North East: NE-Generation

CultuRISE image by Tom Browne

NE-Generation is young people, cultural organisations and youth work organisations working together across the North East.

Young people are taking the lead in shifting how culture is defined and accessed, leaving a legacy for other young people. NE-Generation promotes the role of culture in developing identity and supports the Olympic values of 'mind, body and spirit'. NE-Generation is a reflective research programme where young people and workers learn as equals to the benefit of cultural and youth work practice.

NE-Generation comprises of 9 Regional Projects, 6 Cultural Innovation Fund Project and 5 Overarching Projects. These component elements of the Programme are diverse in content, location and participants, but are unified in their commitment to the same core aims of NE-Generation.

The programme aims:

-    To bring about a shift in the way in which children and young people and the North East’s cultural sector collaborate;
-    To develop a more relevant, children and young people focused cultural sector where young people experience, participate in and generate cultural activity on their own terms
-    To assist the cultural sector in becoming more responsive to and reflective of young people and their cultural needs and interests
-    To assist the cultural sector in playing a greater part in children and young people’s lives, and increasing children and young people’s self-awareness, creative opportunities   for self-expression and enabling them to develop their own ideas of personal and regional identity
-    To incorporate the 'widest possible definition of culture' (Legacy Trust UK 2008).

NE-Generation comprises of 9 Regional Projects, 6 Cultural Innovation Fund Project and 5 Overarching Projects. These component elements of the Programme are diverse in content, location and participants, but are unified in their commitment to the same core aims of NE-Generation.

10th Project
Young people from the different funded projects meet regularly to take the lead in events planning, skills sharing and legacy development.

The 10th Project organised a collective sand art event at Druridge Bay where young people from across the region descended on the secluded Northumberland beach to leave their mark with a giant work of art in the sand. In September 2011 the project will reunite for an overnight fire art event in County Durham with lantern parades, sculptures, storytelling and more.

CultuRISE
CultuRISE is inspired by the World Collections held by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. To date, the young people have created a piece of drama, a group work resource for other youth groups and a road show.

CultuRISE has been built around the Hear by Right Framework that ensures young people are at the heart of decision making and taking the lead with the project. A clear investment has been into the young people who have identified training needs and planning requirements that have enabled them to make informed choices and shape the direction and identity of CultuRISE as well as gain accredited leadership training.

Dale Force!
Dale Force! is working to improve access to cultural activity for young people across the rural areas of Allendale, Weardale and Teesdale in Country Durham. Youth steering groups are in place in each of the Dales to plan and coordinate activity for their peers. Three Dales meetings are also held enabling young people from across County Durham to meet together, which is in itself a big achievement.

Dale Force! is seeking to overcome the barriers of timing, transport and cost to increase cultural opportunities for young people. More recently young people from the Dales worked with professional designers to create the Dale Force! logo.

Five Ring Circus Image by Kirk Bonsall

Five Ring Circus
Five Ring Circus are passionately promoting youth circus across the North East with weekly open access clubs in Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Stockton.

Five Ring Circus love to perform and offer regular opportunities for young people to showcase their work, go on circus walkabouts. Or young people can join the ‘fifth ring’ a group for those who want to take circus more seriously. These opportunities to perform are increasing the young people’s confidence and commitment through the rehearsal process.

All of the clubs have a welcoming ethos and provide a safe environment for young people to make friends and learn new skills. Five Ring Circus is about juggling, unicylcing, aerial work, acrobatics and all sorts of tricks but more so it is a place for young people to come and be themselves, whatever that may look like.

image by Future Cinema

Future Cinema
Future Cinema has taken youth leadership seriously from the onset, with the earlier stages of the project focusing on equipping the team of Young Mentors.

This core group launched The Factory in 2010, an informal drop in every other Monday at the Tyneside Cinema. The Factory is run by the Young Mentors and gives other young people the opportunity to learn about film, animation and digital technologies.

The Factory gives young people access to the latest technology and software as well as the chance to work with exciting professionals like Layla Gaye and Richard Fenwick. The Factory have partnered with AV Festival to support young people making proposals for potential project ideas to be included in the next festival.

The investment in the Young Mentors continues with one being appointed as a Changemakers and being involved in the governance of the Tyneside Cinema. All Young Mentors have been offered an exciting progression route through paid part-time work to facilitate the project on an ongoing basis.

Tech Max
The Family Learning Team at TWAM is working with Looked After young people from 12 Local Authorities across the region. Each area is given a budget to deliver taster sessions with the participants to enable them to explore what they understand by culture and choose practitioners they would like to work with them.

For young people who overcome personal challenges on a daily basis, this project seeks to give them the opportunity to take control with support from professionals to shape the activities they have access to.

Tech Max held a collective performance during the London 2012 Open Weekend in 2010 and since then the different groups have been hard at work in their local areas developing their creative skills in photography, animation, illustration, dance, theatre and much more in preparation for their collective event next year.

Time Travel Northumberland
Drawing inspiration from Woodhorn’s extensive archives and responding the museums exhibitions, young people from across Northumberland are taking the lead in a whole range of creative activities.

The young people have overcome the obstacles of geographyand attitudes towards archive ownership to make local history interesting and accessible for other young people, even opening the museum at night. Projects have included filmmaking and gramophone DJing using recordings from the archives as well as Our Sporting Life and (r38, which were the young people’s responses to Woodhorn exhibits

Most recently the group embarked on 1840s Big Brother, inspired by a poster for a Felton Village event in 1836. 24 teenagers spent 4 days in Featherstone Castle dressing, working and living as their ancestors did 170 years ago – there only contact with technology was the camera in the diary room.

Urban Alchemy
Urban Alchemy is a celebration of young people and their cultures, imagination and aspirations. The project gives opportunities to young people to make positive changes in their communities. It’s all about bringing art forms such as drama, break dancing and graffiti back to the streets where they originated and claiming space for young people to engage in positive activities. Urban Alchemy is based on the belief that engaging young people in the arts is not only beneficial for them, but also to the wider community.

Artists have been working closely with five detached youth projects in Bensham, Meadowell, Highfield, Barly Mow and Byker/Walker. To date they have performed in bus stations, created murals, performed Shakespeare in the park and showcased breakdance and graffiti. Urban Alchemy is seeing young people overcome personal obstacles and benefitting from engaging in cultural activity.

Urban Games
Conceived by young people on Tyneside as an alternative to the traditional sports of the olympics, the Urban Games is for those who are more passionate about Hip Hop and urban sports and arts. They wanted an event which celebrated the skill and commitment required in breakdancing, DJing, skateboarding, BMXing and Parkour.

The inaugural event in 2010 took place at The Sage Gateshead. For many of the young people involved in the Urban Games it was the first time they had attended an event like this, let alone run it.

The Urban Games 2011 built on the experience of the previous year, developing the young people’s skills and increasing the scale of the event. Taking place at the Whitley Bay links, the Urban Games attracted 8000 spectators, 400+ audience at the showcase, 100+ volunteers, 300+ competitors and performers, 20+ plus medallists, with 11 people trained as event stewards, 2 world records broken and the region's first ever Parkour Jam.



Urban Music Training
UMT is an exclusive training programme for aspiring young DJs, producers, vocalists, rappers and instrumentalists. Offering the opportunity for young people to create, record and perform new material, produce your own high profile events and train to a professional standard.

Cultural Innovation Fund
Young People from the nine regional projects formed a second panel to allocate £100,000 of funding for emerging artists from the North East to work with young people. Click here for more information on the six projects they selected.

For more information visit the NE-Generation website or email anna@rywu.co.uk