SUMMER WIND DOWN
Our Summer Wind Down programme provides creative inspiration you can explore and do at home for children, young people and their families.
2021
YNAF 2021 Summer Wind Down….
With the Young Norfolk Arts Festival all wrapped up for another year, we’ve still got loads to explore this summer both online and in-person.
2020
During August 2020 we posted weekly activities inspired by our Young Norfolk Arts Festival virtual programme.
So whether it’s visual art, dance, writing or music you’ve got a craving for this summer, we’re here to titillate your cultural taste buds with inspiration from our county’s finest young talent. Tune in and get creative.
WEEK 1 – MONDAY 3 AUGUST
The Great Outdoors
This week it’s all about the Great Outdoors. We’re revisiting our virtual gallery, curated and full of artwork by Norfolk’s young people. We had lots of entries inspired by the great outdoors. A lot of us have found great joy and new connections with our natural spaces. This activity gives you a chance to celebrate your favourite outdoor spaces, in new ways, inspired by some of the young artists in the exhibition.
Have a look at some of the artists in our Hope room of the gallery space, you can find it by navigating yourself there from youngnorfolkarts.org.uk/virtual-gallery. Boo Green, Benji Fox, Amy Rose Williams and Kenna Winter are all inspired by the outdoors, if you click on their pieces, you can find out more about their work.
On the ceiling of the Hope room you’ll find Boo Green’s origami flowers. She took photos of her garden in lockdown, and turned them into flowers. It made some of us think about the ever-changing ways of nature, since it morphed from photo to flower. It also helps us think about our own creative outputs in new ways, as we turn one form of art-a two-dimensional photo or drawing- into a 3-dimensional form.
Activity 1:
Choose your favourite lockdown outdoor spot and take a photo or draw a picture of it. Once you’re done, turn it into something else, maybe a paper aeroplane or a boat. Maybe you could make a paper bird, take a look at Access to Art’s instructions here.
Activity 2:
Got some more time? Once you’re done, have a look at how our young curators chose to display Boo’s work in the Hope room of our virtual gallery. This room was designed to connect to the outdoors, with the sand on the floor, and to create a calm atmosphere, with the pale blue walls and the choice of artwork. Spend some time absorbing the atmosphere. How does it make you feel? What does it make you think of? How would you like people to experience your folded creation? Why not put it back in its outdoor space, or create a backdrop for it with coloured paper that reflects a mood you would like to create. You could hang it by a string, position it on a flower, whatever takes your fancy.
Done?
We’d love to see. Post the results on social media with #YNASummerwinddown #TheGreatOutdoors
Want More?
Our local bridge organisation, connecting our region’s children and young people with great art and culture, have been working hard with local partners, artists and 64 million artists to create this fabulous Let’s Create pack.
If you have some more time why not try some of their activities, also inspired by the Great Outdoors. On p.16 you’ll find Green Fingers by Rebecca Liles and on p.9 Change in the Weather by our very own trustee, Lewis Buxton.
Thanks for coming along this week everyone, see you next week, with more, fun packed creative inspiration.
WEEK 2 – MONDAY 10 AUGUST
Our House
Hello! This week it’s all about Our House, well your house, let’s go to everyone’s houses and make some tunes! (not in real life, obviously). But we’d to be virtually invited to your house, to share in your lyrical creations this week.
Some of our artists in the gallery were inspired by scenes in their houses over lockdown. Have a look at Kyran Demetri’s Online learning; organised chaos, in the Atrium of our virtual gallery or Tilly Pettitt’s Dad in Workshop, in hope. But this week, we’re going to make some noise, as we join Young Norfolk Arts Collective member, Gracie to help us get inspired to write some tunes using household objects. Watch her video from July’s festival above, then follow the activities below to see if you can write your own lyrics, just like she did.
Activity 1:
Have a go at writing some lyrics. We were lucky enough to be joined by writer Daisy Henwood for a workshop during our festival. She doesn’t usually write lyrics, but her simple writing exercise might help you to start creating your own!
Write 5 lists of 5 things in your house right now that you can; see, touch, smell, taste & hear. These could be lyrics for a song straight off, if you were feeling abstract or wacky!
Activity 2:
If you want to get a bit more Bob Dylan about it, how about choosing one of the words from your list that inspires you, then use it as a springboard to free write for 7 minutes. Free writing is just continuously writing exactly what comes into your head for a given amount of time, without stopping. Even if you can’t think of anything to write, you just write ‘aghhh’ or ‘I can’t think of anything’ or or ‘lalala’. What great rock start doesn’t have an angsty ‘aghhh’ in it, right? And don’t get us started on ‘lalala’.
Fancy taking it further? For some great tips on making your own soundscapes and tunes, like Gracie did, watch Helen Atkinson on recording sound at home.Or composer Finn Anderson’s lovely performance and Q&A, for tips on music composition.
Done?
We’d love to see. Post the results on social media with #YNASummerwinddown #TheGreatOutdoors
Want More?
Our local bridge organisation, connecting our region’s children and young people with great art and culture, have been working hard with local partners, artists and 64 million artists to create this fabulous Let’s Create pack.
