Artswork Creative Consultation launched in Bognor Regis
April 2023
As Artswork’s new apprentices, we (Leanne and Lucy) attended our first event at Discover the Fun, Bognor Regis. This marked the launch of Artswork’s Activating Young Cultural Changemakers programme, an Arts Council England funded project to be delivered across the identified areas of low cultural engagement across the Southeast between 2023 and 2026. In its first year, the programme will be delivered in Arun, Slough, Dover, The Isle of Wight and The New Forest.
The Discover the Fun event was organised by Sussex Clubs for Young People who partnered with us at Artswork, as well as Active Sussex and the Regis school to host an event for young people in Bognor Regis to connect with each other and discover youth providers in their area. Artswork invited two local Artists to host workshops at the event: Ben Cavanagh, Littlehampton based graffiti artist, and Society Dance Academy, who have recently relocated to Bognor to continue their work to “provide creative platforms for young people” and “give young people from all walks of life the opportunity to be inspired”. Within these workshops, Artswork embedded two questions into the workshop. We asked the young people in Bognor “What activities would you like to be more accessible in Bognor for you?” and “What would you like to change about your area?”.
Young people decorating upcycled spray cans in Ben Cavanagh’s Urban Art workshop.[/caption] Artswork are using creative consultation to empower Youth Voice and give young people a safe space to voice their concerns, hopes and opinions. Youth voice is important to Artswork, because young people are open minded, creative problem solvers and “every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously”. Creative consultation is effective when consulting young people because it increases engagement by inspiring young people to get involved with creativity. In this consultation, Artswork’s aim was to utilise the safe space of the event and inspire young people to join the consultation through the exciting Urban Art and Street Dance workshops. We will be feeding the ideas raised from the consultation to our partners, and after further consultation, a Creative Placemaking project will be made in collaboration with the young people in Bognor Regis.