Creative County West Sussex

Chichester Festival Theatre Youth Advisory Board

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:17:13 GMT

Chichester Festival Theatre YAB Cohort 2026

Youth Advisory Board members from various theatres including the Almeida Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Chichester Festival Theatre, Leicester Curve, Nottingham Playhouse, Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Clywd, have formed the first National Youth Advisory Board (NYAB). The aim of the NYAB is to generate positive change by:

Combining collective energy to advocate for a more inclusive industry
Promoting the representation of young people and under-represented groups both on and off stage, in programming and decision-making
Sharing resources, ideas, and opportunities between organisations.

Future Theatre Makers

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:17:10 GMT

Future Theatre Makers Cohort

In September we welcomed 8 new theatre-makers who will be joining us as part of the Future Theatre Makers cohort. The cohort will be with us until May 2027 where they will come together in The Nest to share their work. More information about each theatre maker can be found below:

Sitting Ducks

Graduates from The University of Chichester are creating a verbatim piece about the 2003 Iraq war, played in miniature.

Chloe Bradbury

As part of her early years company, Little Wild Theatre, Chloe is exploring how to support children to express and understand their emotions in ways that don’t rely on language.

Dan Simpson

A spoken-word artist looking at producing a 1 and a-half man (!) show called Manfluencer, focusing on ‘male influencers.’

Danielle Baker-Charles

A Director wanted to bring to stage a two-hander, based on a true story around a miscarriage of justice in the prison system, forgiveness and radical reconciliation.

Anna Soden

An Actor and Comedian looking to create a one-woman musical set backstage at a theatre- with a lot of audience participation.

Led by CFT’s Creative Associate Sophie Hobson, and Artistic Director Justin Audibert the programme consists of monthly workshops led by industry professionals; a period of Research and Development; a grant to support them throughout the programme; mentoring and regular 121’s with CFT staff; and performances in The Nest to add to their emerging portfolio of work.

Creative Project Seadown School - Worthing

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:37:14 GMT

Seadown School - Worthing

This creative project was about supporting involvement from all students at Seadown School to produce four art works to be displayed as a visual representation of Seadown’s four school values.

RESPECT
COOPERATE
CURIOSITY
RESILIANCE

Big changes in local government spending on arts and culture

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:16:53 GMT

West Sussex Creative Collective – Do you want to make sure Arts & Culture in West Sussex is well represented?

Big changes are coming our way in terms of how decisions are made about local government spending in our county. Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution offer opportunities and challenges.

We want to ensure the creative professionals of West Sussex are represented and supported when decisions about resources for culture in the region are being made.

Our aim is to create a coherent picture of what the creative industries are in West Sussex and articulate clearly who we are and what we can offer in order to unlock potential resources for creatives in the county.

For further information on the West Sussex Creative Collective and how you can get involved please follow this link

NT Connections Celebrates 30 Years.

Thu, 01 May 2025 11:27:44 GMT

NT Connections celebrates 30 years.

Watch the video

This year the National Theatre are celebrating its 30 ^th Anniversary of Connections a national youth theatre festival that has reached over 125,000 young people across the UK. CFT has been involved in Connections as a Partner Theatre from the very beginning hosting over 3000 young people in that time.

"This year we enjoyed a 4-day festival with 8 groups of young people from across West Sussex and Hampshire, hosting over 120 young people including technical for a splendid celebration of storytelling."

Schools Work 2024-25

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:35:27 GMT

CCWS Schools Work Review

Creative County West Sussex have been delivering work in 8 schools this year, seeing a variety of engagements from a long-term residential contract in a specialist school to a series of participatory skills development workshops.

CCWS, the cultural education partnership, delivered upward of 100 workshops in a SEN school in Horsham, focussed on developing skills, building relationships and an increased student’s self-efficacy. After concluding our year-long contract the school employed a full-time drama teacher to pick up and carry forward the provision.

