FLOW Children's Biennial Announced as Part of Birmingham 2022 Festival

FLOW is set to be a festival of bold and imaginative arts and culture made with, by and for Children in Birmingham and Sandwell. It is produced and curated by collaborative children's art studio The Parakeet for Birmingham 2022 Festival. FLOW will place children at the centre of the action as designers, makers and artists in a captivating multi-artform programme of events. The inaugural biennial Festival runs throughout the summer of 2022 from 21st May - 20th August.

FLOW recognises that play and creativity are central, integrating elements in development and learning, giving children the opportunity to understand, challenge and explore the world, and their place in it. Activities that lead to a state of *flow are often child-directed, meaning children take charge of their own learning by exploring topics that they choose. This focused, fulfilling state - 'flow' in psychology- naturally occurs in children and adults during play, movement, and hands-on activities.

The Festival programme includes a chance for children to build their own arts centre from scratch in the woods, and fashion their own creative studio and studio programme.

FLOW Festival Director Amy Martin said: "The pressures that education has faced in recent years have seen a reduction in the arts and cultural offer in many schools. This, on top of the reduced number of natural and informal spaces for play within neighbourhoods, coupled with increasing traffic, "stranger-danger" perceptions, increased reliance on technology as a play substitute, and pressures on academic achievement, have all contributed to the rapid decline of children's freedom and their expressive and creative development.

It is vital we ensure children are able to be creative, express their ideas, build on their observational skills, gain confidence, promote feelings of self-worth and develop their creativity and imagination. Children deserve bold and imaginative arts programming that recognises every child's capacity and potential right here and right now."

Louisa Davies, Senior Producer at Birmingham 2022 Festival said: From the outset, working with children and young people as artists, producers, participants and audiences and meeting them on their own terms has been a priority for the Birmingham 2022 Festival. In an increasingly young and diverse city, this a moment to recognise and act on the great inspiration this gives the creative sector in terms of the work made with, by and for children and young people. We are really excited by The Parakeet's vision for FLOW, which centres on children's own innate creativity and ability to make discoveries through play.

BUILD YOUR OWN ART CENTRE

Over two-weeks in May children will build their own large-scale pop-up arts centre in the magnificent Warley Woods, Smethwick (Sandwell). The installation will be created in collaboration with Woodland Tribe and Children's Theatre Company Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Children and their families will build the arts centre from recycled wood and their imaginations. Working together with constructive play experts Woodland Tribe CIC, children will be given hammers, saws, drills, nails, and freedom to create an extraordinary woodland centre, designed to please no-one but themselves. Once built, children can enjoy an exciting programme of arts activities, including sensory and immersive theatre performances from Cloud Cuckoo Land, as well as sessions complete with toasted marshmallows and campfire songs with the Wild Lives Forest School.

Tom Williams from Woodland Tribe said 'Our exhibitions place a value on children's empowerment and family participation. It is hands-on public art that will be highly engaging for all generations. This represents children's agency in the public realm, a play space and exhibition built by children and families that can also be viewed as public and political art.

A POP-UP CREATIVE STUDIO WITH MATT + FIONA

The pop-up CHILDREN'S CREATIVE STUDIO with MATT + FIONA will be a laboratory for children's thinking, a place to tinker, play and create. 8-12 year old care experienced children from The Virtual Schools in Sandwell and Birmingham along with expert designer/maker Lisa Gakunga will transform a shipping container and the surrounding environment into a vibrant, children's studio & gallery for all to enjoy.

The children will go through a design thinking process to explore how the space will be used, making choices about what the space looks and feels like, before making their ideas into designs and models working together to think ideas through and to solve problems. The children's designs will be brought to life by designer Lisa Gakunga and built and installed into the shipping container in a local park for others to enjoy

The children will come up with ideas about how the space should be programmed and run, hosting a free programme of creative workshops, exhibitions and screenings throughout August 2022.

Matt + Fiona's approach recognises that children and young people have something to offer, and to learn, at every stage of the process of making buildings and shaping places, and when young people work together towards an ambitious goal, their aspirations are raised and new career paths are opened up.

The Creative Studio Programme will go live in July 2022, with more details to be announced soon.

CHILDREN'S CREATIVE STUDIO with MATT + FIONA is generously supported by Arts Council England, The Foyle Foundation and The National Lottery Heritage Fund

The Glue Collective are an expert team of artists, gardeners and thinkers working to meet the play and creative needs of all children and young people, working together to create sustainable futures.

The Glue Collective will be popping up across the Festival to create much needed opportunities for children with complex needs and disabilities through INCLUSIVE Nature and Loose Parts Play sessions. Loose parts are open-ended materials such as boxes, crates, sheets, pipes, log rounds, buckets, blocks and rocks that children can adapt, move, design and transform in many different ways - endless possibilities meets endless imagination. The Glue Collective Sensory areas with fabrics, light and shade provide much-needed opportunities for children and young people with complex needs and disabilities to be creative and to enjoy being with others where they feel safe.

FLOW ARTIST DEVELOPMENT will underpin the whole programme with a free programme of talks, workshops, book clubs and screenings. It will lay the foundations for an increase in the making of artistic work for and with children and young people in the region. They will develop a community of practice around socially engaged arts practices with children. Sessions will cover many artforms, theories and methods including creative and playful pedagogy. Experts and facilitators will be sourced from a range of networks and include a range of expertise including the Children and Childhood Network at University of Birmingham.

To post a comment, you must register and login.