current projects

Art Clubs at The Courtyard

Digital Arts Club on a Monday and the Messy Arts Club on Wednesdays have restarted. The workshops are aimed at young people 11 and over and cost £4 per session. To book your place contact admin@oyap.org.uk or call Liz or Helen on 01869 602560

If you're a budding film maker, photographer, music producer or just interested in design and digital media then Digital Arts Club is for you

but

If you'd rather get messy painting, printing, sculpting and exploring lots of exciting creative activities then its Messy Arts Club all the way.


 
 

Our Spaces, Our Places

Caroline Moore and Alice Kirk, two graduates of our Stepping Up programme have been working in partnership with OAYP and Clubs for Young People to engage young people with there local area. 

At youth clubs across Oxfordshire, young people lead walks around their villages and towns, highlighting the good, the bad and even the ugly.  Through the production of films, murals, drama performances and collaged maps the young people are showcasing what their community means to them.

To find out more about the project click here

 

Hidden

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and managed by Stepping Up graduate Rebecca Ritchie Timms, Hidden is taking place in three heritage sites across Oxfordshire.  At Cogges Farm, Witney, The Vale and Downland Museum, Wantage and The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock young people are discovering the hidden histories of their local areas.

At Cogges Farm a week long camp of bush craft and woodland survival used Saxon methods to make an outdoor kitchen, whilst in Wantage a guided tour of The Vale and Downland Museum inspired the creation of a trail of installations around the town centre. In Woodstock this January you can work with a professional theatre practitioner to create a trail inspired by the Oxfordshire Museum

“Hidden project explodes the ‘history is boring’ myth. We have invited people to get involved in something fun and creative that gives them a connection with the place itself. These young people came to get involved in practical activities like den building and found they were learning about their local heritage at the same time.”
 
Book your place today!

 Tree of Light
                                                                                                                                                       

Taking place at the Courtyard, Tree of Light forms part of the national Cultural Olympiad.

Over half term young people aged 11 to 25 took part in a mix of digital arts, performance, dance and film workshops.  Using trees as their inspiration, they created a fantastic variety of images and performances.

Tree of Light events will continue at the Courtyard throughout the year, with a big dance event planned for July in celebration of the Olympics.
 

  Digital Challenge at The Courtyard

Digital Challenge: Using professional digital photography, animation, music and film equipment, young people work with professional artists to create their own digital art.

This project grew out of our Media Mouse Trap project and was a collaboration between MAP, Autism Oxford and Autism Family Support

If you would like to set up a Digital Challenge for your group contact us here

Image by Luke Morgan aged 18

 

PIMP MY BIKE
 

Pimp My Bike is a community-building arts project. While a bike mechanic teaches bike maintenance and safety, a professional spray artist helps young people turn their rusty, unsafe old bikes into one off works of art.

OYAP Trust, working with young people and community groups across Oxfordshire, piloted the project in 09/10, and it has been proven to increase community participation, levels of confidence and engagement in young people. For more pictures click here
 

photo courtesy of www.oxford-photography.co.uk
 

Stepping Up - Young Creative Leaders Training Programme.
 

Now in its second year Stepping up gives 10 artists, arts managers and emerging creative practitioners the skills, training, mentoring, accreditation and confidence they need to make a successful start to a career in youth arts. In addition a network of established creative professionals across the region will be trained as mentors on the programme. The project is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

“The project addresses the lack of opportunity many young people (18-25) are encountering in the current financial recession, and the gap in this type of provision in Oxfordshire. The tailored programme will create a successful transition between learning and work and create opportunities for young people to participate in creative workshops and youth arts projects across the County”. Helen Le Brocq, Director OYAP Trust

The project grew from a successful pilot programme developed with funding from the Big Lottery Fund via Awards for All and Creative Junction with advice and support from Oxford Brookes and Bucks New University. Graduates from the 2009/10 pilot programme are now actively working as arts practitioners across the county. ‘Anyone that wants to go into anything to do with being an arts practitioner or organising in the arts should do this course.’ Participant comment – May 2010

 

Oxfordshire Youth Theatre Collaboration
 

OYAP Trust have been driving this exciting collaboration between all of the youth theatres of the county, to share their resources, experiences, and to work together to bring new experiences and skills into the county since 1998. In 2008 we gained significant funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Youth Opportunity Fund and the Chill Out Fund to deliver an ambitious year-long programme called ‘All Together Different’. This saw youth theatres working together to stage a residency with international circus, street theatre and physical theatre company, Electric Cabaret, during October half term culminating in a platform performance led by young people at the Mill In February 09. Additionally over the course of the year each youth theatre hosted a master class and hosted an exchange visit with at least one other youth theatre. The results of All Together Different were evaluated and together with a professional consultant. OYAP Trust produced a ‘How To Toolkit’ is available her to download for free.
 

