A day of drama, creativity and careers at MAC!

On Wednesday, members of our St Margaret Ward Student Youth Board spent an exciting day at the Mitchell Arts Centre (MACeducation), getting involved in the creative life of our local community.

Students took part in a drama workshop with Big Brum Theatre in Education, exploring ideas and themes that will help to inform Big Brum’s future theatre-in-education work. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to have their voices heard, work creatively with professionals and see how young people can contribute to the development of real arts projects.

Our students also attended Summit Up Stoke-on-Trent – Arts Careers event, taking place in Stoke-on-Trent’s Cultural Quarter. As delegates, they had the opportunity to meet people working within the creative industries, learn more about different career pathways and discover the breadth of opportunities available locally within the arts and cultural sector.

These experiences provide valuable Gatsby Benchmark opportunities, particularly:

• Benchmark 2 – Learning from Career and Labour Market Information – exploring the range of careers available within the creative industries.
• Benchmark 4 – Linking Curriculum Learning to Careers – seeing how creativity, communication and performance skills can be applied beyond the classroom.
• Benchmark 5 – Encounters with Employers and Employees – meeting and learning directly from people working in the sector.
• Benchmark 6 – Experiences of Workplaces – experiencing a professional arts and cultural environment.

A brilliant day of creativity, collaboration, confidence-building and careers exploration, helping our young people to understand that their skills and talents can open doors to a wide range of future pathways.

“This is my third year in the youth board, and I am loving every moment of it. I really enjoyed the drama workshop we did and going to the cultural quarter helped me to view what it’s like to be an adult and see what they do when they are working. I especially enjoyed the free hot chocolate it tasted amazing. I am looking forward to see what we will be doing next.” – Victoria

“This is my first year in the youth board and I’ve absolutely loved it because we learnt about the drama workshop and learning about arts careers and learning about all the jobs in the arts, my favourite part was the drama workshop with Big Brum Theatre in Education.” – Scarlett

Touching Hearts – Transforming Lives