About the webinar:

A one hour session with a panel of artists from different disciplines, led by Robin Lyons the Artistic Director of Ergon Theatre, one of the UK’s leading companies making climate theatre.

In this session we will discuss:

• The main areas we need to consider to reduce carbon footprints
• The importance of making sustainable work VS platforming the climate crisis
• How we can have influence as individuals and collectives

Robin is one of the co-founders of Ergon Theatre – a company that makes performance based work about the climate crisis and futures. Ergon wants to make climate science more accessible to people in educational, entertaining and empowering ways. They believe the arts have a huge role to play as a communicating bridge between the science community and the public.

Ergon’s debut show The Wicked Problem premiered on the main stage at Contact during COP26. Ergon are or have been supported by organisations including MIF21, M6 Theatre, HOME, Contact, ARC Stockton, Julie’s Bicycle, Broadway Green Alliance, The Lowry, RFK Human Rights, Bolton Octagon.

About So You Wanna Change the Arts:
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar:

Join us in this webinar where we’ll discuss the world and history of drag, the misconceptions about drag, gender and share advice for people interested in exploring their gender presentation in a fun way.

Panelists:

• Jordy Deelight
• Dorian T. Fisk

Dorian is a multi-award winning genderqueer drag artist featured in The Guardian as one of the UK’s most inspirational drag kings and is the creator and driving force behind Shut Up & King – a Glasgow-based platform for Scottish drag kings everywhere, and produces the queer AF show, The Kings Peach – Glasgow’s juiciest night of drag kings and burlesque. 

Jordy is an award winning non-binary artist from Edinburgh, Scotland, who works across the UK creating work for theatre, film and music. Their work looks at identity and persona, exploring themes of disability, gender and mental health in autobiographical and auto theory-based work. Jordy’s aim in their work is to bring conversations about the deep-rooted psychology of humans and how they think, feel and act. 

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar:

In this webinar we talk all things body positivity, bad representation and dismantling the restrictive beauty standards and ideologies that healthy = skinny that permeate our daily lives.

Chair:

• Andy Hudeková

Panelists:

• Elise Gilbert
• Niamh Buckland

Elise is an emerging multidisciplinary theatre maker and actor who combines filmmaking, musical composition & makeup artistry. She takes inspiration from her autobiography, queerness & feminism, to create work that challenges societal norms. Elise’s previous work has focused around eating disorders, body positivity and Womanhood.

Niamh is a Welsh actor, writer and director from West Wales. She loves to create and tell stories that spark empathy and appreciation, and finds real joy from producing immersive material.

About So You Wanna Change the Arts:
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar

A look at why and how we should make work for communities including how to access those not in typical ‘reach’ of the arts. Recorded in May 2022.

Panelists:
Chair – Archie O’Neill (Creative Youth & Freelance Arts Educator)
Panelist – Johannes Gonani (Pachesdu)
Panelist – Himali Patil (The Community Brain)

Archie joined Creative Youth in 2021, bringing a background in visual art to the team. Having previously studied at the Courtauld Institute, he has worked in public programming at museums and galleries such as Tate, The National Gallery, The British Museum and Dulwich Picture Gallery. He enjoys uncovering new ways to engage ever more diverse communities in the arts, both through his role at Creative Youth and as a freelance art educator.

Himali is a London-based Communication Designer and Illustrator specialising in placemaking. Her focus is Visual communication design in public spaces and they use an interdisciplinary approach toward making a positive social impact in diverse fields through their design practice.

Johannes is Born in Zimbabwe, Johannes Gonani has lived in Scotland since 2005 and describes himself as a ‘Christian, husband and proud father’. Johannes’ passion is working with diverse minority communities, and he is the Co-founder and Operations Manager at charity Pachedu. Pachedu was set up in 2016 to help minority groups in the West of Scotland be more visible and pro-active in shaping their communities. Johannes also works part-time as Project Coordinator at West of Scotland Regional Equality Council. 

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar:
Join us for a discussion about the barriers experienced by actors, performance artists and creatives who are neurodivergent and how we can all implement change to broaden access.

Panelists:
Chair – Michelle Payne
Panelist – Tabby Lamb
Panelist – Ushiku Crisafulli
Panelist – Emy Parsons

Michelle is a director and playwright from Essex recently working on artist-led programme Future Forms with the Donmar Warehouse under the guidance of Sacha Wares.

Twitter: @chellesta / Instagram: @chellestaa

Ushiku is a chef, poet, playwright, actor, performance artist, comedian, musician, writer, spoken word and hip hop artist, and founder of the OpenMind Collective which curates community focused cross-genre creative collaborations through live events with a multi-disciplinary focus.

Instagram/Twitter: https://ushikucrisafulli.com/about/

Emy is a Spoken Word artist, Composer, BBC featured poet and Musician born and raised in Essex. Emy trained at the British Academy of New Music and has worked with Youth Creation (Stars of Britain’s Got Talent) since they first opened their doors in 2006. On a personal mission to raise awareness and de stigmatize the negative viewpoints surrounding ADHD and Mental Health in adults, Emy describes “Man Enough” as her “Dream musical project”.

Instagram/Twitter: @emypmate

Tabby is a non-binary writer and performer based in East London. She is equally inspired by Carly Rae Jepson and Tennessee Williams, and strives to tell stories that explore the intersections between popular culture and politics. They are a facilitator and runs creative arts projects for people from the LGBTQ+ community. They also founded Theatre Queers & can often be seen advocating for Trans Rights across their social media platforms and beyond.

