Playground Project: A session in Sturry

At Artswork, we believe in the power of arts and creativity to make a difference from birth – we sing before we talk, we dance before we walk.

Working with our youngest children and their families has the potential to make a significant, positive impact on the lives of children, for the rest of their lives. Driven by this fundamental belief, we have made arts, culture and creativity for Early Years a strategic strand of our work. The first 1,000 days are consistently highlighted as the most important period of a child’s life in terms of development. In focussing on working with the very youngest children and their families, we can make a real difference to the most deprived communities in the South East and beyond.

In autumn 2021, Artswork invested in Playground, a Kent Libraries project that aims to inspire the youngest children, aged up to 24 months, by immersing them and those who care for them in creative activity led by a diverse and inspiring team of artists in Libraries & Children’s Centres.

A key element of the project offers professional development opportunities to library and children’s centre staff, upskilling them to work confidently with this age group and encouraging more young families, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to use their local libraries. The professional development is supported by a range of highly skilled international mentors.

Strategic Manager for Kent, Beatrice Prosser-Snelling, recently attended a session in Sturry:

I visited a session at Sturry Library at the end of November, and was struck by the supportive and welcoming atmosphere the artists had created within the space, and what followed was a magical 45 minutes of collaboratively produced sound and music, involving interaction with everyday household items and musical instruments. The four artists worked seamlessly together, skilfully using a mixture of prepared elements such as pre-recorded sound and spontaneous input using their own voices or a carefully selected item from the resources they brought with them.

The overall effect was that of an organic, evolving creative session where babies responded to and made sound, played with everyday objects, and interacted with artists and their parents/carers. It was very impactful to see communication other than speech being centred and promoted, and the range of non-verbal communication engaged in by everyone in the session was remarkable.

The session was very well-paced and felt comfortable throughout, there were ‘high’ bits and ‘low’ bits where the energy changed and this seemed to be in response to the babies and parents.  The babies were engaged, responsive, communicative and delighted!

So far more than 100 babies across Kent have taken part in Playground sessions. Some comments from parents across all the Kent sessions:

“As soon as you start observing it and watching other parents, then it’s probably quite nice because you naturally copy what the other person does.”

“I’ve just noticed over the past week that she’s been waving and using her hands a lot more and I don’t know if that’s like a coincidence of us focusing on the hands in the past few weeks. But I’ve seen her come along in leaps and bounds”

“The children were absolutely amazing they really do love it. Watching the children I think they responded to it (the highs and the lows of the music), some of the children literally stopped their movement when the music stopped and became quieter. And when there was the louder sounds and more music, the children were moving a lot more. So observing them is just wonderful to see how much they’re getting out of it.”

Playground is being delivered until Summer 2022 and is a partnership of Kent County Council, University of Kent and Artswork.  So far, more than 100 babies have taken part in sessions in six Kent libraries and one Children’s Centre based across disadvantaged areas of the county. Sessions will take place in six further libraries, and up to six Children’s Centres during the remainder of the project.  Some delivery from January may be adapted due to the impact of Covid and the Playground Team are currently making plans to allow for this. 

Image credit: Playground team

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Early Years Kent Libraries Music Playground