A free, creative multimedia project for KS3 students in Manchester, London and Birmingham aimed at inspiring young people’s interests in different creative fields. The REFRAME: Inspire Schools Project gets students working collaboratively with artist-educators on a digital ‘zine’, weaving poetry, visual art and digital skills to create their own online publication, supported by Apple technology. Students will take their creative brief from the Southbank Centre’s artistic programme, which this summer includes Tavares Strachan’s There is Light Somewhere at the Hayward Gallery.

Tavares Strachan: There Is Light Somewhere (18 June – 1 September 2024) is the first mid-career survey of the New York-based, Bahamian artist. Strachan imaginatively expands the boundaries of contemporary art with this multimedia exhibition, celebrating unsung explorers and cultural trailblazers, inviting audiences to engage with overlooked characters whose stories represent and illuminate histories hidden by bias, centred around Stachan’s Encyclopedia of Invisibility.

This project is a unique opportunity for students to explore their creativity across different mediums, work with world-class artists, and share their work with performance and exhibition opportunities. As part of the project, participating teachers will receive free CPD sessions to develop their own creative and digital skills, and how to use them in the classroom.

This project is open to mainstream and SEND secondary schools across Greater Manchester. It has been designed for KS3, aimed at students who are making their GCSE choices.

• Provide dedicated member/s of staff for the Creative Learning Team to contact prior to, during and following the programme
• Organise and cover the cost of travel for students and staff to central Manchester. Factory International will cover the cost of schools travelling to London from central Manchester.
• Contribute to and complete Factory International’s monitoring and evaluation processes, including providing parents/guardians with Factory International’s photo and video consent form and returning forms prior to the programme.
• For this project, we ask that a minimum of 50% of the class from each school is eligible for Pupil Premium or Free School Meals, and 50% of the class is from the Global Majority.