Date: Wednesday 16 October, 2019, 10am Contact: Phoebe Gardiner, [email protected] / 020 7921 0967 Images: here
Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children's Festival returns and makes hundreds of children published authors
More than 1,400 primary school children from London and the south of England will become published authors through the Imagine a Story creative writing project, announced today as part of Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children’s Festival .
From 12 - 23 February 2020 the UK’s leading children’s festival, Imagine, returns to Southbank Centre for its nineteenth year with twelve days of the highest-quality international performance, music, literature, comedy, creativity, parties, participation and free fun for children aged 0-11 and their grownups. The full programme will be announced on 2 December.
Culminating at the festival is Imagine a Story : a nationwide creative writing project provided for free to primary schools and teachers devised by Southbank Centre and delivered with author Sharna Jackson ( High-Rise Mystery , Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week), illustrator Dapo Adeola (Look Up!; The Last Last Day of Summer ) and Brixton-based publishers and founders of #BooksMadeBetter, Knights Of .
In a giant ‘game of consequences’, each of the 33 participating schools – from a state school in Herefordshire to an international school in Westminster – writes one chapter of a story, responding to a brief outlined by Jackson. Once compiled, the completed novel will be illustrated by Adeola and professionally printed and published by Knights Of.
More than 1,400 children are taking part in the project from now until Christmas . Each one of them becomes a published author, their names printed in the final book which will be on sale at the festival and provided for free to each participating school library. All children will also receive a free copy, and are invited to hear their story performed at Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children’s Festival in February.
The project aims to inspire and support children as creative writers, as well as support teachers to guide creative writing in the classroom. It also aims to address the chronic lack of diversity in children’s publishing, highlighted in the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) report which found that just 1% of children’s books published in the UK in 2017 featured a BAME main character.
Jessica Santer, Head of Creative Learning, Southbank Centre, says: “ A t Southbank Centre, we believe every child has the right to a creative and cultural education, and that it is essential for children's development and wellbeing. We want children to feel a sense of ownership of creativity: not just to witness and enjoy it, but to hold it in their hands, and pass it on to friends, parents, even their own children. I magine a Story p uts their name in print, alongside professionals and hundreds of their peers, and empowers children to believe that everyone has important stories to tell. ”
Author Sharna Jackson says: “I 'm thrilled to be the lead author on I magine a Story w ith Southbank Centre this year, collaborating with over 1,400 young writers. Creative writing can be brilliant for communication and confidence building in young people, and I'm incredibly excited to see where our story goes.”
Bronwen Smith, Assistant Headteacher at Stockwell Primary School in Lambeth, says: “T he Imagine a Story project is a truly transformational opportunity for me and the children I teach. Working directly with a writer gives me insight into how an author approaches the creative writing process, and helps me create an environment in school where the children's writing just flows as an expression of their excitement and enjoyment. Having their finished words read out at Southbank Centre, and published in a book for friends, family and others to read, my children will very tangibly experience being successful writers with an audience and a purpose to inspire them to write. We can’t wait!”
Imagine i s the annual multi-arts festival produced and hosted by Southbank Centre. It is dedicated to families experiencing and enjoying all kinds of art and culture together, of the highest quality and sourced and commissioned from all over the world. Launched in 2001, Imagine h as a long history of supporting reading and literacy for children and families. It held the launch of the 20th anniversary of The Waterstones’ Children’s Laureate in 2019 welcoming former Laureates Jacqueline Wilson, Malorie Blackman and Chris Riddell, created T he Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl in 2016, an immersive exhibition celebrating the centenary of the children’s author, and its legacy projects include Room for Children, a children’s library donated by The Swedish Institute, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Stockholm and Embassy of Sweden in London and held at the National Poetry Library in Royal Festival Hall.
The full I magine 2 020 festival programme will be announced on Monday 2 December with tickets going on sale to Southbank Centre Members on 4 December and to the general public on 5 December w ww.southbankcentre.co.uk / 0 203 879 9555
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IMAGINE CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL Wednesday 12 - Sunday 23 February 2020, Southbank Centre, further details to be announced. Southbank Centre presents the nineteenth Imagine Children’s Festival in February 2020. The largest festival of its kind in the UK, I magine i s dedicated to families experiencing and enjoying all kinds of art and culture together, presenting twelve days of the best international performance, music, literature, comedy, creativity, parties, participation and free fun for children aged 0-11 and their grownups www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/imagine-childrens-festival
Press images can be downloaded h ere.
For further press information please contact: Southbank Centre Press Office: p [email protected] / 020 7921 0888
Join the conversation: #SCImagineFest @southbankcentre
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK's top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.
The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).
Creative Learning at Southbank Centre Southbank Centre runs a year-round programme of participatory events and projects to engage and inspire children, families, young people and adults from all backgrounds with more than 5,000 people a year taking part. Activities range from in-depth engagement with and resources for schools and teachers to inspire a love of the arts and support creative learning, to opportunities for young people to learn new skills or just to enjoy and connect with art, artists and each other, plus courses and events for adults, and activities on specific themes - such as our Gamelan percussion group and our Voicelab programme. We are proud to work with Creative Learning Partners Tomorrow’s Warriors, Streetwise Opera, Women for Refugee Women and Kinetika Bloco.
Literature at Southbank Centre Southbank Centre has a lively and diverse literature programme which takes place throughout the year and includes its annual London Literature Festival and biennial Poetry International festival. Featuring talks, debates, poetry, workshops, performance, live reading and more, Southbank Centre’s literature programme has played host to some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers including M argaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, John le Carré, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Professor Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Klein, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tom Hanks, Michelle Obama and Zadie Smith. Southbank Centre’s prestigious London Literature Festival, now in its thirteenth year, takes place 17-27 October 2019 and opens with Poetry International.
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall is home to the National Poetry Library, the most comprehensive collection of poetry in Britain, and the Poetry Library Reading Den, including the Room for Children, a comfy library for children and adults which hosts children's books from across Nordic countries, presented by The Swedish Institute, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Stockholm and Embassy of Sweden in London.