Partners: BBC
About the project:
Between 2006 and 2010 across 31 weeks, from April to November, Blast on Tour offered a range of creative events in cities and towns throughout the UK. Creative activities on offer were designed for young people aged 13-19 engaging at different levels, from first time discoverers; to those developing their skills and to emerging as artists/creators themselves. BBC Blast was an impressive mobile creative village, complete with digital workshop spaces and a separate performance area. Elli worked as part of the tour team in 2007 as Lead Facilitator. Culture Works then went on to be event organiser for 3 events (2008 – 10) in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Hunstanton. For each event Culture Works was responsible for:
- Creating a high quality programme of creative workshops, opportunities and showcases for the event e.g. tasters, short projects, Q & A’s and showcases
- Bringing together and managing national and local facilitators to deliver the programme
- Recruiting and managing 3 - 5 young people on work experience placements to help plan, promote and deliver the event
- Ensuring that the event was tailored to the individual location
- Working closely with regional and local organisations including councils, youth services, schools, youth groups, arts organisations creative and education practitioners, industry professionals and local BBC networks
Engagement with Blast enabled young people to develop a broad range of skills. Activity outside the formal education curriculum providing creativity and skills development as well as a sense of self-esteem, growth in confidence, increased collaborative skills and team working.
Each event offered activities for 150 young people per day in its purpose built media village. A further 150 people attended showcases and took part in discovery and drop-in activity.
What they thought:
Parent:
“My children took part in several workshops and had the most fantastic time, it has been a long while since I have seen them enjoy something so much. It gave them insights into things they could have only dreamt of before. everyone involved deserves a huge thank-you.”
Young Person:
“I really enjoyed taking photos of the event and loved being able to participate in the photography workshop; I was able to talk to the facilitator about his interest and see some really creative images that the participants captured. My supervisors were brilliant and I enjoyed getting to know the rest of the Work Experience team!”