‘The confidence of even the most reserved students has grown within the drama sessions I have been part of. The children really enjoy them.’ Teacher, New Barn School

Other engagement in schools this year has spanned primary and secondary settings across West Sussex and we have recently commenced working with schools in Portsmouth.

Workshops supporting students with GCSE/A-Level exam preparation have proved very popular, with just over 200 students participating last term.

‘The whole experience was really helpful and can definitely be worked to suit the topics/scheme of work for KS4. Students loved the workshop and found it really useful for their Pantomime and Component 1 devising project which they start in January.’ Head of Performing Arts, Midhurst Rother College

‘Yesterday’s workshops were amazing! Charlie crammed so much into a short period of time and the work produced by the students was brilliant! We are very much looking forward to seeing him again next week.’ Teacher, Littlehampton Academy

The Enchanted Cinema

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 09:06:54 GMT

A day of fun half term activities

Over the Easter break West Sussex Music and Chichester Festival Theatre were delighted to present a day of fun half term activities with The Enchanted Cinema. Over 30 young people spent the day, mask making and creating soundtracks to a variety of short film animations.

Elizabeth Leondaritis Youth Engagement Manager, West Sussex Music, said: “We are incredibly fortunate to have the talents of The Enchanted Cinema company coming to the area to provide such an innovative experience for children and young people. It will be a real highlight of our holiday activities and we look forward to seeing lots of people having a great time there!”

All participants will receive a Digital Badge after completing the workshops. Digital badges are innovative, visual representations of skills, achievements, or certifications earned online.

This half term activity was made possible with the support of HAF funding through West Sussex County Council and the Department of Education.

‘Myths on the Heathland’ with Chichester Boys Club

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 15:36:47 GMT

Myths on the Heathland

Watch the video

In October Creative County West Sussex, the Chichester Festival Theatre and Chichester Boys Club came together to offer a weeklong outdoor activity on Iping Common, just outside Midhurst.

The project was aimed at connecting young people with outdoor spaces and introducing them to the history and beauty of our local area through storytelling, music and play.

South Downs National Park rangers explored the heathland with them at the beginning of the week, Chichester Festival Theatre then shared some old heathland myths and legends with storyteller Dawn Nelson , who also helped them to create some of their own. Finally they spent time exploring storytelling with Phoebe Hyder and instruments and the process of creating a soundscape with Cathy Burton, and the week culminated in a sharing of the heathland folktale, The Highwayman, retold by Janet Goring on Iping Common.

This initiative was co-funded through Creative County West Sussex and the South Downs National Park .

Schools Work 2023-24

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 12:11:17 GMT

CCWS Schools Work Review

This last school year we have been very busy at CCWS connecting with many new children and young people across the county on some exciting creative learning experiences.

Here’s what we got up to….

The Angmering School, Littlehampton

The students at Angmering worked on devising and clowning in the Spring term and learnt some great new skills.

Charlie was amazing with the students. He ensured that the students understood and enjoyed every activity that he tried with them. I feel the students left the workshop with a wider knowledge of the topics provided, Teacher

Felpham Community College, Bognor Regis

Students at Felpham were given an opportunity to work with industry professionals on a variety of drama techniques which supported their GCSE’s and A-Levels studies.

‘I find these workshops really beneficial for the students, they gained a lot from them. It is great for students to learn from someone that isn't me and from people approaching the subject areas from a different perspective and with different experiences. The knowledge and enthusiasm the practitioners have about their work is disseminated to the students and then used within their own work.' Curriculum Lead for Performing Arts

Manor Green College, Crawley

Arts Leaders at Manor Green College enjoyed a variety of activities throughout the year including learning about the basics of puppetry and writing their own Haiku poems. We look forward to welcoming students from the college later in the year when they attend performances in the Festival and Minerva Theatres.

‘They took part in some great exercises and experienced the joy of breathing life into a piece of foam on two sticks! They had so much fun.’ Arts Lead

‘I never thought I could do this. I'm actually really proud of myself.’ Yr 11 student

‘Yes, brilliant programme we always want to take part please! Thank you so much!’ Teacher

Riverbeach Primary, Littlehampton

Year 3 students at Riverbeach enjoyed a series of puppetry workshops focussing on the telling of a Shakespeare tale and then had the opportunity to enjoy Life of Pi at CFT as part of their learning experience.

