Arts Engagement & Outreach: December News

Here’s a taste of what our Arts Engagement & Outreach team at The Octagon & Westlands have been busy working on this month…

Our Arts Engagement & Outreach team develop and deliver programmes and activities that benefit health and wellbeing, enrich learning and education in and outside school, inspire and celebrate talent. Creating work that will support local artists and tell “local stories”. In everything we do and programme we will seek to improve inclusion and remove barriers, whatever they may be, so that everyone is able to enjoy and benefit from the creative arts.

Our Arts Engagement & Outreach team look to provide more opportunities for our communities to watch, take part and benefit from arts and cultural activities where they live.

This December, over 350 people attended our pantomime thanks to our Accessible Ticket Scheme which offers £3 tickets to households and individuals on low-income. Plus, we were able to support 16 primary and secondary schools with travel costs so that over 1,890 students could experience the magic of live performance and attend our panto this Christmas. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also been busy inspiring the next generation of actors, musicians, performers, directors, singers and artists, read more below…

Talent Development

Inspiring the next generation

During our pantomime we arranged for Lizzie Bea, West End star and Panto Princess, to lead a series of Musical Theatre masterclasses for young people during the run.  The series of workshops focused on singing, dancing and acting techniques, teaching routines, songs and scenes from Lizzie’s starring roles in West End Musicals Heathers, Sister Act and Hairspray, with Lizzie also able to provide advice and give her top tips on how to develop a career on the stage. Participants acted, danced and sang through text and lyrics from shows Lizzie had performed in the West End. These workshops were attended by 67 local young people and adults, who fed-back, “Getting to work with someone within the industry was very inspiring” and “It has inspired me even more to follow my dream of performing”. These workshops provided additional opportunities for our audiences and budding young talent to deepen and enrich their understanding and experience of panto and theatre, by meeting West End star and panto cast member, Lizzie Bea. With the aim to inspire local young people to get into theatre, learn new skills, develop their talent, and broaden their understanding of the industry.

Artist Support

Creative Commissions awarded to 8 Somerset artists

December saw us offer a total of £4,000 to creatives across Somerset. We received 15 applications for our Creative Commissions callout. All of which were ambitious projects across different art forms and locations within Somerset. This grant aims to support artists in creating new projects and activities that directly benefits the people of Somerset. The artists and companies who will receive funding are Danny Pedler (Music), Lyn Collier Greaves (Community Theatre), Yuliia Asanidze (Visual Art), Angel Exit Theatre (Theatre), Chloe Kitchridge (New Writing), Nick Cohen White (Theatre), Ernie Shorten (Dance) & Jackie Clementines (Youth Education and Theatre). 

These projects and subsequent activities will take place throughout the year. We will be updating you on the progress of the projects and, where applicable, how you can get involved. The locations of these activities are widespread; some take place in our hometown of Yeovil, others as far as Cheddar and Watchet. 

Yuliia, from Ukraine and currently living with a host family in Somerset, was featured in our December blog. In response to receiving the grant, Yuliia said, “I'm exploring the county and finally am feeling at ease to pursue making art again, the local nature is inspiring, thank you for this opportunity."

Participation

2024: A year of opportunities

The aim of our participation programme is to create opportunities for everyone to enjoy, learn, engage and participate in the arts, leading to a positive impact on their health, wellbeing and happiness.  During 2024, our participation programme supported 18 weekly classes totalling 691 weekly sessions per year, plus 54 workshops, and 7 community productions that enabled 4,650 participants and 925 performers aged 0-90 year-round interaction with the organisation.  Safe spaces were created for all participants to excel regardless of age, ability and background, with an aspiration to make all activities as inclusive as possible.  During 2024 we raised an additional £26,461 to support greater access to the creative arts which has enabled us to offer free and subsidised places to young people and families on low incomes throughout the year. Feedback from the last workshop of 2024 summarises our achievements perfectly:

“This experience was amazing and made me feel quite inspired and it definitely increased my confidence.” Participant

Creative Learning & Education

BSO & Motionhouse workshops captivating the next generation

This month, schools from the South of Somerset have received workshops with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) & Motionhouse Dance Co.  

BSO led workshops with six primary schools in preparation for the KS1 concert that will be held at Westlands Entertainment Venue on 13th May. During these workshops, children from Long Sutton, Manor Court, Oaklands, Preston, St Gildas, and Wincanton Primary Schools, experienced live performances performed with a variety of instruments, including piano, trumpet, bassoon, viola and violin. The children then shared ideas around the theme of ‘new adventures’ to come up with original lyrics and melodies which would help BSO compose an original song, using these collaborative approaches, to be performed at the KS1 concert. 

