with activities taking place in community settings such as libraries, museums and shopping centres across Nottinghamshire, so families can come along and explore a range of science activities. From building robots to exciting chemistry, science fun-days to planetarium sessions there's lots on offer!
Places can be limited for some events and require bookings, for others. families can drop in.
Find out about the public events & book HERE.
Watch this film to find out more about the Festival of Science and Curiosity.
For Teachers:
Culturemeets - Jan 2025
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
We bring teachers and arts professionals together for a termly online network called CultureMeets. We begin with 5min presentations from arts organisations about their upcoming exhibitions, workshops and resources before a themed discussion. See all past Culturemeets here.
Watch the Sept Primaries culturemeet
and book your place for the next ones in January 2025
Primary Tuesday 21 January 4-5pm
Secondary Thursday 23 January 4-5pm
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
A-Z Directory for schools
Nottingham's Cultural Rucksack encourages the development of high quality partnerships between arts, cultural and heritage providers and schools - embedding a range of rich and diverse experiences to bring your curriculum to life.
Nottingham's schools are signing up to become 'Cultural Rucksack schools' - supporting their pupils to feel connected and valued by their city. Find out more about becoming a CR school here.
Creativity Collaboratives
A-Z Directory for schools
Creativity Collaboratives
Nottingham's Creativity Collaboratives programme has involved 12 schools exploring and embedding approaches around 'Teaching for Creativity' over the last 3 years. Watch our Yr 3 FILM
Find out more about the Creative Practitioners and read our latest case studies.
See the Creativity Exchange website and Leading for Creative Thinking website for inspiration, links and resources.
City-wide collaborative projects
Art of Belonging
Child Friendly Nottingham
Celebrating Languages
Art of Belonging is a city-wide programme that seeks to welcome refugees and asylum seekers in Nottingham. The Art of Belonging Pledge has now been signed by 14 arts organisations and we have a growing network of creative practitioners who are being supported to facilitate sessions with new arrivals. From partnership projects with NEST (the Nottingham Education Sanctuary team) and arts venues, to the Refugee Roots regular creative programme and collaborations with Nottingham Playhouse, NAE and more - there are many ways you can support this work and get involved.
Celebrating Languages
Child Friendly Nottingham
Celebrating Languages
We're delighted to be working in partnership with schools, communities, arts partners and our two Universities to celebrate our diverse languages and dialects in Nottingham.
Thanks to funding from NTU, 8 partnership projects have been supported to explore new partnerships between arts organisations, schools and community groups to highlight and celebrate Languages within their work.
We are also excited to be the Community partner for a Co(l)laboratory and welcome Jack Benjamin as our PhD researcher.
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham
Child Friendly Nottingham is a city-wide partnership programme to put children's rights into practice. Lots of organisations are supporting children and young people to have a meaningful say in local decisions, services and spaces. Training and resources from UNICEF are available for teams and organisations to get involved.
Over 9000 children and young people collaborated to choose 3 'badges' (areas to focus on) which are: Safe and Secure; Education & Learning and Healthy. 'Equal and included is the golden thread, linking all our work together.
RSE Day
Child Friendly Nottingham
Every year, we work in partnership with Catherine Kirk from Nottingham City Council on developing a collaborative schools project and resources for RSE day - a national celebration of RSE (Relationships and Sex Education). This year, the theme was 'Embracing Change' and we commissioned illustrator Hannah Sawtell to run schools workshops and design 6 postcards that were distributed to every school in the city. Check out the new website the Achieve Well Team, led by Catherine Kirk.
Connecting Notts, Youth Voices
Connecting Notts is a Young Creatives Network - that brings together 16-15 year olds from ChalleNGe arts and community Partners to regularly meet, influence and plan events for young people.
Facilitated by ChalleNGe and Upstart Projects (who also run Voice Mag) members of Connecting Notts meet monthly (usually Mondays from 5-7pm) and plan 4 events a year for young people across the city, to better connect, network and shape arts opportunities for young people.
Bulwell Arts Festival
We believe that art opportunities should be on every child's doorstep, in neighbourhoods, schools and parks - as well as within the fabulous arts venues of our city. So we have been delighted to work in close partnership with Bulwell Arts Festival (hosted by One Vision Partnership) and Bilborough Arts Festival over the years - supporting local creative activities in community centres, schools and libraries in the run up to their annual Art festivals. Huge congratulations to Nicola Curzon and the OVP team on a fabulous Bulwell Arts Festival 2024. We love working with you!
