4. Education and arts organisations are:
that in the far future all
young people can be
creative wherever they live
for years to comeâŠ
to ensureâŠ
Working now in
the present dayâŠ
and they need to know what you think
5. âŠthat the UK is a creative
powerhouse, and has been for a
long time.
Did you know âŠ
Tourism
Museums and
Heritage
Theatre and Drama
Music
6. BUT THAT IS
AT RISK!
Artists don't
earn enough
with rising
costs of
living
Bigger tuition
fees and debt
at University
97% digital
businesses
small and
vulnerable
Arts and technical subjects
squeezed out of schools
Uncertainty in
UK economy
Local
places
losing
theatres
and
museums
8. Now Near Future Far Future
Identify
the current drivers
for change.
9. Now Near Future Far Future
Identify
the current drivers
for change.
Focus
on the impact.
What will this
mean?
10. Now Near Future Far Future
Identify
the current drivers
for change.
Focus
on the impact.
What will this
mean?
Develop
ideas. What
new things will
exist?
11. Now Near Future Far Future
Identify
the current drivers
for change.
Focus
on the impact.
What will this
mean?
Develop
ideas. What
new things will
exist?
Imagine
What will our
future world
be like?
14. Identify your top Gamechangers
Zoom outâŠ
What are some big things
happening in the world that
might affect your access to
culture and creativity?
15. Zoom inâŠ
What barriers are there locally
for young peopleâs cultural and
creative lives?
Identify lots of local barriers
16. Zoom in againâŠ
What are the personal factors
that stop children and young
people from engaging more in
culture and creativity?
Identify lots of internal barriers
17. Step back and look.
Place factors that are most personal
on the left, and factors furthest from
your control on the right.
Internal External
18. Step back and look
Place factors that are most personal
on the left, factors that are furthest
from your control on the right.
Internal
Character
External
Context
Skills and
Capacities
23. Why does it matter?
CULTURE is all the
ways art and
creativity are
saved, shared and
interpreted
Whatever changes
we will always NEED
ART: to sing, dance,
make images, tell
stories
Creativity can help us solve problems
24. Flip it!
What positive outcomes could
also happen?
How will people use creativity to
solve problems?
Develop ideas. What new
things will exist?
25. Welcome to the Future!
We have arrived!
What does the future look like
now? How is it different?
27. In the far future what kinds of
people will we find? What skills or
attitudes will they need to thrive?
Imagine: How is this different for
work, learning or play?
28. You have successfully imagined
what the future needs!
Letâs tell the
people in the present day
The workshop is divided into three colour-coded sections, each lasting roughly an hour.
Divide the group into two or three teams of around 4-8 individuals. Itâs important to mix the age groups up so that young people and adults are working together. Encourage them to record their thoughts at every stage so that you can review them later. You might also make an audio recording of their conversations at the points where ideas are shared as a group.
Materials: Each team will need Post-it notes of at least 3 different colours, coloured pens, and several large sheets of paper.
Ice breaker
Go around the room inviting participants to introduce themselves. The question is intended to get them thinking about their own creative lives. This will be revisited at the end of the workshop.
Give each person 30 seconds (or less) to answer, unless you have enough time for more!
We will take you on a journey through three steps:
Step 1 is going to be about what is happening now that has potential to impact on the future of arts and creative learning in your area
Step 2a is about this question: If these things donât change, what will that mean in the near future?
Step 2b is about âHow can we âflipâ these into positive scenarios?â
Step 3: What will this mean for our future?
We will talk about: Who will live there? What skills and attitudes will they need to thrive?
This first round is designed to generate lots of ideas, digging deeper into things that stop young people from engaging with arts and culture, specifically those things happening now that will impact on the future if they donât change.
There are three questions, each one looking at a different level of factors. Ask the groups to note thoughts on Post-its, different coloured for each question.
e.g. on Purple Post-it notes
e.g. on Yellow post-it notes
e.g. on Blue Post-it notes
Ask the whole group to arrange their Post-its in one shared line from âinternalâ to âexternalâ.
Ask each team to choose the Post-it that is the most personal or Internal factor, then as a whole group decide which teamâs Post-it should be placed in the extreme left position. Then do the same for the most external factor (or most outside of their control). After this everybody brings all their Post-its and place them where they feel they belong.
