Creative Matters, Take Part
Creative Matters
Creative Matters: The Shape of Family is a year-long season to explore what it means to be a family and the ever-evolving nature of family life. From multi-generational households to chosen families, from kinships to blended families, the word family can be just as complex as the relationships themselves.
The season will reflect the vast spectrum of experiences that make up modern families today and will use a mixture of performances, film, workshops, and art to stimulate discussion and make connections through creativity.
Sam Dawson, Head of Creative Engagement at Norwich Theatre, said: “The Shape of Family aims to explore the more challenging side of the family construct and the issues we all face, yet are often unspoken from loss and what we inherit to the meaning of family and how it may be redefined. It’s also about quiet, unspoken relationships. It’s about the people who become your family when blood doesn’t tie you.”
Upcoming Creative Matters events
Norwich Theatre will work with the following partners to support and host workshops, talks and other activities:
UEA Centre for Research on Children and Families
The Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF) is at the forefront of research on vulnerable children, parenting and family change.
CRCF plays a vital role in supporting the complex decisions taken to ensure the well-being of children and their families. They provide high-quality research evidence that informs policy and practice and has a direct positive impact on the lives of children and families.
Norwich Area Kinship Carers
Kinship carers are family or friends who step up, often during an unexpected crisis, to care for a child when their parents aren’t able to. This may be because the parent has died, is unwell, has gone to prison, is experiencing problems with drugs and alcohol, or are neglectful or abusive.
Kinship carers are usually grandparents, aunts or uncles, brothers or sisters, a stepparent, stepbrother or stepsister, or someone who isn’t related but knows the child well. Whatever their relationship to the child, a commitment is made to bring love and hope to a child who has experienced trauma, no matter what.
Nelson’s Journey
Since 1997, Nelson’s Journey has been supporting children and young people in Norfolk with their bereavement needs, helping them to understand and cope with their feelings. The charity also supports professionals in the county who work with children, such as teachers and health workers, to help raise awareness of issues affecting bereaved children.
Nelson’s Journey’s vision is that every bereaved child in Norfolk will look forward to a positive future, empowered to reach their full potential.
MensCraft
MensCraft is a Norfolk-based charity focusing exclusively on the health and wellbeing of men. They support men facing life’s challenges or experiencing difficulties with their mental health.
They offer information, activities and programmes and provide one-to-one support and access to other specialist services. Their range of activities gives men purpose, the opportunity for connection with others, and for improved wellbeing.
Creative Matters: Kindness through Creativity (2024)
Last year’s season, Creative Matters: Kindness through Creativity, explored how creativity and the arts can inspire change, tell unheard stories, build compassion and create a fairer and kinder society.
Research from the Mental Health Foundation* found that 63% of UK adults agree that when other people are kind, it has a positive impact on their mental health. The same proportion agree that being kind to others has a positive effect on their mental health.
*Mental Health Foundation 2020 a survey of 4,246 UK adults aged 18+
Creating Kindness: with Norfolk and Waveney Mind
We partnered with Norfolk and Waveney Mind to provide a programme of creative public workshops that explored kindness in all its forms. From ‘mindfulness’ and self-compassion to caring for the environment and reconnecting with yourself through movement.
“Beautiful! I felt safe, and especially in how the session was led, with the vulnerability needed to get the most out of this”
Participant feedback
“Uplifting! It was so good to feel connected to my body.. and allow my body to lead”
Participant feedback
“Anything that promotes and allows us to bring more kindness into a world of unkindness can only be of benefit”
Participant feedback
Kindness installation
Inspired by the shifting forms of fish shoals and the importance of human connection, we commissioned local artist Chris Jackson to create a new installation for our Stage Two building.
Through collaborative art workshops with families, audiences, and Norwich Theatre volunteers, Chris will create a lasting legacy of Kindness in our spaces, with each individual artwork demonstrating the many forms of kindness within our community.
Sunday Screenings
Throughout the summer of 2024, we presented a series of free family film screenings, sharing stories of hope, compassion and acts of human kindness.
This season encouraged conversations and a space for families to reflect on the big impact small acts of kindness can make.
Doorstep Duets
This project with New Adventures offered a free opportunity for pupils at Norwich Theatre partner schools to enjoy world-class performance in their own space, bringing joy, escapism and connection. We visited eight schools with New Adventures dancers, engaging an audience of around 1120 from primary, secondary and SEND schools.
Women’s Stories
Being kind is about allowing others to feel truly seen and heard. However, we cannot genuinely be kind to others unless we are first kind to ourselves. If we accept all that we both like and dislike about ourselves with compassion, then we can find our true authenticity. We believe that this vulnerable action of compassion and radical self-acceptance is the way to enable change.
A creative space for women to come together to feel seen and heard, to tell their stories and explore how being authentically kind to ourselves impacts our relationships with ourselves, others and our communities.
What is Creative Matters?
Creativity enables artists and audiences to imagine beyond the limitations of their own worlds, bringing voices together and revealing new paths forward. Creative Matters is a season of work focusing on important issues which affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Each Creative Matters season features a mix of performance, film, exhibitions, workshops and events, which aim to stimulate discussion and make connections through creativity. Since starting the project back in 2017, we have explored different themes in the following seasons:
Kindness through Creativity 2024 | Climate Stories 2023 | Loss and Grief, 2021 & 2022 | Finding Refuge and Sanctuary, Oct 19 | Living with Homelessness, Feb 19 | Black British Identity, Oct 18 | Caring for Dementia, May 18 | Men’s Mental Health, Jan 18 | Gender and Sexual Identity, Sep 17
Norfolk Arts Award
We were honoured to be awarded the Diversity Award at Norfolk Arts Awards. This was given to us in recognition of the work we have been doing for our Creative Matters seasons. Each Creative Matters season features a mix of performance, film, exhibitions, workshops and events, which aim to stimulate discussion and make connections through creativity.
Creative Matters, Norwich Theatre News, Take Part
Unique Art installation to celebrate Summer of kindness at Norwich Theatre
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Creative Matters, Norwich Theatre News, Take Part