South East Youth Dance Network

OYAP Trust is facilitating a network of youth dance providers in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, part of a South East wide project funded by Youth Dance England and managed by Hampshire Dance.  Click here for details of the hubs in the South East and how you can get involved. 

Reaching the Parts (RTP)

Reaching the Parts is a mobile digital music production project. The project was established in 2001 to provide a music technology facility aimed at reaching the young people at risk in Oxfordshire, and to date we have worked with over 1000 young people. Reaching the Parts provides professional-standard music technology equipment, which is able to travel to any venue or setting. With computers, samplers, sound modules and DJ equipment, and the recording facility to make CDs of the work produced, young people produce their own music with expert professional guidance and facilitation. Courses are tailored to a group or individuals needs and the content is aimed at all abilities, no previous experience of music making is required. Participants working on longer courses can work towards gaining an Arts Award.

RTP now has an outstanding track record of working in a wide variety of settings and with a large range of partner organisations. Secure children's homes, isolated village halls, disability units, young offenders institutions, pupil referral units, youth clubs, young people on reparation orders and ISSP programmes as well as young people in the Looked After system have all benefited from RTP courses. Our partners have included Social Services, the Youth Offending Team, museums, schools, village halls, Youth Service, Music Service, homeless projects, drug projects and many voluntary youth organisations.

If you would like to know more or ask about sessions, please contact us.

Work with Looked After Children

Over the past twelve years OYAP Trust has been building a strong relationship with the statutory agencies working with Looked After children. We have seen the powerful impact of quality participatory arts experiences to change these young people’s lives. Although the arts are a powerful tool in the ‘at risk’ agenda, it is the quality of the arts work and the artists that has been the most significant factor in determining the success of the project. We always aim for a fantastic artistic experience first and foremost – the fact that we have the pool of skilled artists and a wealth of experience in this field allows us to access and meet the needs of young people at risk.

OYAP Trust is working with Children, Young People & Families, (Social Services) to make these projects possible, involving young people in the Looked After system from across the county:
 

• Hill End residential project. Multi-artform residential week, involving 15 artists, 20 volunteers, and 75 young people that are Looked After, with their outreach and support workers. Bronze Arts Awards are now successfully offered to young people on this project. OYAP works to ensure that this is an experience of the highest quality, and is a fun and rewarding life-changing experience for all involved in this unique event.
   

• Every year we choose a theme and the artists and young people and all of their support workers work together towards creating a spectacular young person-led performance, and this project has attracted significant interest at a national level.
   

• Celebrating Children. OYAP Trust will produce an annual celebratory event, with its project elements (performances made for the event). Looked After children are often ‘invisible’. Their achievements are well below the average, and are often forgotten due to the chaotic nature of their lives. The Arts provide a perfect way to make their achievements more noticeable and therefore valued, by their natural and foster families, but more importantly by their statutory parents, Oxfordshire County Council. The more visible, the more valued, the more supported the work becomes.

 

Arts Awards

OYAP Trust is the Lead Regional Training Agency for Arts Award in the South East we are also an Arts Awards Welcome organisation. We offer regular Bronze/Silver Arts Award Adviser Training and also offer in house courses for organisations in a range of settings. We have trained in schools, arts organisations, statutory agencies, and local authorities. For more information please contact Helen and see the Arts Awards website, www.artsawards.org.uk.
 

Artsplan Training Courses

Helen is a qualified trainer for Artsplan and delivers a number of training courses at OYAP Trust. Artswork have developed a wide range of relevant, practical, creative training opportunities for professionals and volunteers currently using or looking to use the arts with young people. Courses are consistently reviewed, evaluated and up dated to ensure the best possible training opportunity is provided. Participants are provided with a certificate of attendance upon successful completion of each. For more info visit the Artsplan website

ENYAN

The English National Youth Arts Network (ENYAN) is a membership body designed to create connections throughout the diverse youth arts sector at national, regional and grass roots levels. ENYAN aims to raise the profile and support for youth arts within England, and by doing so create more opportunities for the creative and personal development of young people, especially young people at risk. Helen is the chair of the South East Regional Advisory Panel (RAP), with the intention of raising the profile of youth arts in Oxfordshire, and raising awareness in Oxfordshire of opportunities that are emerging country-wide. www.enyan.co.uk