In November 2023, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Fair Access department visited the Isle of Mull to work with young people and the creative team from Mull Youth Theatre (MYT). We were accompanied by care experienced/estranged artists Genna Allan (an actor and movement director) and Colleen Bell (a filmmaker and writer).
Prior to the trip, the MYT young people had engaged in an online information session about what being care experienced or estranged means. This session was designed in consultation with care experienced and estranged artists, Who Cares? Scotland and by utilising Each and Every Child’s Toolkit.
MYT engages with hundreds of young people across the island with a wide variety of lived experience. They were keen to explore what a compassionate and safe creative space might mean for its users. The concept of ‘care’ was explored through co-created discussion and practical activities which participants and MYT and RCS Fair Access staff took part in together.
The workshops were also an opportunity for the artists to explore and deepen their practice – testing out ways of working in a supportive environment with opportunities for reflection and feedback from participants. Genna delivered a movement-based session incorporating choreography and lifts. Colleen led the group through creative writing exercises which generated pieces of original text. There was the opportunity to combine the choreography and text, exploring how the material could intersect and resonate.
Following the visit to Mull, the youth theatre decided to create a ‘manifesto’ which represents the discoveries they made about how they want to support each other and hold safe spaces. The manifesto was accompanied by a photographic exhibition and pamphlet documenting the work undertaken in November and communicating the key findings from the experience.
RCS Fair Access and Mull Youth Theatre continue to find ways to collaborate and engage with the artists and young people including a visit to and tour of RCS, follow-up movement sessions on Mull for the wider youth theatre and the exhibition launch event in An Tobar.
The project aimed to:
- Increase knowledge of care experience and estrangement within the youth theatre
- Enable the young people to design their own systems of care and support
- Be young person led, but co-created, ensuring equity in decision making
- Create an opportunity for the artists involved to explore, deepen and refine their own practice
- Deepen the relationship between RCS and MYT, laying foundations for further collaboration
- Develop RCS’s ability to support care experienced practitioners as they grow as artists
The approach
This project builds on an ongoing relationship between RCS Fair Access and Mull Youth Theatre. Despite the flourishing arts community on Mull, Youth Theatre Director Andi Stevens is motivated to bring in artists from outside the island to work with the young people. She sees a huge benefit in new people bringing fresh ideas, perspectives and experiences.
“It was the liveliness of the light in their eyes when they were participating in everything. I suppose it goes back to that fun and laughter feel, or the learning through fun and laughter.”
(Andi, MYT)
MYT works with a wide range of young people from right across the island, including some with care experience or estrangement and others with caring responsibility. It is an important creative outlet and community, as Andi describes it, ‘a big family.’ The older young people involved in the group are aware of the youth theatre’s responsibility to be welcoming, inclusive and safe for all participants, and this project enabled an exploration of what this means in ethos and in practice.
“It’s not just in the sessions that we had the learning process. It was the whole, the whole every minute of the day was a collaboration between everybody.”
(Young person)
The driving forces of this project were the young people from MYT who have a strong sense of what they want for themselves and their community, and the care experienced/estranged artists who skilfully shaped and held the creative work undertaken. Staff from RCS Fair Access and Mull Youth Theatre helped to enable the right environment for the work and provide support when needed, without steering the project.
“I just wanted us all to feel safety in exploration, and safety in each other’s company, and it was really important to me that we fostered an environment where people could set boundaries for themselves, and that be respected.”
(Artist)
The environment was an important factor for the artists who beautifully designed the workshops and approached facilitation in a generous and open way. They highlighted that support with planning, travel and reflection was crucial to building their confidence and allowing them to achieve their full potential as facilitators.
“Growing up in a really shitty situation often puts you in a category where you have to preface your whole identity. I want to be respected as an artist and I feel like we showed them how to respect each other as artists and that’s the main takeaway.” (Artist)
On reflection, the young people from MYT commented that all participants (themselves, the artists and staff) had worked together on a totally even playing field, that everyone was open to making discoveries and that we were all ‘just people in the room’.
“The group were talking about what they expected the session to be like, and they expected it to be quite sad. For me that is exactly what the stigma of care is. When we got to the end, they said, this has been such a fun day, they’d learned a lot. In a very literal way that was us, in that moment, breaking the stigma of care.” (Artist)
Other factors that helped us achieve the project:
| Partnerships | Fair Access and Mull Youth Theatre already have a close working relationship. This means we understand how we collaborate together effectively. | |
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| Supportive communities | Mull has an established arts community who have the resources to support visiting artists and are open to new ideas and learning. | |
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| Appetite for learning | The care experienced/estranged artists have strong personal practices but are open to development and challenge. | |
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| Democracy | Young people, artists and facilitators worked without hierarchy with an openness to learning from each other. | |
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| Empathetic approach | The care experienced/estranged artists are open about their own identify and support participants in a gentle and generous way. | |
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| Resources | Between RCS and MYT, the practical and financial resources needed to support visits to Mull and Glasgow were in place. |
You can read a PDF of the report called ‘Let’s Talk About’ here.
