The town’s Creatives Now youth-led project will open their studio to showcase process and installation work they have been working on at an exhibition in Bolton town centre’s Crompton Place on Saturday 25 June from 12.00 noon to 5.00pm. The exhibition will include installations, publications and individual art works that represent the change that the collective wish to see in Bolton, presenting ideas for creative interventions to green Bolton and to encourage a more inclusive and diverse approach to arts and culture participation.
There will be opportunities for the public to add their own ideas into the installations and, following the open studio event, the collective will invite artists to pitch ideas to lead paid project roles inspired by the collective's ideas.
Across the Crompton Place shopping centre there will also be exhibitions of children and young people's work from across the town, which have been created in response to two Creatives Now briefs: We Are Young (an open call for art work representing what it is like to be 12 - 18 today) and Imagine If - a decorative postcard or letter challenge in which children and young people have been asked to present the changes they wish to see in their neighbourhoods, districts and the town centre.
The Creatives Now collective has made a documentary film exploring the public's relationship with Bolton and inviting them to share their hidden creative talents. This will be screened at the event. They will also display documentary photography linked to Bolton's Jubilee celebrations - a Mass Observation style project.
Bolton School Junior Girls' School, Hesketh House, will also present an installation of a future classroom of a Malawian school they are fundraising to build. They will invite the public to 'buy a brick' adding their contribution to the installation so they can see the build progress of the school from Boltonian contributions.
The afternoon will also include free workshops from the Octagon Theatre, Bolton Music Service and screenings from Bolton Film Festival. Bolton FM will broadcast from the centre on the day, featuring a range of interviews with Bolton's creative and educational leaders as well as chatting with the public about cultural change in the town.
The project is a Bolton Cultural Education Partnership and Bolton Culture Champions project, facilitated by Bolton School and Bolton at Home, supported by Bolton Council and public health funding. The project is grateful to volunteers who support workshops and employ Kickstart Youth Voice Creative Champions from Curious Minds.
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