Magic Acorns: Building Our Belonging PlayTech

East of England (Great Yarmouth)

Magic Acorns is incredibly excited to be part of Youth Music’s Energiser Fund. Their project “PlayTech” is an open-ended inquiry to create and test audio-visual technologies with young children. Based in Great Yarmouth, the PlayTech team of three specialist artists will work in collaboration with young children, caregivers and organisations to co-design creative technologies and construct interactive, sensory objects and spaces that invite curiosity and play. 

Through this project, Magic Acorns will be asking, how do children show us the relevance of audio visual tech? What matters to children will be made visible and audible through the work that is co-created. 

Turned On Its Head: The Dances We Dance

East Midlands (Northamptonshire)

Turned On Its Head is a dance company dedicated to systems change in creativity and movement for early years children. Harnessing the power of inter-relational co-creation they make participatory performance and projects that centre the voices of children under 5 and their families. 
Through their Energiser grant the company with company will be working with the Pen Green Centre, Corby - a children’s centre whose vision is to inspire, challenge and innovate to improve outcomes for all children but specifically the most vulnerable children and their families. With the support of Creative People and Places organisation, Made With Many, the partnership aims to explore and make visible the characteristics of authentic co-creation and invest in new choreographies by, and with, very young children. 

The Spark Arts For Children: Small Wonders Research Collaboration 2024-27

East Midlands (Leicester)

Child-led, parent powered, and artist facilitated. Artists will work closely with children and families through creative play and storytelling in children’s centres and libraries across two Leicester communities. The Energiser Fund will allow The Spark Arts to explore the potential of child voice in early years more deeply; to really see what happens when young children are supported to take the lead, and importantly, to see what changes as a result. Working closely in partnership with Leicester City Council Early Help and Libraries, the project will also focus on empowering parents and carers, bringing creativity in the home and community closer together

TACO!: BANG! SPLAT! WHOOSH!

London (Thamesmead)

BANG! SPLAT! WHOOSH! is an experimental sound studio, publishing-broadcasting house, and sculpture workshop, led by 2-4 year olds. Underpinned by a partnership between artist-led organisation TACO!, and Better Children’s Centres Abbey Wood and Thamesmead, the programme supports early-years children and artists to collaborate. Centring children as artists, and learning from their way of working, we believe they should have access to making high-quality, compelling artworks, showcased to a wider public. BANG! SPLAT! WHOOSH!, made possible through the Energiser Fund provides valuable learning for our partnership’s organisational and creative practices, and for the artists, children and families with whom we work.

Maines-Beasley Creative Limited: Be Together: Your Space

North East (North Shields)

Maines-Beasley Creative is transforming an old Barclays bank in North Shields into a magical musical playspace for 2-year-olds and their families. After crowdfunding £10,000, Energiser Fund enables the project to fully bring this vision to life. Their unique one family offer is for an hour weekly over 8-10 weeks, putting the 2-year-old at the heart of the experience. Two skilled practitioners in music and movement play facilitate sessions, whilst a visual artist continuously adapts the space. The Energiser Fund celebrates the amazing abilities of 2-4-year-olds, and Maines-Beasley Creative is thrilled to share rich learning with others doing creative work with 2-4-year-olds across the UK, thanks to Youth Music.

The Whitworth: Early Years Everyday Art School

North West (Manchester)

Support from the Energiser Fund will allow The Whitworth to explore how playful interventions and creative sessions in gallery spaces can enhance and celebrate the 2–4-year old’s voice. We are excited to partner with local community led charity, Afrocats, to co-create sessions with families who often face barriers to accessing traditional early years provision. As part of The University of Manchester research is integral to our project, working with colleagues at LuCiD (The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development) staff and volunteers will be trained to embed language and communication learning into creative sessions and ongoing evaluation. 

Bristol Old Vic: Create Space

South West (Bristol)

Create Space is a Bristol Old Vic project, in partnership with Redcliffe Nursery School. With the help of Youth Music, we will be working with a core group of children aged 2-4 years to co-create playful spaces within our theatre. Redcliffe is a culturally isolated area yet it’s only a 10-minute walk from Bristol Old Vic theatre, a leading cultural venue in the city. With Bristol Old Vic’s resources, Redcliffe Nursery’s early-years expertise and lead-artist Edwina Bridgeman’s experience of co-creating, we will foster an environment where the children can explore and take ownership of their local area. 

Take Art Limited: Little People: Big Ideas

South West (Somerset & Dorset)

This Youth Music project is a wonderful opportunity for Take Art Limited to build on their experience and immerse themselves deeply in early years creativity and co-creation. Two artists together with a young emerging artist will work collaboratively with children, families and early staff as they engage with rurally isolated settings in Somerset and Dorset for sustained periods. Their aim is to develop an inclusive and democratic arts practice which sees all involved as powerful and positive agents. We are excited to be part of a national learning community comprised of others who also find working with very young children joyful and fascinating.

Made with Music: My Voice Counts Too

Yorkshire & The Humber (Leeds)

Made with Music will co-create a creative project with two Leeds-based support groups and disabled children aged 2-4 and their carers. The project will use a mixture of creative activities, child 'voice' and evaluation tools to ensure disabled children's choices are heard, validated, acted upon and celebrated.

Whitnash Nursery School: The language of creativity: "Exploring Beautiful"

West Midlands (Leamington Spa)

Whitnash Nursery School is delighted to be selected for the energiser fund. It’s a true validation and recognition of the organisation's creative work with young children and our belief in their capabilities, creativity and forms expression. Their project is unique, with the child's voice at the centre of everything we do. Working collaboratively with partners: artist Matt Shaw, child psychotherapist Gill McLoughlin, Compton Verney Art Gallery and a range of other creative disciplines in dance, digital technologies and more will lead to a co-designed programme in the most real sense where young children's contribution to society is properly valued and evidenced. 

The Herd Theatre: PLAY-IONEERING: A new process of devising live art with 2-4yrs through adult and child co-play

Yorkshire & The Humber (Hull)

At The Herd Theatre, we know that children are experts in play. From the youngest age, play is the way they engage in the world, the way they find joy, the way they figure out big, complicated issues. With Youth Music’s support The Herd are creating a space where young children can harness these expertise; a weekly programme that gives space for young children on Hull’s Thornton Estate to play freely with minimal adult intervention. The Herd will then invite artists into the room to watch, listen and learn from the experts. Then together, they're going to make something. We know it’s going to be rooted in the expert play of the very young.