‘The pupils gained valuable knowledge and experience from this project. Many had never been to the theatre before and their enjoyment and excitement was evident. The workshops had a big impact on the confidence levels of many of the children. Our practitioner Kat Merrick was so good at ensuring that each child's contributions were valued and celebrated. They responded well to working collaboratively, to using a variety of techniques to tell stories and perform. They learned practical puppetry skills as well as learning ways of developing stories.’ Teacher

‘We as a school are incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Creative County West Sussex again. It has been a positive and enriching experience for the pupils and staff involved and we would very much like to have this opportunity again’. Arts Lead

St Andrew’s Primary, Crawley

Students at St Andrew’s enjoyed a series of puppetry workshops focussing around Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which introduced them to the basics of storytelling through the art of puppetry. We also spent an afternoon with the teachers’ exploring techniques for teaching Shakespeare in the Classroom.

‘Kat was fantastic. She communicated effectively from the start and was hugely flexible and helpful. Her professionalism and preparation was excellent. In terms of the actual workshop, her manner with the children was engaging and humorous. We loved the structure of the workshops and the children produced a lovely final performance piece.’ Teacher

The CPD session we received was excellent and inspired many colleagues. We would benefit from a further practical workshop session for children or perhaps linking up with other schools you are aware of who have run a full enrichment day or week. We absolutely would love to make use of this again, we are very keen to run a Shakespeare week or enrichment day for the whole school. Deputy Head

Frantic Assembly CPD

Fri, 24 May 2024 13:22:14 GMT

Continuing Professional Development day for teachers and practitioners with Frantic Assembly

On 21st May as part of Chichester Festival Theatre’s work with Frantic Assembly, during The House Party run in the Minerva Theatre, CCWS funded a CPD for teachers and practitioners on physical devising techniques.

Michelle Edwards, from Frantic Assembly’s pool of talented practitioners visited us for the afternoon and shared a fountain of knowledge about many of the techniques involved in building a devised movement piece and exploring the mechanics of lifts.

The Best of Us Art Installation

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 12:01:54 GMT

County Mall, Crawley 20 March – 15 April 2024

The ‘Best of Us’ project was inspired by the children and young people of Crawley and was created out of an identified need for them to reflect, celebrate and share their hopes and dreams for the future.

Contemporary West Sussex Sculptor, Helen Solly created the striking centrepiece which consists of 2mm powder-coated, sheet metal sitting on a base of oak railway sleepers.

The soundscape, by artist Charlie Essex, which features students from Broadfield Primary and Manor Green College, generates a high energy that matches the enthusiasm the children shared about their futures. The self-portrait masks created by year 5 students at Broadfield Primary School reflect their personalities and sense of community which accompany the haiku poems by students at Manor Green College who considered what is important to them whilst also having a sense of humour and perspective. The film produced by creative media students at Crawley College reflects their own sense of what community means to them and their hopes and dreams for the future.

This collaborative project bought together a community of just over 120 students who worked on different elements of this project for a 3 month period. We would like to thank teachers at Broadfield Primary Academy, Manor Green College and Crawley College for their support and input and also Liz Hart at Crawley Borough Council, Simon Cuckow for County Mall, Crawley and Emma Maddon on behalf of Velocity Worldwide for helping make this project happen.

Press

SussexWorld – Article on CFT/Creative County West Sussex The Best of Us installation in Crawley.

Brightblack Gaming Day

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:38:04 GMT

Immersive Gaming workshops

Brightblack offered a Gaming Day with Immersive Storylab, covering digital game development skills where students had the opportunity to do 3D scanning, character creation and animation, using mocap data and Unity Engine.

