Creative Matters
Creative Matters: Kindness through Creativity is a year-long season to explore how creativity and the arts can inspire change, tell unheard stories, build compassion and create a fairer and kinder society.
With the involvement of artists, storytellers, local communities, and creative partners, our venues will host a range of events and creative experiences exploring kindness and what it means to communities it serves.
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.
Stephen Crocker, Chief Executive & Creative Director at Norwich Theatre, said: “Kindness is not just an emotion, but is defined by our actions. Acts of kindness that can be as simple as sharing and appreciating stories, listening and giving space to others to share what creativity and kindness means to them.
“When we experience kindness, there is a chain reaction. We are inspired to pay it forward and create a wave that impacts entire communities. By exploring the theme of kindness, we can ignite a movement of creative positive impact and boost our community’s wellbeing.”
*Mental Health Foundation 2020 a survey of 4,246 UK adults aged 18+
Coming up…
Get involved
What does Kindness Through Creativity look like to you? What would you like to see on our stages, in our activities, in the theatre buildings? Let us know!
Email: kindness@norwichtheatre.org
Our committment
Kindness is one of Norwich Theatre’s core values and throughout the season it will be exploring its response to kindness internally, empowering individuals and teams to co-create a culture of kindness, ensuring that the theatre has the space and resources available to learn, challenge and lead its ways of working together through our values.
Artist call-out, Kindness installation
Alongside the public programme of shows, talks, workshops and activities for all ages, we will be commissioning an installation: a lasting legacy reflecting community voices and representing the communal impact of kindness, within our spaces.
We are looking to commission an artist to design, create and facilitate a new participatory installation to hang in the windows of our Stage Two building. The installation will represent the voices of our community, and grow as the season progresses, through workshops and drop-ins throughout 2024.
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:
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.