Dancefest by Clare Wood Reimagine Lockdown Challenge with infuse

Arts Council England and Google Arts & Culture have announced a new collaboration to showcase, celebrate and archive the creative work produced by children and young people in response to Covid-19.

Working with five cultural organisations from across the country, a standalone collection on the Google Arts & Culture platform will launch later this year – capturing powerful perspectives on how this crisis has impacted the lives of children and young people, articulated in their own voices through creativity.

‘The Way I See It’ will bring together a wide range of projects created by children and young people – including film, animation, writing, still images of visual art and street art, photographs, music, spoken word, poetry and online journals.

The collection will feature a mixture of work that organisations have been curating with children and young people since lockdown began, and new work produced in response to a series of summer challenges run by the five partners:

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art will work nationally and locally through their Foundation Club and Art Lab initiatives, delivering free summer workshops (in person and online) that will encourage exploring, making, exchanging, inspiring and collaborating to create sculpture, poetry, film, spoken word, animation and sound pieces about the things children and young people care most about right now and the things they might want to change.

Company Three will run a new project, building on the success of their Coronavirus Time Capsule – One Minute in the Middle of a Pandemic – inviting young people from youth theatres across the UK to use video, audio, performance, visual art, writing and music to capture a minute from the perspective of a teenager living through this momentous period.

Dancefest is inviting anyone under 26 to make a #HalfAMinuteMovie, a 30-second film that – rather than focusing on what lockdown has stopped you from doing – is inspired by a new skill, a first, an exhilarating new experience or a life lesson learnt at home.

English National Opera’s Lockdown Aria Challenge invites children and young people from around the country to share creative work inspired by the concept of an Aria – a single character sharing their inner emotional world and thoughts with an audience.

Heart n Soul will incorporate ‘The Way I See It’ into their digital Do Your Own Thing sessions – a creative arts project that supports young people with learning disabilities to take part in a range of art forms including music, dance, radio DJing, visual arts and digital arts, providing opportunities for young people to stay connected to during the pandemic and express themselves through creativity.

Darren Henley, CEO, Arts Council England, said: The success of our creative industries is built on imagination, innovation and creativity. Nowhere can you see these skills more clearly than in England’s next generation of artistic talent. These children and young people will be the inventors tomorrow, and we want to understand how this pandemic has affected their lives, so we’re working with Google Arts & Culture to showcase their unique points of view. Together, along with our five partner organisations, we’re making sure that their creative voices are clearly heard.”

Luisella Mazza, Head of Global Operations, Google Arts & Culture, said: We’re excited about continuing to work with Arts Council England. With this unique project, the creative work of children across the UK in response to Covid-19 will be showcased on Google Arts & Culture and we’re looking forward to collaborating to share their powerful perspectives on how the pandemic has impacted the lives of young people.

For more information contact:
Nisha Emich, Communication officer, Arts Council England
Tel: 07901969672
Email: nisha.emich@artscouncil.org.uk

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