“We had a wonderful day out at Chichester festival theatre. The gaming day was presented by Brighblack: Immersive Story Lab and started with the students' making parts of a monster from plasticine. These body parts were then scanned into the computer and the monster became real on the screen. The students were shown how to make the monster move using different programs, they asked the presenters some interesting questions and designed adverts for their game, interacting well in their groups.”

Visit the Brightblack website

Arts Council England’s Developing Creativity & Culture

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:42:10 GMT

Developing Creativity and Culture

Arts Council England explain that; Involvement with arts and culture is crucial to imagination, self-expression and creativity in young people. It also develops the skills that fuel the success of the UK’s creative industries, and that will result in the next generation of creative talent across the country.

The full article can be found here

A number of Arts organisations across the country work alongside the Department of Education (DoE) and The Department for Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) to ensure that creative learning has “a central role to play” in the provision of high-quality cultural education.

Baroness Deborah Bull, Chair of Cultural Education Plan Expert Advisory Panel

The arts are the highest form of human achievement. Through art we not only make sense of ourselves and the world, we also make our lives enchanted. Art allows us to celebrate our common humanity and communicate across boundaries. Artistic endeavour marks us out from the rest of nature as creators and celebrators of beauty. That is why no education can be complete, indeed no programme of education can even begin, without making the arts and creativity central to a child's life.

Introduction from the Cultural Education, Summary programmes and opportunities Report, Department for Education & Department for Culture, Media & Sport 2013

Life of Pi – Schools Visits

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:23:33 GMT

Life of Pi – Schools Visits

In the Autumn term we invited 150 school children from 5 schools across West Sussex to attend their first theatrical production. The performance of Life of Pi which contains world class puppetry and has won awards in the UK and USA, was performed in the Chichester Festival Theatre to sold out audiences. The production is based on the fantasy novel by Yann Martel, which won the Booker Prize in 2002, and tells the magical story of a young Indian, who finds himself shipwrecked and lost at sea in a large lifeboat with four wild animals, most notably Richard Parker, a Bengal Tiger. We were also fortunate enough to have been able to support some schools with their transport costs.

Manor Green College

"Thank you again so much for a truly wonderful and memorable experience for our students. Most of the students we took had not been to a theatre production, aside from a Christmas pantomime. All of them were rapt with attention, they loved every minute of it." Manor Green Arts Lead

"Wow, the beginnings of a beautiful friendship between man and animal, thanks to this shared moment". Student, Manor Green College

Riverbeach Primary School

‘It was the first time I had been to a theatre and I thought it was amazing how they made the animals look real. My favourite part was when the tiger was fighting Pi and the way Pi didn’t give up.’ Riverbeach Primary student

‘The puppets were amazing. The tiger had a person inside it to support the back. The monkey swinging on sticks (which were trees) was excellently done! The sounds of the animals were made by people operating them. My favourite part was when the tiger laid his head in Pi’s lap. It felt like I was there. It was magical.’ Riverbeach Primary student

‘It was the best experience I have ever had. We all gasped when the scenery opened up.’ Riverbeach Primary student

Chichester Festival Theatre

"Watching a child experience live theatre: seeing the magic come to life in their eyes & their imagination unfold, is one of the greatest pleasures there is. Every child deserves the chance watch, feel and experience live theatre as it can ignite a love for creativity, play and storytelling that can last a lifetime." Matt Hawksworth, Head of Children & Young People at Chichester Festival Theatre

Careers Fairs - We are off and running

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 12:18:44 GMT

CCWS at Careers Fairs

The Autumn term has been a busy one for Careers Fairs and we thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet over 4000 young people in schools across West Sussex. These fairs offer opportunities to share with young people not only ideas for career choices but options for apprenticeships and trainee schemes which they may not have been aware of. It also connects local businesses and organisations to grow partnerships which often further increase opportunities and benefit young people and the local community.

Here is some feedback below

"There are so many great jobs to choose from."

"I learnt about a variety of jobs that I never knew."

"What qualifications you need to do the jobs."

