Sanctuaries by ArtReach

Sanctuaries was a project that successfully bid for funding from our Y Heritage team by local organisation, ArtReach. ArtReach has worked alongside some of the young people from The Y that are engaged with Y Heritage and some young people from Attenborough Arts Next Gen. Creatives. These young people took part in a series of workshops that were supported by ArtReach exploring their relationship with sanctuary. Preparation also included going to London to experience some immersive art installations and open up a conversation about what sanctuary means and their own ideas about safe spaces.

Sanctuaries is an exhibition of immersive installations that explore real and imagined safe spaces put together by these young people in All Saints Church on Highcross street. The exhibition will be open on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd of June from 12noon until 7pm. Touch, smell and listen and interpret these safe spaces in your own way while exploring the complex relationship all people have with sanctuary.

Kick The Dust Community of Practice

On Wednesday 19th of June, we were very proud to host the 3rd Community of Practice event for Kick the Dust, a £10 million initiative from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It was incredible to have all 12 funded projects represented by project workers and also some of the external project evaluators attend. Joining representatives from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, we also welcomed some of the “DustKickers”. The DustKickers are young ambassadors aged between 16 and 25 who helped to decide how the £10 million was awarded.

The agenda for the day included a guest speaker from one of the Y Heritage funded projects called The New Custodian. Theo Miller from Leicester Printworks was one of the first applicants to receive funding from The Y and his project is now completed. He was joined by one of our young people, Jimmy, who did a placement with Theo working to restore a Victorian printing press. They both took the time to answer some questions from our visitors and share some insights into enabling young people to access and become interested in heritage.

At the end of the conference, some of our visitors were able to go along to a specially arranged preview of another Y Heritage funded project called Sanctuaries. Local organisation ArtReach, successfully applied for Y Heritage funding and of course offered a placement to one of our young people. A fantastic end to a successful event.

This bringing together of all organisations involved allowed the sharing of successes and best practice as well as the opportunity to network and learn from the other organisations.Welcome and we hope you enjoyed your day in our lovely Victorian theatre.

Volunteers’ Week 2019

We’d like to say a huge THANK YOU

We were delighted to receive a helping hand from staff from local businesses with the revamp of the area outside the front of our Aylestone centre that needed some TLC. The intention was to make a a nice outdoor space for our young people and we were lucky to have some super volunteers and organisations in Leicestershire on hand.

Volunteers Week is an annual initiative to say thank you for the fantastic contribution volunteers make. It is a UK wide campaign led by NVCO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations). During the week, hundreds of events and celebrations take place across the country, saying thank you to volunteers and recognising their invaluable and diverse contribution to the charity sector. And each day had a set theme. Most pertinent to The Y were Tuesday 4th June which was Corporate/Skilled Volunteering day and Wednesday 5th of June which was Youth themed day.

Thank you to:
Ashley, Ana and Wayne from Gallagher
Charlotte and Lynne from EMH Group
Kevin from Office Oasis

A thank you must also go to Office Oasis for donating the all the plants. Wanslip Sand and Gravel kindly donated all the soil and gravel. Gary from Harlow Brothers also sourced discounted railway sleepers which were used for the bedding areas. None of this would have happened without this support. THANK YOU.

Sitting down with…Rough Draft

Who are you and what do you do?Rough Draft logo
We’re a group of local creatives who love new stuff.  From gut-wrenching theatre to side-splitting comedy, melodic music to punch poetry, and all those arty bits in between, we love seeing all the new and exciting things that fall out of those creative brains.  But more than anything we love helping people get this new stuff made.

What are you bringing to The Y Theatre?
Rough Draft is a monthly night for performers, comedians, writers, theatremakers and more to try out new ideas, get feedback and find collaborators, right here in Leicester. Our very first night coming up in June has theatre, poetry, music and some improv, a great mix!

If you could be on stage with anyone, who would it be and why?
That’s the fun thing about Rough Draft, we are on stage with new and awesome people every month! But also Beyonce.

What are you watching?
All sorts. We love a bit of BBC Drama (bring on Killing Eve season 2!), excited for the new comedy awards too. We love going to local nights like Find The Right Words and open mics. Hayley is also really into Task Master.

Name one thing you can’t live without and why
Definitely our laptops. We use them for writing, listening to music, watching videos, editing, you name it. I always have mine with me. It’s a creative hub in my pocket. And by pocket I of course mean bag…

Name one thing you really hate and why
That you usually need experience or contacts or a butt-tonne of money before you can even take the first step. It is not that hard to just help people.

Describe your show with one GIF —->

Why should people come and see your show?
Because you’ll be the first to see brand new work by exciting local artists. You get to give feedback and help shape their projects as they develop. You never know, you might even find the next person you work with!

Rough Draft is a regular new work night at The Y Theatre