Artswork and Southampton Cultural Education Partnership Kickstart Youth Voice Zine
Beginning in July 2021, three Artswork Kickstarters, Hannah Buckingham, Sophie Wallace-Cook and Basil Barron, were commissioned by Southampton Cultural Education Partnership to explore and research youth voice, compiling and presenting their findings as a resource in a format of their choosing.
“We’re Hannah, Sophie, and Basil, and we produced this Zine! We initially started working together on a brief for Southampton Cultural Education Partnership (SCEP), where we explored and investigated the best ways to work with young people within arts and cultural organisations. We focused on accessibility, and how young people can benefit from having their voice heard and being involved in decision making. Our work and research for SCEP led to us creating a resource, which we chose to format as a Zine. We think Zines are a creative way of presenting information, with origins rooted in activism, and emphasis that with inclusion of youth voice comes new and creative ways of doing things. In the research and compilation of this zine, we were able to use our experiences as young people to inform our understanding of what young people want and need from arts and cultural organisations. We explored many outstanding examples of best practice within arts and cultural organisations that are ensuring youth voice is heard and taken onboard.”
With Southampton CEPs wide range of diverse partners, embedding a youth voice can only support their organisation. Through a series of case studies and analysis, Hannah, Sophie and Basil have detailed the best ways to engage with young people, explaining both how and why.