This project has changed me because it taught me how to work with different people.
Arts & Ages: Creating lasting connections across Tower Hamlets
Nurturing partnerships between eight primary schools and eight groups of local older people
Developing long-lived intergenerational relationships
Arts & Ages was an ambitious, three-year programme, designed to foster relationships between primary schools and groups of older people in Tower Hamlets through the arts. Younger and older people came together to create artworks that reflected what they have to say, and challenge perceptions of who they are, becoming active citizens in their communities.
Placemaking: personalised projects for particular places
During dozens of sessions, primary pupils and groups from shelter housing and care homes shared stories and learned new skills together. A few examples: in Stepney, participants thinking about identity wrote their own version of the Greek Narcissus story, using music, storytelling and drawing. Poplar participants made seven stations for their school hall, each of them including poetry recordings, dioramas, music and painting.
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This came at the perfect time. I had just moved in and felt unsettled. This has helped me feel settled. You have fun when you’re here with the kids, but then it enthuses your whole day.
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It made me look at children in a different way. It makes me feel good when they see me in the park and wave, and their friends say ‘how do you know her?’.
Taking your time with co-creation
The partnerships we brokered had generous time and space in which to develop: up to ten weeks to plan projects, create artworks and share the final results in an exhibition or a performance. Partnership building - particularly across the generations - takes time. Young people may see older ones as teachers or holders of expertise; older people might think of younger ones as inexperienced or underskilled. That's not how Magic Me sees it: our older and younger participants are peers in our projects. All participants have a past, a future and an imagination, and they come into our creative spaces as equals with a shared purpose.
Arts & Ages was a 2018-2021 project, developed and supported through local authority contracts, corporate support and Trusts & Foundation funding. Learn more about how to support our work below.