If you have some more time why not try some of their activities, also inspired by the Our House theme, we love Abbey Page’s A World Inside Your Home on page 15 and Oliver Payne’s Make a Graphic Score on page 12.
Thanks for coming along this week everyone, see you next week, with more, fun packed creative inspiration.
WEEK 3 – MONDAY 17 AUGUST
Get Movin’
This week we’d like to join you in throwing some shapes! The great thing about dancing in your living room, is that you can move exactly like no one is watching, because – apart from your cat and maybe your brother- no one is! Saying that, we’d love you to send us some photos and videos of your moves, info below.
We had some inspiring dance content across the festival. We were particularly proud of the first ever collaboration between young dance team True Motion and poet Nell Basley, watch their piece up next. And Genevieve Wright blew us away with her film, composing the music, performing solo and editing it all by her sweet self, a juicy clip of that also to follow, but you can watch the whole piece in the Surreal room of our virtual gallery. Then try this week’s activities below; good luck and get movin’.
Activity 1:
Try dance artist and movement therapist Hayley’s Centre Yourself youtube workshop, guaranteed to loosen you up and get those creative juices flowing!
Activity 2:
Activity 2: Feeling ready to make your own shapes? Put these fresh young tunes from Gladboy on as loud as you dare, then move in your living room like no one’s watching!
Done?
We’d love to see. Post the results on social media with #YNASummerwinddown #TheGreatOutdoors
Want More?
Our local bridge organisation, connecting our region’s children and young people with great art and culture, have been working hard with local partners, artists and 64 million artists to create this fabulous Let’s Create pack.
If you have some more time why not try some of their activities, also inspired by the Get Movin’ theme, we love Hannah Ashmore’s draw Dance Disco on page 30.
Thanks for coming along this week everyone, see you next week, with more, fun packed creative inspiration.
WEEK 4 – MONDAY 24 AUGUST
My Language
This week, it’s all about My Language, or rather; your language. For our festival this July we invited young artists aged 5-25 to respond to the question; what does my language mean to me? And we adored listening to Salman Toheed perform in his language on our virtual Lost River stage this summer. We’d love you to have a go at this week’s activities and share them with us.
Activity 1:
Watch Salman Toheed, then think of a song you enjoy singing in your language, and film yourself singing it, perhaps you could rope in a family member!
Activity 2:
When you’re done, write a simple list poem about what your language means to you. A list poem is a poem with one word in each line, it can be as long or short as you like!
Fancy taking it further? Take a look at the My Language website, which will be running all year for some of the art work that has been submitted.
Done?
We’d love to see. Post the results on social media with #YNASummerwinddown #Mylanguage
Want More?
Our local bridge organisation Festival Bridge, connecting our region’s children and young people with great art and culture, have been working hard with local partners, artists and 64 million artists to create this fabulous Let’s Create pack.
If you have some more time why not try some of their activities, also inspired by the My Language theme, we love Write A Short Play on page 23.
Thanks for coming along this week everyone, see you next week, with more, fun packed creative inspiration.
WEEK 5 – MONDAY 31 AUGUST
Letters to the Future
This week it’s all about the future! What if our virtual Festival this year was a time capsule for the future, what would it say about this moment in history? Some of the video works we had submitted to our virtual gallery would make particularly good time capsules for future generations. Maili Little’s in the Hope Room and Taryn Everdeen’s in Surreal are good examples. Also Shelby Cooke’s soundscape joining your whole journey through our gallery space. What would you like to leave behind for future generations? Watch clips of those videos above and try the activities this week and let us know what your legacy would be….
Activity 1:
Choose someone to write to about your here and now, it might be a friend, family member, celebrity or politician.
Write them a letter, you could make it in video form, like Maili Little’s piece from the ‘no space, every place‘ exhibition.
Activity 1:
Digital snapshots… have a go at documenting the world around you and your everyday experiences. Whether you’re going for a walk, a car journey, going on holiday, seeing friends or family.
Capture a selection of 5 images or video clips that sum up these experiences for you. Think about how someone in the future might look back at the world through your eyes.
Use any kind of camera available to you, could be on a phone or a tablet, anything is fine – just point and shoot.
Don’t be afraid to get creative – think about how you can experiment with everyday objects to create fun DIY visual effects, check out this video for some tips to get you inspired….
Done?
We’d love to see. Post the results on social media with #YNASummerwinddown #LetterstotheFuture
Want More?
Our local bridge organisation Festival Bridge, connecting our region’s children and young people with great art and culture, have been working hard with local partners, artists and 64 million artists to create this fabulous Let’s Create pack.
Take a look at The Company Three project where you can see teenagers in more than 200 youth theatres, schools and community groups in 18 countries capturing themselves in lockdown.
Join our Young Norfolk Arts Collective taster session on Wednesday 30th September at 5:30pm by signing up here. The Collective is open to anyone aged 16-25, who wants to develop the skills and knowledge to enable them to manage, produce, promote and evaluatecreative events, activities and exhibitions.
SUPPORT US
Young Norfolk Arts Trust is a charity which uses all its income to provide life changing opportunities for young people across Norfolk. Every project and activity is offered to children and young people for free, including our yearly festival programme. Support us by donating what you can…