Involving children & young people in the arts - presentation for #BrightGenerations Assitej Artistic Gathering 2025

I was invited to speak on a panel at the Bright Generations Artistic Gathering on how we can involve children and young people in artisitc creation. Here are some of the questions we discussed. What deeply motivates you in involving children and Young people in your projects? Is it an artistic or a political action? Is it a widespread approach in your country? Or is it innovative? What status do children and Young people have in your projects? What more do they bring to the table compared to adults in the creative process? In your opinion, from the perspective of the children, their parents and their communities: What difficulties, fears and doubts did they encounter in these projects? What joys, what meaning, what beneficial changes did they gain from this experience? What have been the greatest challenges or frustrations and the greatest joys for you as a creative artist in these projects? What matters most? The experience, the creative process, or the final work? Can you have high standards in all the different areas? Can we create today for young audiences without young people ?

Some key elements of how we create an authentic artistic experience from my practice of story-writing are to give children: - authority to write a story as a singular author - freedom of their imagination - agency to use their story to make change And one of the key outcomes of involving children from schools is that when we make a community performance we connect across the range of the community (not just segments), because all families go to school. And we are experiencing the live performance with the children as collaborators/accomplices. Dominique Bérody spoke about how this impacts on the reception of the show - something changes, a democratisation with a different type of aesthetics and more plural, non-hierarchical relationship to audiences. The session was moderated by Séverine Coulon and Céline Garnavault; With the artists Zoë Demoustier, Cie Ultima Vez (Belgium), Sue Giles (Australia) and Michael Judge, New International Encounter Theatre (UK). Keynote speakers: Dominique Bérody, artistic consultant and Sylvia Girel, sociologist. An example of working with children and with objects from a Museum to make a show in Fenland.