“It was a very exciting and informative event for the students and we have received a lot of positive feedback from both staff and students. Students now know so much more about different careers, pathways and options available to them than they did before the fair. ” Bishop Luffa School – Careers Coordinator

Truth & Tails - Success!

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:51:46 GMT

Truth & Tails tour success!

Truth & Tails has just finished a successful tour of West Sussex libraries and primary schools, performing to over 600 students across the county. We had such a fun time visiting so many children, families and schools with this production and look forward to our next partnership with the West Sussex Library Service and seeing all the many young children and families again next year.

‘Such a lovely production, the children were mesmerised from start to finish…’,

‘so many themes to discuss and explore’

‘Really lovely performance, the children loved it!’

‘Lovely stories and brilliantly acted’

‘The children were captivated, brilliant show!’

The show was so well thought out and the parents were amazed that the kids sat through it completely spell bound. An excellent performance and totally suited the space in the library.

We were so pleased to work with CFT & bring their amazing tales to our library. It’s great to be able to offer an engaging, free activity to our families. Arts are so important to the development of empathy & imagination in children. We would love to work with them again in the future.

Project Update..

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 09:35:56 GMT

Supporting Young Minds Project, supported by Artswork and the Chichester Festival Theatre

Our Supporting Young Minds Project, supported by Artswork and the Chichester Festival Theatre, has now drawn to a close. Throughout this project we were so excited to support and encourage many wonderful children and young people develop fantastic skills in a variety of creative disciplines including digital gaming, rap, devising, Verbatim theatre, puppetry, creative writing, green screen, Shakespeare, masking making, costume design and more..

Highlights for 2022-23

Digital Technology

A very lucky group of young people had the enviable experience of visiting the Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCXIR) facility in Portsmouth which is the ‘UK’s first integrated facility that brings together the latest XR technologies under the one roof.’

These lucky primary school children from Littlehampton spent the day playing with motion capture, volumetric video and other XR immersive experiences.

Amazing!

Multi-Media

We were also fortunate to have entire year group from a Crawley primary school visit a production at the Chichester Festival Theatre called Jina and the Stem Sisters by Little Angel Theatre.

‘This multi-media musical puppet show is based on the discoveries and stories of historical STEM women who fought against the odds to pursue their flair for scientific enquiry, often unacknowledged for their discoveries and who frequently encountered discrimination and prejudice along the way.’

This was then followed by a visit to the school for a puppetry workshop with the children.

Very exciting!

Photo by Clive Barda

Upcoming activities...

Creative Career Assemblies

We are very excited to announce that we will be offering free Creative Careers Assemblies to schools across West Sussex.

We have been in chats with all our freelancers and creatives both here at Creative County West Sussex and the Chichester Festival Theatre asking every colleague, from backstage to box office, marketing to digital media, costume to catering to get involved in sharing their career journeys with us.

To support this initiative, we are in the process of creating an exciting interactive experience to enable us to share with you insights and information into the many career pathways available within the very extensive and fulfilling creative industries.

To enquire about a Creative Career’s Assembly for your school please contact us at cepwestsussex@cft.org.uk

Creative Curriculum Support Project

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that we have just launched our 2023-24 Creative Curriculum Support Project.

This project will focus on growth, resilience and inclusivity and our key aims for this project are;

The development of new skills
Create a positive impact on learning
Support student’s mental health and wellbeing
Building confidence

Activities on offer include sound scaping, puppetry, devising theatre, creative writing, exploring Shakespeare, costume design (mask / crown), technical theatre workshops, physical/ensemble/musical theatre workshops.

This project will be delivered directly into 10 specially selected schools who, we believe will mostly benefit from this creative support. However these short-term creative support workshops can also be available to any primary or secondary school across West Sussex.

If you are not one of the lucky schools to have been selected but would be interested in participating in the Creative Learning Support Programme please contact us for further information on availability and cost.

We are dedicated to offering creative learning support to as many students, schools and colleges across this county as we possibly can, so we would love to hear from you.

