SENsory Atelier and Inclusive Youth Arts Programme
We believe that everyone is creative and we celebrate the creativity of everyone.
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 (www.reggiochildren.it/en/), 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 nine 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 programme is funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation until October 2024 and 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.
Click here for the SENsory Atelier website, which provides further information, case studies and contact information.
Atelier Labs
Atelier Labs is a new subsidiary programme of SENsory Atelier which sees collaboration between artists, chemists, teachers and young people attending formal SEND school settings to explore the world and develop their interest and learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths (STEAM) subjects beyond GCSE level. The programme aims to develop enquiries around how creativity can be used to unlock skills for wider learning across 9 special schools in Leicestershire and to provide a platform to those who are often not heard or represented, enabling stories to be told and learning to be self-directed.
More information on the pilot Atelier Labs project can be found here
Inclusive Youth Arts Programme
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. Our participants have a range of disabilities which without additional support, make it difficult for them to participate in culture and creativity, 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.
All our workshops and performances are free to children and young people aged 0 – 18 years old* with complex disabilities and needs from Leicester and Leicestershire which take place at weekends and during school holidays.
*All children and young people need to be escorted by an adult parent or carer.
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.
To register on the programme and gain access to our events, please contact Pasha Kincaid our Youth Programmes Coordinator (Maternity Cover) on pasha.kincaid@leicester.ac.uk or our Front of House team on 0116 252 2455 or email arts-centre@leicester.ac.uk