How young people in Nuneaton, Bedworth and Rugby have shaped their creative future
‘Young people across the county have been shouting about and shaping the cultural offer where they live.’
Thank you to everyone who has been part of Shout Out for the Arts over the last two years!
Whether with Creative Explorers in Nuneaton and, Sustainable Stage in Rugby, or elsewhere in Warwickshire, young people across the county have been shouting about and shaping the cultural offer where they live.
Exploring Potential, Creatively is our new short film created by award-winning Zion Studios about the amazing work done by young people across the borough.
Watch the film then read on to find out about everything our communities got up to.
2023 – Nuneaton and Bedworth
Arts Ambassadors
We gave young people the opportunity to take part in Arts Ambassador workshops across the borough to take the lead in shouting about the cultural offer they would like and giving them the skills to advocate for it.
Murals
We selected two groups of young Arts Ambassadors, one in collaboration with GRIT and the other with Nicholas Chamberlaine School.
Each worked with Nathan Parker (n4t4) a nationally renowned street artists who lives locally, to co-design and co-created two murals after teaching them the skills to do so.
Everything is Built on Stories for Nuneaton Library and Our Hopes and Dreams for Bedworth for Bedworth Library.
Youth Boards and events
We organised two Youth Boards to co-produce events over National Creative Careers Week that would help young people take the next step in their creative career journey:
Youth Board 1 in association with King Edwards VI College co-produced two events:
- Run Home Productions workshop How to Start Your Own Production Company
- Royal Shakespeare Company workshop Working in the Theatre
Youth Board 2 in association with GRIT co-produced two events too.
Young Artists Takeover:
- Art exhibition of the work of local young artists
- Compton Verney workshop Working in an Art Museum
Eyes On… Youth Creative Development:
- Dauntless Evolution workshop Developing Physical Theatre
- Zion Studio presentation How to Get Your Film on the Festival Circuit
- Networking session for young creatives
- Mini-film festival of films by local young filmmakers
- Panel discussion by heads of companies How to Start and Manage Your Own Arts Company
- Blue-Sky facilitated discussion of young people’s vision for the creative future of the borough
Legacy
Since those events, more has taken place to continue the legacy of these young people’s hard work and community building.
Compton Verney welcomed nine of the Bedworth Library mural young artists, two of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Youth Board members, two of the Creative Explorer artists (Nathan Parker and Alisha Miller), the Assistant Headteacher and Head of Arts from Nicholas Chamberlaine School and our Shout Out for the Arts Coordinator for a tour, talk and workshop.
The Youth Boards combined into one and continues in a partnership with The Abbey Theatre. Taking into consideration the recommendations from the young people at Eyes On… Youth Creative Development, they are working toward their first project, which will be for The Hope Festival in February 2026.
2023 in numbers
- 4 creative careers events for young people
- 308 young people engaged as audience
- 66 workshops delivered to young people
- 541 participant engagement opportunities for young people
- 18 artists employed, all local and many of them young emerging artists
2024 – Rugby
Arts Ambassadors and Youth Boards
The following year we gave young people the opportunity to take part in Arts Ambassador workshops in Rugby, giving them the skills to advocate for the cultural offer they would like to see in their community.
In partnership with Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, we then invited young people to join the Rugby Youth Board to realise some of the ideas of the Arts Ambassadors.
Workshops and events
We delivered workshops to the Youth Board to give them transferable skills to co-produce arts events: budgeting, programming, contracting, marketing and communications, health and safety, accessibility and sustainability.
We also brought in professional freelancers to deliver specialist workshops and support to the Youth Board to learn about co-production and delivery – they worked with communications and marketing staff, technical event staff and a photographer.
The Rugby Youth Board co-produced Sustainable Stage at Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, a day of music and live performance from young musicians and poets.
Legacy
The Rugby Youth Board will continue to be held by Rugby Art Gallery and Museum.
2024 in numbers
- 1 big event with a 715 attendees
- 118 young people took part in Arts Ambassador workshops
- 7 youth board members were taught producing skills
- 11 youth board workshops
- 192 participant engagement opportunities for young people
- 10 young artists given a platform to perform
- 5 freelance artists employed to support (2 of them young emerging artists)
Also not forgetting!
- We gave annual Presentations (2024 and 2025) to the Warwickshire Youth Council to support them to include arts and creativity on their agenda and in their annual conference.
- We organised and delivered the network meeting of regional Local Cultural Education Partnerships.
- In collaboration with Warwickshire Libraries, we produced 7,600 bookmarks with images and information about the Nuneaton and Bedworth Library murals and delivered them to libraries across the county.
We have done all this and so much more!
A huge thank you to everyone who was part of it. Not just the legacy of the work that happened but the communities created that continue to work for the creative futures they want in their towns.
Even without us… continue to keep shouting out for the arts!
Photography: Andrew Moore, Ayesha Jones, Kim Hackleman, Jessica Medlicott.
Shout Out for the Arts Warwickshire 