The clowning session will help you develop the ability to be more playful and more confident. Using some techniques drawn from clowning helps participants to develop more tolerance to things going wrong. Clowns love to fail and are happy to make mistakes and learning to have a little more confidence in dealing with mistakes can be very helpful for everybody. Developing more confidence like this helps us to be more spontaneous which also helps us to be more creative.

This Documentary Theatre workshop aims to introduce students to key principles around storytelling and story consumption. Using newspapers as a source material, we will consider how stories are made and shared, and how we make the information we share interesting. It will look at how we turn narratives into performance, and how our engagement with the world, our lived experience, and our surroundings, can align with and be informed by the broader political landscape, aiding students to consider what their future interests and opportunities might be and what skills and knowledge can be gained to make that possible. 

The overall aim of the session is to create a digital story. A digital story is a short (2-3 minute long) film, told by the person whose story it is using still or moving images, music, and sound effects to emphasise emotion.

The digital storytelling process consists of 5 phases. Each phase can be a 2-hour workshop. If you are short on time, then the phases that are best completed in person are highlighted in the lesson plan. The other phases can be completed by the participants individually. 

This workshop uses photography as a way to think about the activity of collecting. Rather than passively viewing this collection as the curator/ exhibition designer has chosen to display it, we encourage participants to engage with the collection by creating their own collection-within-a-collection: to help focus students’ attention, the workshop is designed to approach collecting around thematic topics, which become increasingly complex as the activity progresses.

This session draws on techniques from stand-up comedy teaching to encourage participants to develop stories based on their lives and experiences. The exercises encourage them to develop clear attitudes to the things they are saying which helps them to enhance their confidence and their communication skills.

This workshop utilizes Creative Writing to foster creativity as well as creative thinking, and to apply practices of constructive criticism in group feedback as participants share their written responses to observations of representational / figurative artworks. We are not only looking at artworks from the outside, but also considering what it would mean to look at an artwork from the inside. 

This workshop aims to support participants in reflecting on their own identity in order to better identify and promote their own skills, interests, and knowledge. Through a range of activities that identify what we see as important aspects of ourselves, the workshop seeks to enable more critical thinking about how and why you might be useful in Higher Education or in Creative/Cultural sector employment.

This workshop aims to encourage participants to practice being more spontaneous and adaptable. Developing spontaneity and adaptability helps to increase creativity. The exercises also help participants develop their communication skills. 

This workshop considers the importance of different forms of communication. Through a range of exercises that test verbal and non-verbal communication skills, it develops opportunities for collaboration and group work. Drawing on the work of Augusto Boal and Forum Theatre, the workshops look at how communication in performance can aid with critical thinking and creativity.

This workshop uses photography and gaming as a way to change the way we perceive our surroundings. This photographic “scavenger hunt” or “treasure hunt” is quite fun for students and also has the chance for engaging with the public, offering many opportunities for building collaborative skills between participants.

A creative portfolio is a collection of an artist's or a designer's or a creative person's work, showcasing their skills, their creativity, and their range of projects.

An ePortfolio can be a digitised version of a portfolio. It is a collection of work and evidence of work (such as diplomas, job references, laudatios, awards, bibliography, etc.) in an electronic format.

Discover how to create an ePortfolio tailored to your field of work, giving you useful and practical information.