Imaginate aims to create pathways for artists to grow and produce new work, and this is no better exemplified than with Eoin McKenzie. Eoin is a theatre maker, director and participatory artist based in Glasgow. He first got involved with Imaginate as a student during a visit to the Children’s Festival. After graduating, he became one of the first Launchpad artists in 2018, developing All or Nothing, a piece exploring fear of failure, which was shared at a Scratch That! event, and attending Tweetakt children’s Festival in the Netherlands in 2019. "Going to Tweetakt exposed me to the kind of experimental, risk-taking work that I want to be making, and to contexts where that work can be made for young audiences." (Eoin)
Off the back of Launchpad, Eoin was selected to take part in the Creative Europe funded PUSH+, enabling him to further investigate the theme of failure with 14 other European artists at a Lab in Belgium in Sept 2019. He was then selected to take part in the PUSH+ Failure Residency in Dublin in Jan 2020, where he started developing The Show for Young Men. He was subsequently invited to showcase a film of this development as part of SWOP Festival in Denmark in 2022.
Eoin went on to become one of the lead artists for two of Imaginate’s school residencies (Immerse), working with pupils over several months, and supporting them to create a piece to be shared with parents and the rest of the school.
In 2022, he was selected as an Accelerator artist, to continue the development of The Show for Young Men. Finally, in Spring 2023, after auditioning for a professional dancer and a young boy, Eoin presented his work in progress at the Children’s Festival in May. The show was a huge success with delegates and received Creative Scotland funding to produce the final piece which was selected as part of Made in Scotland during its run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 and presented at the 2025 Edinburgh International Children's Festival to critical acclaim.