On the evening of Wednesday 2 July, artists, teachers and Attenborough Arts Centre staff came together to celebrate and re-launch our SENsory Atelier, an arts-based learning programme that delivers partnership programmes with 14 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) schools in Leicestershire.
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, the SENsory Atelier programme embeds artists within classrooms as collaborators of child-centred arts-based learning. Artists create multi-sensory experiences and enable environments that engage with curriculum themes in the most accessible and playful ways. This allows children with Special Rights to communicate and learn through creative practices and most importantly offers person-centred learning across the whole spectrum of SEND provision (age 4-19). The programme is a knowledge exchange between Attenborough Arts Centre, the artists and the schools, that supports working collaborative to enhance cultural education expertise across the sector.
Looking forward towards the next 3 years of collaborating and increasing the programmes impact, the evening also celebrated the programmes recent win at the Museums + Heritage awards for Learning Programme of the Year 2025.
“This is an exemplary programme which combines pedagogical rigour with impressive breadth and depth of engagement. It is an innovative model for SEN education which enables children to lead their own learning journeys.” – Museums + Heritage comment, 2025
The informal evening included presentations for Marianne Pape, Learning and Outreach Manager, and Lisa Jacques, SENsory Atelier Programme Manager, explorations into art-based activities, and discussions about next steps for the programme, finished off with certificates formally presented to our partner schools.
Marianne Scahill-Pape, who conceived and has led the programme since 2016, said:
“The magic of this programme is that it is co-designed and led by Children with Special Rights, working in collaboration with artists and teachers to discover and develop pupils’ creativity and how this can unlock the world for them. Over the last eight years, our person-centred approach has delivered sustained transformational impacts in pupils’ attainment, learning, confidence and communication, and has been included as a requirements in some pupils EHCP’s.”
Joining Attenborough Arts Centre in 2025, SENsory Atelier is now managed by Lisa Jacques who has 20 years of experience within Museums & Gallery Learning. A recipient of the Marsh Awards for Excellence in Visual Arts Engagement, her previous roles include: Nottingham Contemporary as Learning Programme Manager, Leicester Arts & Museums as Learning Manager for Contemporary Arts, and Freelance Consultant & Facilitator with a specialist interest in play and Early Years. She returns to the role of SENSory Atelier Programme Manager which she previously managed in 2017.
We look forward to how the programme will develop over the next three years as it continues it partnerships with schools and artists across Leicestershire and beyond.
If you would like to learn more about the programme and how to get involved, contact Lisa Jacques at ljj12@leicester.ac.uk