Website: http://tabbylamb.com/

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar
Kicking off 2022 we have our first ‘So You Wanna Change the Arts‘ session focusing on the role of the arts in sustainability and climate change.

Panelists:
Chair – Laura Sedgwick
Panelist – Robin Lyons (Ergon Theatre)
Panelist – Megan Willett (The Knot)
Panelist – Josephine Owen (The Knot)

Laura is a London-based theatre producer and co-ordinator. For the last several years she has worked on UK commercial theatre productions, mainly in the West End and on UK tours. Originally a participant of the Stage One trainee producer scheme, she has since worked as an independent producer, and is now working for National Theatre Productions.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, whilst not working in theatre in a paid capacity, they spent their time self-educating and engaging with sustainability in theatre, alongside joining various voluntary organisations. She is currently a declarer with Culture Declares an Emergency.

Robin is one of the co-founders of Ergon Theatre – a company that makes performance based work about the climate crisis and futures. Ergon wants to make climate science more accessible to people in educational, entertaining and empowering ways. They believe the arts have a huge role to play as a communicating bridge between the science community and the public. Ergon’s debut show The Wicked Problem premiered on the main stage at Contact during COP26. Ergon are or have been supported by organisations including MIF21, M6 Theatre, HOME, Contact, ARC Stockton, Julie’s Bicycle, Broadway Green Alliance, The Lowry, RFK Human Rights, Bolton Octagon.

Outside of the world of climate theatre making, Robin is a writer, public speaker and award winning actor. Robin’s acting credits include winning ‘best performance’ at MCR Culture Awards for his work with Louise Wallwein’s Hidden and a role in the upcoming final series of Peaky Blinders. Robin most recently performed in Ergon’s debut at Contact.

The Knot is a multidisciplinary design studio, founded by Josephine Owen and Megan Willett. As driven individuals, they combine their passion for research, education and storytelling to form a strong duo – a knot.

Megan is currently a freelance animator and designer based in Peterborough. As a curious creative, they always aim to insight positive change, raise awareness and communicate the complex. Josie is a designer from London who loves experimenting with design to evoke a positive change in the minds of her audiences. Her working process relies heavily on research and the testing of materials to story tell, educate and inform. In her work her aim is to always teach others and herself something new.

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar
A discussion celebrating identity, heritage and the arts. Industry panellists explore how the arts and heritage can go hand in hand, how we can explore our cultural identities and the benefits of integrating the two worlds. The panel will be highlighting some of their creative projects and other organisations which incorporate these themes in their work.

Panelists:
Kathryn Woodvine, Kingston Council
Robin Moran, Kingston Heritage Service
Graeme Baker, Kingston Museum Young Person’s Collective
Vincente Canas, Kingston Museum Young Person’s Collective
Ruth Odewale, one of Creative Youth’s Young Creatives

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts.

About the webinar:

How do you succeed in an industry that’s not built for you?

Do you sacrifice your own needs to keep up in a space built for healthy, able bodied people? And how do you make your space more accommodating for those who need it? The creative industries have slowly been becoming more open for disabled artists, but is that enough.

We sit down with disabled professionals working in the arts industry as they share their experiences and give advice on how to make your voice heard.

Chair:

• Andy Hudekova (Creative Youth)

Panelists:

• Nicola Chegwin
• Hamish Thompson Chair

About So You Wanna Work in/Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts. Generously supported by Arts Council England.

About the webinar
With drama being cut at GCSE levels across the country and now BTEC Performing Arts at threat of being cut at colleges, how will young people access the arts going forwards? Industry panellists discuss how local theatres can help inspire the next generation to give children and young people education in, and access to, the arts. Panellists: Carys Williams Emily Susanne Lloyd Hannah Clark Joe Gilmour Rees

Panelists
Carys Williams
Emily Susanne Lloyd
Hannah Clark
Joe Gilmour Rees

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts.

About the webinar
A webinar exploring the impacts of Brexit on the arts, co-chaired by Robin Hutchinson & Brett Alderton.

Britain has now left the EU, resulting in a range of potential repercussions for the arts industry and its international network. Creative Youth’s panel explore what has changed for the arts, which sectors of the industry may be most affected by the changes and resulting uncertainty, and how we can overcome the challenges to create positive outcomes from Brexit.

Panelists:
Creative Youth’s Young Creatives Willow Pitt and Andy Hudeková from Slovakia
former civil servant, Siobhan Benita
one of our European partners Gabriela Dumitru, Artistic Director of Theatre Arts Group, Bucharest, Romania

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts.

About the webinar
Join a panel of young creatives discussing the Black British History that isn’t taught in schools, from The Empire Windrush to historical figures like Mary Seacole.

What does this lack of representation in British history mean to contemporary generations and what is the impact of being taught such a brief part of Black History?

Organised by Creative Youth with Kingston Council’s Arts Service, our panellists discuss how the arts can be a useful tool in supporting, inspiring and educating future generations.

Panelists:
Kayla Cadence
Gemma Orleans-Thompson
Iyata Golding and Myles Cameron

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts.

About the webinar
The arts industry is entering a new world due to COVID-19 and this panel discusses the challenges facing the industry exploring how we must adapt to survive and how the arts can lead the way when it comes to emergence from lockdown.

Panelists:
Stephanie Perry
Boudicca Pepper
Jack Hart

This session was recorded during International Youth Arts Festival Digifest 2020. It is BSL interpreted.

About So You Wanna Change the Arts
Part of Creative Youth’s Creative Talent Programme, these free webinar series explore key industry topics that affect young people in the arts.