Stand back from the line and look at the colours of Post-its. You should see clusters representing three areas of Character, Capacity and Context. Also, youâll see the colours are quite mixed up.
Factors relating to internal character are likely to relate to personal feelings and emotions (e.g. âI have nobody to go withâ and âpeople might judge meâ)
Factors relating to skills and capacities are likely to relate to local infrastructure, opportunities and the ability of individuals or organisations to harness these. These are also likely to afford the most potential for change
Factors relating to external context are likely to be factors that âhappen to usâ or are imposed on us, (e.g. governmental policy, world economics)
Flowâs Thrivable Culture framework illustrates how the three sets of factors impact on each other, for example an external issue might be solved by addressing the skills and capacities a young person has, which will in turn impact on their thoughts and feelings (see online toolkit for more).
Invite each team to identify 3 or 4 factors that they feel are most pressing, urgent, or important for their local area, ideally selecting a mix of internal, relational and external. They will use these for the next round.
Invite each team to identify 3 or 4 factors that they feel are most pressing, urgent, or important for their local area, ideally selecting a mix of internal, relational and external. They will use these for the next round.
This is a mindmapping exercise. Give each team a large sheet of paper and several coloured pens. They stick their selected Post-its onto their sheet, and draw or write all the potential impacts that each factor could have. Encourage them to also draw out links between the factors, what will A + B result in? What if both C & D happen but E doesnât?
To encourage people to think more deeply, ask them to look at their map and for each point they have made think âwhat then?⊠and what then?⊠and what then?âŠâ
Half way through this activity interrupt the group and ask them to review what they have written so far, indicating which of their outcomes are positive and which are negative. You might hand out two different coloured stickers for them to do so. It is likely that they will find that the majority of their stickers relate to negative outcomes, which creates an opportunity for you to discuss the value of having a positive view of the future, to identify opportunities instead of barriers.
Discuss the spread of positive and negative ideas, give them an example of things that society got wrong when trying to predict the future (such as the great Horse Manure crisis of 1894)
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Great-Horse-Manure-Crisis-of-1894/
Then give them examples of future thinking that people got right, such as Sir Joseph Bazalgette who designed Londonâs Victorian sewerage system to accommodate 4 million people, twice the population of London at the time. Thinking creatively and building it too big meant that now, with 8.5m people, London is only just needing to build new âsuper sewersâ.
Additional slide, if you need it, to discuss the value of creativity in solving problems.
Ask the teams to revisit their mind maps, and using a different coloured pen think of positive, creative solutions, or alternative positive impacts that could arise.
This is a good point to mix the teams up by moving two or three people from each team into another one. This encourages them to re-think the issues as they describe them to their new team mates, giving them a fresh perspective.
Once they have had time to discuss their positive perspectives, each team summarises their thoughts to the others, so that the participants can discuss their positive vision of the future as a group.
Ask the participants to re-arrange themselves in a circle and explain that you will be playing an improvisation game to create a picture of the future. They will take it in turns to suggest something new that will exist, or a way of being, in the future. There is only one rule, that each person has to respond to the previous personâs idea by saying âyes, and...â. Start the group by deciding what year you have arrived in, and ask the first person a question such as âwhat are you most excited about now you are there?â.
Questions as prompts if people get stuck could include:
What is new here that was not here before?
What is better?
What are you most excited about?
How do you feel in this new future?
What do you miss from the past?
Re-arrange the group into three teams. One will focus on the world of work, one on education, and one on leisure time. Ask them to think of all the skills, values and attitudes that young people will need to lead thriving creative lives in these areas, writing them down on a large sheet of paper.
Ask each team to decide on their three most important points and share these with the rest of the group, discuss any similarities between their ideas.
You could also point out that it is the people sitting in the room that will be responsible for making sure tomorrowâs young people have the opportunity to develop these. The adults can create the conditions for now, and the young people are tomorrowâs future cultural leaders.
Re-arrange the groups one last time so that the young people and adults are now in their own peer groups, and ask them each to discuss how the other age group could act to make the positive future they imagine a reality.
Turn their chairs so each group is facing the other, and then they take it in turns to pitch to the other group, trying to persuade them to make the changes they feel are most important for a thriving, creative future.
