Zest's delivers youth arts projects in partnership with a range of organisations and funders. Our participation projects aim to help children and young people realise their full potential.
We pride ourselves on our ability to provide creative and innovative workshops and projects that capture the attention and imagination of the children and young people we work with. We put young people at the centre of what we do, giving them ownership and a voice to shape the direction of their creative experience with Zest.
All of Zest's participation projects give children and young people meaningful experiences that promote a positive use of leisure time.
Neon Youth Theatre
Neon launched in June 2008 and has quickly become Lincolnshire's most creative and innovative youth theatre. Click the Neon logo to go to the Neon page and find out more!
Dance Factor
Dance Factor originally started in 2008 as a street dance project for girls between 13-16.
In that first year six sites ran across Lincoln on Friday nights for six weeks. Each site worked with a professional dance tutor and formed their very own street dance crew ready to battle it out at the Dance Factor Final.
Since 2008 Dance Factor has become one of the highlights in the City's calendar with the project growing from strength to strength. Dance Factor now runs for 9 weeks each year and has expanded to eight teams across the city. Every year nearly 300 boys and girls aged 11-17 take part and a capacity crowd of 700 people come to see the final!
Most staggering is the impact that Dance Factor has on the community with Anti Social Behaviour dropping in some areas of Lincoln by as much as 40% whilst the project is running!
Soap
Spend six weeks creating the storyline for your very own soap opera! Whether it's love, relationships, sex, violence or drugs a Soap thrives on the drama! Create your own character's and make the choices that will make or break their lives!
Soap has been created especially for young people in Mansfield who are attached to Nottinghamshire Youth Offending Service. Based around Hogarth's 'Rake's Progress' this six week project uses drama to enable young people to reflect on the consequences of their everyday choices.
Epic Arts Project
Epic Arts Project was commissioned through Nottinghamshire Youth Offending Service. This 12-week arts project was aimed at young people aged 11 – 18 who were attached to the service in the district of Newark and Sherwood. Though a series of consultation sessions participants were given the opportunity to plan and name the project.
Professional Dance and Music workers from Zest Creative Arts worked with the participants each week to choreograph routines, produce their own music and create a music video to showcase their work. Click the Youtube button to see the final product!
Throughout the project Zest Creative Arts worked closely with Nottinghamshire Youth Offending Service to evaluate the project. A written framework was also created for delivering such projects with young offenders and hard to reach groups. This framework will be put to the test in a second Epic project in early 2011 and then released for other groups and arts workers to utilise.
Gallery 37 Plus
Newark and Sherwood's Gallery 37 programme provided high quality arts activities for young people across the district. Zest Creative Arts delivered two projects during 2008 / 09:
Arts Apprenticeship
This intensive 4 week summer course gave young people aged 16+ who were not education, employment and training the opportunity to complete a professional arts apprenticeship. Apprentices worked alongside professionals from Zest Creastive Arts to learn skills and gain experience in the creative industries.
Exploring the theme "My Generation" the project was designed to give an experience of the theatre, from devising and writing through to marketing and production. The creation of the Gallery 37 Plus Theatre Company enabled the development of skills resulting in a new play, Thr3e, which explores the social stereotyping of and attitudes between older and younger generations.
Thr3e was performed at Newark Palace Theatre on August 2nd 2008.
Nottinghamshire Youth Offending Service – Arts Taster and Developer
This project was led by Zest Creative Arts and aimed to further develop the Gallery 37 Plus programme for Newark and Sherwood District Council. The programme explored ways of meeting the particular needs of priority young people in the district and gave them the opportunity to positively engage in a wide range of arts experiences.
Prior to the project Zest consulted with staff and young people to construct a programme that would challenge participants whilst meeting their individual needs.
The consultation period helped us create an 8-week arts project with an environment that lent itself to best arts practice with young offenders. Over the course of the project arts workers from Zest led sessions in dance, drama, stage combat, music production graffiti and graphic design.
Optimum Performance
In partnership with Lincolnshire County Council 'Optimum Performance' became the banner for all of Zest's youth arts projects in Boston between 2008 and 2010. What originally started as a small weekly performing arts group at Carlton Road Youth Centre quickly expanded and developed with several spin off projects across the borough including:
Get Boston Dancing
Saturday 4th July 2009 saw the young performers from Zest's Optimum Performance take over Boston's Pescod Square in a surprise performance. Their Mission: To Get Boston Dancing!
The young dancers rehearsed for 10 weeks in two separate groups located across Boston Borough before bringing their routine together on the morning of the performances.
Click the links to see the performance!
The Park
The Park was a brand new production performed by the young talent from Optimum Performance. The energetic show was packed full of baddies to boo, good guys to cheer with bucket loads of singing and dancing!
Optimum Performance's production of 'The Park' was devised by the cast of 25 and toured Primary Schools across Boston Borough in March 2010. The musical play dealt with the issues surrounding bullying and followed our unlikely hero Albert. Together with his new-found friends, Albert discovers that friendship can make the park a happier place for everybody.
Click the links to see the performance!
