Hello! My name is Sofia, I am a fourth-year Theatre Studies student at the University of Glasgow, and I am here to tell you a little bit about my experience working on Imaginate’s Creative Encounters project.
As part of my degree, I was offered (and jumped at the chance) to take part in a work placement module. Since January 2025, I have been working alongside the amazing Lou Brodie and Ink Asher Hemp to support the delivery of Creative Encounters, working mostly with the North Edinburgh Youth Arts Collective, but also spending some time with groups at Forthview Primary and the Spartans Community Foundation.
Back in September 2024, when my course convener, Dr Stephen Greer, asked me if I had any idea what area I might like to complete my placement in, I felt at a total loss. My interests, both professional and creative, are so vast. How could I possibly find a placement host that would be able to give me experience of youth arts work, arts and cultural policy research, festival work, multi-cultural arts, and the relationship between performance and multiple identities. However, I forgot that Steve Greer is a genius. Enter Imaginate, and the Creative Encounters Project, an experience which has not only beautifully combined all of these interests for me, but also made me a stronger, more confident, and more adaptable creative/professional/ person.
My time with the NEA Youth Arts Collective has primarily involved supporting Lou and Ink, as well as commissioned artist Bishop May Down, in the facilitation of workshops and activities on the theme of Arts and Activism. As part of this I had the opportunity to observe the co-creation process with the children as they developed the script for Bishop’s commissioned performance: Election. Lou also made sure I had opportunities to observe other Creative Encounters Groups, as well as other work done by Imaginate in their delivery of Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. The placement offered a vast experience, and, as intimidated as I felt to begin with (as somebody who had never worked with children and young people in a professional capacity before), I absolutely adored every moment. I even had the opportunity to speak lots to the wonderful Thérèse Kearns, one of the PhD researchers currently working with Imaginate, which, as someone interested in going into research on youth arts/cultural policy, was fascinating and very useful in helping map out where my future career might take me.
Before my placement began, Lou had explained to me about the central role of Children’s Rights and the UNCRC to Imaginate’s work more generally, and especially to Creative Encounters, but when I started I found this to be even more central than I had initially expected. Every element of Creative Encounters, as I observed it, centres children as autonomous individuals, highlights and prioritises their interests and preferences, and promotes the protection of their rights under the UNCRC. Working within the themes of arts and activism, one of the most valuable lessons I took away from my placement was understanding just how informed and interested the young people of Creative Encounters are on these themes, especially in how they relate to their own communities and the work that they commission.
I concluded my experience with Imaginate by attending the launch of the Children’s Festival, and getting to see some of the young people from Creative Encounters take to the stage to host the event. I also supported Lou, Ink and the young people at the North Edinburgh Community Festival and the first performance of Election, and most recently volunteered at the Children’s Festival itself, which I am excited to get involved in again next year.
As part of my placement module, I wrote a critical reflection on my experience and understanding of the sector that Imaginate works in (which included significantly more unnecessary academic jargon than this blog post). I will, however, leave you with the concluding, largely jargon-free paragraph of that reflection:
‘When going through the schedule of my placement, Lou spoke often about making sure I could fulfil my required hours. The importance of this element faded quickly for me, and I made sure to tell her by the end of my placement that every session, as hard as some of it was, was fundamentally a joy. The children of Creative Encounters are incredibly bright young people. They know, understand, and think so much more complexly than teachers, politicians, and society more generally often give them credit for. I feel immensely privileged to have been able to spend this time with this project, and to have helped give this unique group of young people the voice and creative outlet they are so deserving of. If my career path does eventually take me to work in or influence cultural policy, this experience will remain at the forefront of my mind.’
Me volunteering at Family Day, Edinburgh International Children's Festival 25