Young People's Chance To Express Themselves

Young people aged up to 18 years who live or attend school or college in Bolton are being offered two opportunities to express their creativity over the coming months.

The ‘Imagine If’ project invites youngsters to watch Sir Ken’s Robinson’s video ‘Imagine If’, which can be found on YouTube. The short film explains how – beyond just living in the world as we find it - humans create civilisations, theories, technologies and strive to reach beyond the planet. Applicants are then asked to spend some time thinking about their neighbourhood or town or school and how it might be positively changed for the collective good? The project asks young people to reimagine those parts of life that we take for granted. They are encouraged to be creative and have been told that their idea could be a tiny intervention, a giant change or something in-between. Once they have a concept, the teenagers are then asked to start writing a sentence which begins ‘Imagine if….’ before designing a postcard, envelope or letter to illustrate their idea. The deadline for entering for young people aged up to 18 years of age is 10 June after which the postcards will be exhibited in Crompton Place Shopping Centre from 25 June to 30 August.

A second project entitled ‘We are Young’ invites contributions by 12-18 year olds for a town centre open exhibition running from the end of June to the end of August. The display will include a Crompton Place Shopping Centre takeover of empty units to mount the work and there will be additional holiday workshop options for participants. Entries are asked to respond to the exhibition theme, exploring and presenting the experience of what it is like being 12-18 years of age now. The artwork presented can be of any medium, including creative writing and film. 

The invites coincide with a call out for more young people to join the Creatives Now project, further details through this link. 

Both projects are part of the Creatives Now Project, a Bolton Cultural Educational Partnership project for children and young people who live, work or go to school or college in Bolton and want to shape the town’s arts and culture. It came about thanks to Bolton School’s Director of Creative Learning and Partnerships Naomi Lord's work with Curious Minds as a SLiCE (Specialist Leader in Cultural Education) fellow.