We are an arts charity based in Ipswich,
a town in the east of England.
We create art, we make the SPILL Festival of Performance and we run events, groups,
YOUNG PEOPLE
← BACK TO LEARNING
From Here’s To Tomorrow to SPILL Young Curators, young people are key decision makers in our work with and for them. Co-designing, co-producing and inheriting the programmes that we build together, their voices, wants and actions are encouraged and respected at all stages. Our work across education provides materials for people to work with themselves and our development programmes such as FRESH! and Teenage Kicks aim to share stuff we have learnt over many years, to demystify the arts and inspire future generations. We also support independent initiatives that young people are creating for themselves, such as Ipswich Youth Council. Read on to find out more.
.
HERE’S TO TOMORROW
In May 2019 Pacitti Company held Here’s to Tomorrow, a public discussion with young people, organisations and adults to talk about how we best serve the hopes and needs of young people in Ipswich. Young people in the room spoke about the challenges facing them, raising issues of mental health and wellbeing, gang violence, and a need for safe spaces - all covered by BBC Look East live news. Following the discussion, we held space for organisations who work with young people to come together and explore what types of resources we may jointly be able to offer in order to make this happen. Responding to this, Pacitti Company have now developed 3 youth led programmes under the arc Here’s to Tomorrow (SPILL Young Curators, Ipswich Youth Council support and Teenage Kicks). Due to CV-19 these are currently all online meet-ups, developing large scale future youth-led activities.
If you want to find out more about Here’s To Tomorrow please contact our Participation Producer Alice Sandon: alice@spillfestival.com
SPILL YOUNG CURATORS
SPILL Young Curators is an exciting new two year curatorial strand supporting a small group of young people to curate, develop and deliver their own programme of events within SPILL Festival. The SPILL Young Curators will be learning from leading industry professionals how to curate and commission work for an international festival. The resulting programme of work will be presented in SPILL 2021.
Find out who’s on the SPILL Young Curators team here.
TEENAGE KICKS
Teenage Kicks is a surgery style meet up for peopled aged 16-21 who want to learn what it’s like to work in the arts. Sessions are structured so that young people can rotate between different members of the Pacitti Company and SPILL Festival teams, asking any questions they want and hearing a bit about what we each do and how we got in to it. The ambition is to inspire and encourage young people and to demystify the arts as much as we can.
Find out how to join the next Teenage Kicks session by signing up to our mailing list here.
FRESH!
FRESH! is our young person only performance night, for 14 - 17 year olds to take to the stage and share performance, poetry, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, music, DJ skills, drag or any other live experiment. Presented in association with Outreach Youth, who provide support to LGBT*Q+ young people, and Girls Where You At, it is a space where young people are encouraged to be themselves without fear of prejudice.
For the first FRESH! Pacitti Company visited Outreach Youth and Future Female Society in advance, to invite young people to perform and to work with them as artists, discussing technical and access needs. 12 young people performed on the FRESH! stage, decked out with lighting, sound and staging, offering the same professional full production values we use for our Think Tank Club events.
The audience of around 50 people was made up of young people and the core teams from each partner organisation, along with invited young friends from outside of Outreach Youth and Future Female Society. Some of the young people had never heard of the other organisation or met with the young people who attend. FRESH! offered a great platform for young people to present themselves creatively, but also to share in a wider and diverse community of young people.
Join our mailing list to find out about future FRESH! events here.