Play as an engine
Creativity in the first 1001 days
Since I fired the newsletter back up in September I’ve added voiceovers to most of them, so people can listen as well as or instead of reading. This seems an easier alternative to separate ‘podcast’ recordings, but I’m unsure how many people are actually using them. Recording them does add to the time it takes to do this free newsletter, and much as I love the sound of my own voice, it would obviously save time to not do them. So below you will find a poll* where subscribers can suggest whether I should keep doing them or not. Do let me know!
*Purely advisory and non-binding.
Creative Children Stronger Families
Last week I was pleased to attend Creative Children Stronger Families, a national forum about creativity, play, children, and families at The Hullabaloo in Darlington. The aim was to bring people together to hear about ‘Let’s Play’, Theatre Hullabaloo’s creative play on prescription programme for children and their parents and carers in the first 1001 days of their lives, to think about evidence, and how to influence policy.
The effect of Covid on young children and their parents was a theme throughout. Covid had a chilling effect on language acquisition and socialisation, and on the confidence of parents and carers. Isolation can lead to reduced knowledge, especially for people who might be facing challenges in their lives. The ability to ask another parent “Does your child do this too?” was taken away by lockdowns, for some new parents, and with that sometimes came a shrinking away from creative play. Teachers have reported the effects as children start school including additional anxiety about playing with other children or being in groups.
As Ben Dickenson, Chief Executive officer of Theatre Hullabaloo put it: ”Play is the engine of learning and the joyous instigator of family connection.” If that becomes a privilege of the confident classes, the consequences are both individual and societal. (The employment patterns in the creative sector, which skew away from people from lower socio-economic groups, can very much be read as the results of confidence as well as networks.)
Part of Hullabaloo’s response to this is to develop a National Centre for Children’s Creativity. This aims to learn from place-based innovations that use play, creativity, theatre, and other arts practices to help the arts, health and education sectors improve learning and health outcomes for children and families.
The attendees list of the event reads like exactly the kind of mix you would need to do such a thing. Although the arts sector often talks about cross sector working, it often does so to a fairly homogenous selection of itself and then wonders at the narrowness of its partners. At Hullabaloo were artists and people from arts organisations, of course, alongside senior people from health trusts, universities, primary care, local authorities, education and children’s services, the NHS, nursery schools, local business, Arts Council England and the National Academy for Social Prescribing - even someone from HM Treasury who have a ‘campus’ in Darlington.
It’s easy to feel gloomy about arts in education and for children. Stories from the July 2023 round of policy and practice from the Cultural Learning Alliance, for instance, tell of “horrible disparities” between private and state education, that 80% of primary school teachers attended no CPD in art and design, and that universities may cut arts and humanities degrees. The reduction in young people studying arts-related subjects at GCSE is shocking.
A focus on the early years – even before nursery school, the crucial first 1001 days – may help avoid the gloom and build demand for change throughout education. The early years form many things about children: their socialisation, their motor and cognitive skills, their language and play. Crucially, imaginations can flourish or be squashed in those first years. This was clear from the examples given by British Academy researcher on the Let’s Play programme Dr Paige Davies and Theatre Hullabaloo Artistic Director Miranda Thain: creative play benefits both children and parents or carers, and can help families under great pressures. Their findings chime with the CLA briefing Early Years and the Arts. which provides evidence for the benefits to home environment, and thus to early development. This is the kind of work that a National Centre for Children’s Creativity could really embed across sectors.
There were three other themes I want to touch on before closing which might have relevance to others.
Firstly, the play on prescription offer was more valuable because it was part of an integrated suite of creative play interventions – including packs first developed during Covid and the creative play installations at Hullabaloo’s Darlington venue. (I can vouch for the latter myself, having enjoyed visits there with my grandson when he was tiny.) So conceiving and supporting offers as not stand alone but connected – including across organisations in a place-based approach – is important.
Secondly, there was a question for me about how this kind of work is made accessible to people who might not readily take it up. This is, potentially, many isolated parents or carers, but may apply particularly to men in those roles, or people from different cultural backgrounds. Men were certainly less visible in the films shown, as they are in the workforce for arts and education. I have seen men relishing getting on their hands and knees with children and grandchildren at Hullabaloo, but the gender stereotypes many may have internalised about creative play will need to be challenged to benefit more families.
Finally, I was struck by how often trust came up as a prerequisite for the benefits of creative play. This is about trust of those referring families – especially if parents have had bad experiences in their lives previously or are wary of authorities and having their children taken away from them as was described. It then applies to the hosts and artists running the Let’s Play sessions and the creative play spaces. Similarly commissioners and organisations such as Hullabaloo need to build trust in each other. This is a clear echo of a lot of things I’ve looked at in recent years, such as Creative People and Places. It is also a backdrop to some of the responses to the Gulbenkian Foundation’s Civic Role work.
This left me thinking about trust, which is also to say thinking about mistrust. It sometimes feels the latter is more plentiful in supply. Why does mistrust (often unspoken) sit beneath so much of the angst and anger in both society and the creative sector? Programmers sometimes mistrust audiences, and vice versa. Freelancers sometimes mistrust organisations, and vice versa. Workers mistrust management, and vice versa. CEOs sometimes mistrust boards, and vice versa. The funded sometimes mistrust funders, and vice versa.
Clearly power dynamics are central to building or destroying trust, be that doctor or health visitor to new parent or management to staff. Anxiety erodes trust. What builds trust, beyond the basics of equality, transparent and doing what you say you will? I need to return to this, I think. Reading recommendations welcome!
I will also be watching developments out of the forum with interest. Theatre Hullabaloo were one of my first Thinking Practice clients, back in 2010, when a dedicated children’s theatre was just a twinkle in Miranda Thain’s eye. I’m hoping for similar achievements from the current imagining.
One more thing…
One of the saddest developments in the last 15-20 years has been the decline of the local press. This continued last week with more lay-offs at Reach, purveyors of ads and jumbled screens across the UK. Will Dunn in the New Statesman has a fresh look at this. The story is darker than simple market failure: the press are now up for sale or hire to politicians. In the Tees Valley we could certainly have done with a rigourous local press looking at politicians of all hues over the years: the main sources have failed us. Dunn does see some glimmers of hope in start-ups such as Manchester’s Mill: new forms of independence may be an answer.
Does this have a cultural dimension, I hear you ask. Well, apart from lamenting the loss of cultural coverage from skilled writers, I was reminded this week that Reach titles sponsor the North East Culture Awards. Unfolding Theatre, of which I am a trustee, is shortlisted for Performance of the Year. This shows how local press can raise the visibility of arts and museums and be part of a regional culture. But it is also worth remembering that bigger context.
Really interesting Mark. Good points about making sure there is that wide cross section of people and professions in the room. I definitely think there is more to be done to make sure people can see the value of the arts and other services across sectors
Looking forward to reading/hearing your thoughts on trust the next newsletter.