For further information or to register interest in regular Creative County West Sussex updates please emails cepwestsussex@cft.org.uk with your details.

We can’t wait to hear from you!!

What’s a cultural arts partnership like Creative County West Sussex?

Thu, 18 May 2023 19:39:00 GMT

Engaging young people post-pandemic with a cultural arts partnership

A cultural arts partnership like Creative County West Sussex (CCWS) bring together:

For example, our Board of Trustees is made up of various arts organisations and schools across West Sussex. These include Stopgap Dance , Artswork and West Sussex Music and Chichester Festival Theatre. These partnerships are vital to promote:

This is stronger when paired with a network of schools’ trusts and academies.

Cultural engagement in schools is vital for students. This is particularly true since COVID when engagement in schools naturally lowered and young peoples’ senses of positivity towards the future diminished. Having bespoke arts workshops in schools is helping them to develop critical thinking skills, creativity, and self-expression.

The Department for Education’s “Teacher Workforce Statistics in England” report from 2020 found that there were 6,500 art and design teachers in state-funded secondary schools in England in 2020, and 9,400 teachers teaching music in the same schools (Although promising numbers, there is still more that can be done to ensure all students have access to a rich cultural education that inspires them to engage post-pandemic).

Young people who have regular engagement with the arts are more likely to go on to higher education and have higher career aspirations. They are more employable as their teamwork and presentation skills are better than average.

The strength of cultural arts partnerships is that they build a network of freelance artists. Connecting students with professional role models who already work in the arts sector is a great way to inspire them and create a more positive imagined future.

The students:

Our education page shows the positive work we’ve been doing with students in the West Sussex area.

Through these cultural arts partnerships, schools can engage with their local communities. Together, they can promote the arts and culture, and provide students with valuable experiences and opportunities that will benefit them throughout their lives. By coming together and building a joint vision, cultural institutions and their networks are a crucial part of building strong, vibrant, and inclusive local communities in the UK.

By providing CPDs for teachers and bespoke workshops for young people, CCWS ensures the improvement of arts education provision across West Sussex. Sign up today to hear about our latest CPDs and creative workshops so you too can embrace all the benefits a cultural arts partnership brings.

The post What’s a cultural arts partnership like Creative County West Sussex? appeared first on Creative County West Sussex .

Creative County West Sussex

Chichester Festival Theatre Youth Advisory Board

Chichester Festival Theatre YAB Cohort 2026

Future Theatre Makers

Future Theatre Makers Cohort

Creative Project Seadown School - Worthing

Seadown School - Worthing

Big changes in local government spending on arts and culture

West Sussex Creative Collective – Do you want to make sure Arts & Culture in West Sussex is well represented?

NT Connections Celebrates 30 Years.

NT Connections celebrates 30 years.

Watch the video

Schools Work 2024-25

CCWS Schools Work Review

The Enchanted Cinema

A day of fun half term activities

‘Myths on the Heathland’ with Chichester Boys Club

Myths on the Heathland

Watch the video

Schools Work 2023-24

CCWS Schools Work Review

Frantic Assembly CPD

Continuing Professional Development day for teachers and practitioners with Frantic Assembly

The Best of Us Art Installation

County Mall, Crawley 20 March – 15 April 2024

Brightblack Gaming Day

Immersive Gaming workshops

Arts Council England’s Developing Creativity & Culture

Developing Creativity and Culture

Life of Pi – Schools Visits

Life of Pi – Schools Visits

Careers Fairs - We are off and running

CCWS at Careers Fairs

Truth & Tails - Success!

Truth & Tails tour success!

Project Update..

Supporting Young Minds Project, supported by Artswork and the Chichester Festival Theatre

Highlights for 2022-23

Digital Technology

﻿ Multi-Media

Upcoming activities...

﻿ Creative Career Assemblies

Creative Curriculum Support Project

What’s a cultural arts partnership like Creative County West Sussex?

Engaging young people post-pandemic with a cultural arts partnership

Multi-Media

Creative Career Assemblies