Play your part: shaping a creative future for Lewisham's young people

LEAN is delighted to hold it's 2025 annual Arts Education Conference and AGM at Lewisham Youth Theatre!

• An update on the progress of Lewisham's Cultural Strategy
• A chance to input into the Cultural Education Partnership's new Strategic Plan
• A choice of workshops exploring the delivery of key outcomes for young people

Last year we asked the question: how do we work together to improve children & young people's access to cultural opportunities in the borough?

This year we start to answer this and invite anyone with an interest in young people's creative learning to comment on the strategic action plan developed by the Cultural Education Partnership Steering group over this year.

We will be exploring some of the themes and outcomes identified within Lewisham's Cultural Strategy and colleagues will share good practice and challenges around these.

Workshops:

1) Embedding Youth Voice.

We are delighted to be joined by Lewisham Youth Theatre who will be leading this workshop .

Run by two members of LYT's Youth Steering Group, this practical workshop shares what they have learnt about embedding youth social action in organisations across Lewisham & Greenwich over the last three years. Pooling working experience from 7 organisations, this workshop is a whistle stop tour of best practice, with lots of practical advice to take away and apply to future youth-led work.

2) Arts for Social Impact: Working in partnership to drive positive change

Led by Natalie Clarke (Senior Producer) - London Bubble Theatre

Using case studies this workshop will explore how creative activity (in this case theatre) can support schools and statutory services (Youth Justice, Family Help, Care Experienced) to deliver wider social impact goals. London Bubble have a strong track record of working with local authorities - including Southwark Council - to deliver shared social outcomes, with projects such as Creating Justice, Playing Safe and work with Care-Experienced YP to support emotional literacy.

3) Building new opportunities for creative work experience for young people: How a ‘group’ model can provide a meaningful alternative

Finding work experience in the Creative Industries is notoriously difficult unless you have ‘family contact’ and small creative organisations rarely have capacity to sustain a year 10 pupil over a full week .

Sharon Trotter, LEAN Director explores how a facilitated ‘group’ work experience can address this by offering increased support for the young people and enable small organisations to contribute in a manageable way. She will draw on case study examples such as LEAN’s 2024 Army of Creatives Programme. Sharon will be joined by Chantelle Michaux,Schools & Business Partnerships Manager from Waltham Forest Digital & Creative Careers Cluster. Chantelle will talk about how as part of the Mayor’s Academy programme. Waltham Forest’s Creative Industries Hub developed a new hybrid model of work experience to better reflect modern working practices. It provides each learner with a unique journey of discovery within the creative sector.

4) Using Artsmark to help embed arts, culture, and creativity in the curriculum

Tara Page PhD, SFHEA, Professor of Pedagogy and Praxis Centre for Arts and Learning

Department of Educational Studies Goldsmiths will look at ArtsMark and the role that Goldsmiths University plays in the scheme and the support it can give. We will also be looking at case studies from local schools.

This conference is for all Lewisham schools, colleges and early years professionals, curators, project managers and freelance artists and arts managers.

Agenda for the evening:

4.30-5pm Registration, refreshments and networking

5-5.30pm LEAN AGM

5.30-6.00pm Keynote speakers

6.05-6.50pm Workshops

7.00-7.20 Consultation Activity with drinks

7.20-7.45pm Drinks and networking

7.45pm Conference ends

You are welcome to join the conference at any point in the evening up to 6.00pm.

Cancellation Policy

This conference is free to attend. With further pressure on resources, we have to make sure events are as full as possible and resources well utilised. Please let us know as soon as you can if you book a ticket but can then no longer attend. Thank you.

Photograph: Tunde Euba for Lewisham Youth Theatre

Host or Publisher Lewisham Education Arts Network