Collaborative Projects
Nottingham Creativity Collaboratives
Creativity Collaboratives is a national school-led programme, with 8 ‘Creativity Collaboratives’ around the country – groups of schools testing a range of innovative practices in teaching for creativity.
Here in Nottingham, 12 schools within the Nottingham Schools Trust (NST) have come together as a community of practice to explore this overarching question:
How can we improve the way our schools nurture children’s innate creative capacity and sustain their curiosity about the world?
Art of Belonging
The Art of Belonging began as a project that aimed to understand how to lessen the impact of social isolation experienced by young, forced migrants who have newly arrived in cities in different European contexts. Working with Ruth Lewis Jones, artist Shamila Chady and a number of arts venues in Nottingham, young people from NEST took part in a project that sought to build connections and a sense of belonging and welcome. We now invite arts and cultural organisations to commit to creating a more inclusive, diverse and compassionate society that welcomes refugees and asylum seekers by signing the Art of Belonging Pledge. Read more
Primary Parliament at the Council House
Primary Parliament is an opportunity for pupils across primary schools in Nottingham City to unite and share their perspectives across a wide range of issues both local and global. Each term, pupils can make their voice heard about things that matter to them in front of educators, researchers and specialists using their creativity. The sessions are excellent for improving confidence, communication and collaboration in young people. Read more
RSE day - Launch into Kindness - 29 June 2023
Nottingham City Council founded RSE Day in 2018 and continues to lead this nationwide celebration of excellent education around healthy relationships. The day is a call to action for schools, families, communities and organisations to take an active role in educating in this area and share their fabulous work via events and on social media. This year, ChalleNGe is supporting the creation of a collaborative Quilt project, with Textile artist Rebekah Johnston. Read more
Year of Stories
Nottingham Year of Stories is a year-long celebration encouraging everyone in Nottingham to enjoy creating, sharing and exploring stories. Developed by local organisations, the project encourages everyone to get involved in delivering their own Nottingham Year of Stories events and activity to inspire and celebrate Nottingham’s people, their stories and the power of storytelling in all its forms.
Read more #NottmYearOfStories Download the Information Pack
Bulwell Arts Festival
ChalleNGe is delighted to support One Vision Partnership and the Bulwell Arts Festival each year. Watch the pupils of Cantrell Primary School enjoying the great performance of Wagon of Dreams from the Jellyfish Theatre Company as part of the Bulwell Arts Festival 2022.
Back for 2023, the Bulwell Arts Festival took place from 1-9th July 2023. nicola@bulwellartsfestival.com www.bulwellartsfestival.com
Bilborough Arts Festival
Bilborough Arts Festival took place from Sat 24 June - 30 June 2023. A community-led festival celebrating community and creativity; local schools are encouraged to take part, put on events for pupils and parents and invite the local community to after-school events.
Contact Festival Producer, Orla O'Connor at bilborougharts@gmail.com
Family Arts and Parent Power Academy
Working closely with Nottingham Citizens, and 5 arts venues during Summer 2022, we supported families from two local schools to take part in daytrips and workshops over 5 weeks of the summer holidays - providing free bus travel and gathering feedback from children and parents on their experiences to improve future family programmes. Read more
Craft Cupboards
ChalleNGe is pleased to be working with The Mighty Creatives (supported by The Crafts Council and Arts Council England) to establish Craft Cupboards in foodbanks and community organisations across Nottingham. Since Spring 2020, we've provided arts supplies that have enabled thousands of children in neighbourhoods across the city to receive art and craft packs. Our fabulous community partners include: Himmah and The Vine Community Centre in Hyson Green, Evolve in Aspley, Mesopotamia in Basford, Hope Foodbank in Clifton, St Anns Advice Centre, Pythian Club, Bilborough Foodbank and Bulwell Arts Festival. We've also worked closely with Nottingham City Council to provide art boxes for families through their family support networks.
We accept sponsorship and donations for the Craft Cupboards project throughout the year. Please get in touch if you can support this work.
