We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a Vital Spark roadshow on Wednesday 5 September. Vital Spark is a pioneering scheme by our friends at The Spark Arts for Children, Leicester.

The Spark Arts are looking for artists who identify as BAME, a person of colour and/or D/deaf or disabled to join them to create more diverse work for children and young people. Adel Al-Salloum (Director of The Spark Arts) and Tara Lopez (Creative Producer) will be travelling across the country to deliver informal networking events and are interested in meeting artists and companies interested in the programme.

Vital Spark is a four year programme which will work with artists and young people to understand how the arts, as a sector, can be more representative of and relevant to children today.

By supporting diverse artists and ideas, Vital Spark aims to shift the landscape of performance for children and young people. They will do so by questioning what stories we should be telling, how they should be told, and who should be telling them, and using this conversation to respond and act in a positive and immediate way.

The four-year programme will consist of

• Vital Spark Development Programme: a yearly programme inviting a range of artists who identify as BAME, a person of colour and/or D/deaf or disabled to develop themselves and the sector by interrogating their practice and the environment within which it sits;
• Ideas Fund: commissioning and supporting new, bold, exciting ideas for work more representative of children today;
• Vital Spark Productions: producing two new pieces of high quality work that have the potential to tour nationally and internationally.

Applications are now open for the Development Programme and Ideas Fund for 2018-19. Follow the above links for more information, and come along to the Roadshow when it visits Z-arts on Wednesday 5 September.

Please click here for more information and to register for your space.