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A stack of wooden blocks with yellow cellophane over the top, sitting on a lightbox. To women in the background are shining lights and lifting up shapes.

We believe all children should have access to culture.

We specialise in tailoring access for disabled children and young people with special educational needs (SEND), both in school through our SENsory Atelier programme, and out of school through our Inclusive Youth Arts programme.

SENsory Atelier

Since 2016, Attenborough Arts Centre’s SENsory Atelier programme, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, has developed an innovative model for SEND education by putting arts, creativity and culture at its heart. SENsory Atelier and its subsidiary Atelier Labs project have won the HEIST Gold Award for Best Widening Participation Initiative 2023 and the international Falling Walls Science Engagement Award 2023.

Inspired by our founder Lord Richard Attenborough, Attenborough Arts Centre believes that creativity is a human right. Inspired by Reggio Emilia, we see disabled children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) as ‘Children with Special Rights’ and campaign for all children and young people to have access to culture.

SENsory Atelier works in partnership with 14 Leicestershire Special Schools and their teachers, support staff and leadership. We support teachers without specialist arts subject or cultural education expertise, giving them the skills, confidence and capacity to devise creative programmes informed by children themselves and in doing so reframe our understanding of how they learn. This collaborative approach shifts the schools’ reliance on external peripatetic staff.

We work with artists who bring varied sensory practices based on sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, proprioception, interception and vestibular senses to collaborate with young people and their families through artistic residencies and visits to our art galleries and performances at Attenborough Arts Centre. We bring the gallery to the classroom and the classroom to the gallery.

The core SENsory Atelier programme has been funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation since 2016, with a new grant of £249,400 awarded in autumn 2024 for the next three years. SENsory Atelier has been further supported by Arts Council England, Bruce Wake Charitable Foundation, Royal Society of Chemistry, Ashley Family Foundation, Rix-Thompson-Rothenberg Foundation, Baily Thomas Charitable Trust and Maud Elkington Charitable Trust.

Paul Hamlyn Foundation logo

Click here for the SENsory Atelier website, which provides further information, case studies and contact information.

Click here to learn more and download The SENsory Atelier Group Observation framework which allows an observer to capture narrative information about a small group of young people and to score their engagements against a set of indicators from one of five outcome areas. The tool has proved very useful in helping to capture a young person’s interactions, to give importance to their choices, and to create a rigorous way of assessing their actions, interactions and engagements.

To read and download the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice for Arts Organisations, Artists and Educators, visit the University of Leicester FigShare Webpage.

Museums + Heritage Awards

We are thrilled to announce that Attenborough Arts Centre’s SENsory Atelier wins Museums + Heritage Awards 2025.

To learn more, visit our news post by clicking here.

Meet the Team

Marianne Pape, Learning and Outreach Manager
Lisa Jacques, SENsory Atelier Programme Manager

Inclusive Youth Arts Programme (IYAP)

We provide much needed opportunities for children and young people with complex needs and disabilities to be creative outside of school, promoting their wellbeing and enjoyment of being with others. All our workshops and performances are free to people from Leicester and Leicestershire who register on our programme.

Our programme takes place at weekends and during school holidays. Children on our programme experience a range of disabilities that without additional support, make it difficult for them to participate in the arts: including but not limited to PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties), Autism, ADHD (Attention Deficiency Hyperactive Disorder), Auditory, speech and visual impairments, Down’s Syndrome and Global Developmental Delay.

Tailored to the individual needs of our participants, our workshops are limited to small groups and are run by skilled professional artists experienced working with disabled children and young people.

We also host performances designed for SEND children and young people, in particular immersive theatre by companies including Frozen Light, Oily Cart and Bamboozle.

Our building is designed to be welcoming and accessible for a range of needs, and our staff are trained to be understanding and supportive. We have disabled parking bays and a Changing Places facility.

There are two groups for different ages:

  • ART explorers for under 18s
  • pARTicipate for 18-25s

To register on the programme and gain access to our events, please contact Hannah our programme coordinator on Hannah.pillai@leicester.ac.uk or call 0116 252 3077.