Green Light in the City
Green Light in the City was established in 2021, to make creative use of empty premises in the city centre. Our first 'pop-up' space followed the COP26 climate summit, and aimed to be a collaborative space for conversations and creativity about climate change. Ignite! took on the 3 month 'meanwhile use' lease of the old Tokenhouse shop on Bridlesmith Gate and we opened to the public, from Wed - Sunday, with free family workshops every weekend and a series of talks and opportunities for people to get involved, try on a virtual reality headset from the University of Nottingham, discover global research taking place in the city and also see the 'green machines' made during Primary Parliament. Our final event took place during Light Night 2022 in early February. Over 900 people took part in workshops and activities during our 3 month 'takeover'.
Some of the organisations involved included both Universities, Ignite!, Green Hustle, Left Lion, City Arts, Nottingham City Council's Carbon Neutral Nottingham 2028 team, ChalleNGe and Green Meadows.
Facebook: @GreenLightNottingham Twitter: @GreenLightNottm
Check out the highlights from Green Hustle Festival 2023!
Time for Wellbeing
Back in 2020 during lockdown, ChalleNGe worked with partners across the city to create 60x short videos for teachers to use in the classroom to help children and young people's wellbeing. The videos are based on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing; Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give.
Two interactive pdfs with links to the videos are accessible here: Primary and Secondary with accompanying guides: Primary Teacher's guide and Secondary Teacher's guide. Read more
Projects Supported by ChalleNGe Grants Programme 2020
Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature: Letters of Solidarity
Letters of Solidarity (LoS) showcases young people’s voices and creativity, exercised their literacy skills and captured the moment during COVID-19. NUCoL created an activity pack and online writing workshops helping young people make sense of and process the period we are living through. The young people’s letters were presented through social videos and an immersive listening experience. Selected letters now feature in a new anthology “To a New Dawn: Letters of Solidarity”, edited by Eve Makis, with support from a group of ten young volunteer editors (from NTU and UoN) who helped edit individual letters, gave commentary on their favourites, and helped to write the introduction for the anthology.
Primary: Sounds of the Lockdown
In 2020, musician Jaya Gordon-Moore and creative practitioner Parmjit Sagoo worked with three young musicians – Craig, Daud and Dom – to create a podcast that reflects on their experiences of the past year. They used creative activities, writing, spoken word, music, rap and sampling to create individual and collective audio pieces. Sounds of Lockdown opened up a space to talk about the challenges of life during the Covid-19 pandemic, including mental health impacts, and share personal stories and reflections. The project also provided a creative outlet and led to new collaborations and the podcast amplifies young talent. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.
The project has been developed as a collaboration between Primary, Fearless Youth Association (FYA), and FMB Radio. Supported by ChalleNGe.
Engagement Curator: Rebecca Beinart www.weareprimary.org www.mojutu.com
Nonsuch: Sign Posts to a New Normal
Sign Posts to the New Normal is a public art project led by the young people of Nottingham.
Nonsuch worked with community groups and schools to encourage children and young people under 25 to create and submit their ideas for public messages to raise hope, togetherness and positivity during the COVID-19. Nonsuch then scaled up and printed the ideas into street posters and placed them in windows and on lampposts in neighbourhoods across the city.
Throughout May and June 2021, the children's artwork was displayed in a pop-up exhibition space in Victoria Centre Shopping centre in the centre of Nottingham.
Nottingham Playhouse: Playhouse Playpacks and Shine Online
A small army of volunteers and artists delivered specially created packs of activities and treats to the houses of children and young people in the most deprived areas of Nottingham for 3 months, in July, August and September 2020. Working with the City Council, Care Services and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and other local children’s services, Nottingham Playhouse delivered the PlayPacks to children aged 4 and 6 – picking up where the Dolly Parton books stop, aged 3. See the digital versions here.
Shine Online will be a constantly evolving resource of accessible online content for young people and their carers. It has 3 elements: live online sessions, downloads and non-digital. Shine Online uses the internet, post and radio to build on the impressive legacy of Nottingham Playhouse Shine – which currently has over 4000 engagements with young people annually in disadvantaged areas through weekly workshops, visits to shows and opportunities to perform.
Participation Lead: Martin Berry, Head of Participation www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