Motionhouse dance led their second round of workshops with two senior and two primary schools. Students from Bucklers Mead, Preston Academy, St Michael’s Primary and Neroche Primary learned extracts of the chorography from the duets they watched earlier in the year. They then had time to create their own original choreography using ideas from the dance and performed their pieces to their peers. Teachers were supported with guidance and resources on how they can continue to build on these skills within lessons and extra curricular activities.

" It was a fantastic opportunity for students to see live instruments up close." Teacher

Live theatre experience lights up students imaginations

We were able to offer free tickets to our partner schools, who have been working with Wise Children Theatre Company, the opportunity to watch their Christmas production of ‘The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales’ at their home venue, The Lucky Chance in Frome. Amongst the cast were Tom Fox and Mirabelle Gremaud who were the two artists who led our in-school workshops earlier last year. It was a fantastic opportunity for those students to watch Tom & Mirabelle perform in their roles on stage, with the performance followed by a post-show Q&A enabling them to further enrich their understanding and experience. By watching the show, the students were able to see in action the skills that they had been introduced to during their workshops with links to character, performance and storytelling.  The students will be able to use this production to write about in their upcoming GCSE Drama exams and implement the devising techniques of Emma Rice, the Artistic Director of Wise Children, in their practical exams.

"It was amazing!!!! Absolutely loved it, the kids are still buzzing." Teacher 

Access & Inclusion Schemes

Accessible Ticket Scheme unlocks live performances for the whole community

Over the panto run we offered 352 tickets to low-income households and individuals at £3, as subsidised by funding received from Abri Housing Association, Arts Council England (ACE) and Somerset Council. Totalling a subsidy of over £7,600. To share with you some feedback we have received from patrons who came to Jack and the Beanstalk, thanks to the Accessible Ticket Scheme, 100% of respondents ‘strongly agreed’ that they felt ‘proud of my local theatre for offering the Accessible Ticket Scheme and making theatre more affordable for people on low incomes’. And 100% of those that responded said they would not have been able to attend had they not received £3 tickets through the scheme.

Our aim is to improve and enrich the lives of our community by offering access for all to high quality productions, shows and events where they live. The Accessible Ticket Scheme focuses on enabling low-income households and individuals access to local arts and cultural opportunities, introducing them to high quality productions and building their confidence for continued engagement.

Since launching the Accessible Ticket Scheme publicly at the end of October, we have received over 115 applications and distributed over 450 tickets (and rising!). From the number of applications received and the press interest (with BBC News covering the announcement of the Accessible Ticket Scheme) it just goes to show the scheme is needed by our community, and we can be proud of ourselves knowing that we are enabling members of our community the opportunity to enjoy the magic of live performance where they wouldn’t be able to afford the opportunity otherwise.

“Due to both my own and my husband’s disabilities causing us to change our lives dramatically we are trying to restart lives and access our community, enabling our son to be able to experience the theatre (and other opportunities) that he hasn’t been able to before due to health and financial restraints. This will support this and make such a difference.”

We will continue to offer £3 tickets to low-income residents through our Accessible Ticket Scheme throughout the year.

Find out more about the scheme here: Accessible Ticket Scheme

Travel Bursary supports schools across Somerset to bring their students to watch the legendary pantomime

For many children and young people, the school trip to the theatre’s annual pantomime at Christmas, may, for many, be their first experience of coming to the theatre and their first exposure to the magic of live performance. We appreciate that budgets are limited and with transport costs on the rise, this can put pressure on schools when deciding on the feasibility of which trips the school can take. As such, over Christmas we were delighted to offer all schools due to attend our 2024 pantomime of, Jack and the Beanstalk, a 25% contribution towards travel costs, to make school visits that little bit more affordable. Through this scheme we supported over 1,890 students from 16 primary and secondary schools to attend our pantomime at Westlands Entertainment Venue. 

“Thank you so much, we really appreciate it, it is so kind of you to do this for the schools in the area.” Teacher

Arts for Health & Wellbeing

Celebrating a successful year of our specialist Dance for Health & Wellbeing projects

Our Parkinson’s Dance and Movement Through Cancer projects are celebrating 1 year of dancing, connecting and making significant impacts on the lives of our participants. Our dancers enjoyed an end of year Christmas celebration, as they reflected on dances and music they enjoyed over the year, created joyful, inspiring and moving end of term dances, and shared smiles and laughter over festive treats.

Across both projects, 100% of participants agreed that their physical, mental and social wellbeing has improved as a result of the projects. We are proud that evaluations have consistently shown that both projects are successfully supporting and improving participants' overall health and wellbeing, producing meaningful positive impacts on participants and enabling lives to flourish.

" I can’t believe how far I have come over the past year, it’s amazing, this group has made such a difference to me, I love my Monday afternoons now! " Movement Through Cancer participant

To keep up to date with all the activities coming up head over to the What’s On section on our website or check out our Participate page which will link you to all our projects and upcoming opportunities.