Our young programming team get to work

So what is our HOME Young Creatives Programme going to look like? Our young programmers joined us last week to explore and shape the activities we offer for 15-25 year olds. Bill Carroll was one of them and shares his experience…

As a group we didn’t really know each other, but this didn’t stop us. We worked together very well, coming up with ideas of what we can do and what we want HOME Young Creatives (HYC) to be and to provide for young people. Some of our group hadn’t been to HOME before, others had done maybe a couple of workshops and some of us had been involved a lot, so it was a good mix.

On the first day, we spent the morning talking about what we liked about HOME, what we didn’t like and what could be improved. This was good as we got quite a mixed response, varying from prices of tickets for young people to things like the stairs. Before lunch we talked to Bren and Rachel who are both programmers at HOME. They explained to us what they do at HOME and how they work. In the afternoon we began to look at other places around the country to see what these places offered to young people. We looked at venues such as The Royal Exchange, Whitechapel Gallery, and Bolton Octagon to name a few. We also looked at the young people’s sections of their websites to see if it was easy to find information and if it was easy to join up and get involved. We found some places were better than others and it gave us interesting ideas for what we could provide for HOME Young Creatives.

On the second day, the first task we were given was to design a festival over a 2-day period to celebrate young people and their work. This was to give us an idea of what has to be thought about when it came to planning such an event. Not only did we have to come up with the idea but we had to also think about what needs to be paid for or how in fact we could make money from the festival. One group had the idea of having a street party outside with set tables. There were ideas about workshops taking place in different spaces, showcase events for young people and discussions with professionals. We talked about partnering with some other venues and how we might link activities together and invite people to create work in response to what they might experience at HOME or in another venue.
In the afternoon of the second day we focused on how we would plan the calendar for the year and what might happen each month. This gave us the opportunity to plan what we wanted to happen and see if it would work. Within this discussion we chatted through the stronger ideas we had and how we could develop them.

When it came to the third and final day, we focused on three ideas which could be developed further. These ideas included a loyalty card scheme, drop-in sessions and a Tumblr page. Each group took one of the ideas and came up with a pitch for it and how it could work. Lucy and Toni worked on the Tumblr page, Isaiah worked on the loyalty card scheme and Jake and myself looked at the drop-in sessions. We were given around an hour to come up with a pitch.

The loyalty card scheme was up first. Isaiah explained how he thought it would work, the reward system, point system and what the card would look like. This was interesting as Isaiah thought that the card should be simple like the old membership card and the points system could involve collecting say one point for a standard film and two points for a more adventurous film you wouldn’t normally see. Then on top of this if you came to a workshop you would gain points and the reward might be a free ticket to the theatre or cinema or a free meal.

Jake and I pitched our ideas for the drop-in sessions. We talked about having a social night at first so people could come and meet new people with similar interests. This could be done for film, theatre, art and so on. Then we talked about promoting the drop-ins via our own networks to help get the word out. As well as having practical sessions we also touched on theory-based sessions, which could link into festivals happening at HOME.

Then Lucy and Toni pitched their idea for the Tumblr page and how it would work and what they wanted on there. Tumblr is a blogging platform. They thought it would be good to have a submission system in which people could email in their work and then we would pick what gets posted each week.

To finish up the week, we began to talk about how we would carry this group on and when we would meet again. We’ll be meeting up again in August to decide on our up and coming events so watch this space!

Want to know more about HOME Young Creatives? Check out our section of the website.