About Barbican Box at Harlow Playhouse
About Coney and the Box
Coney make interactive experiences - online, on the streets and in schools, museums and theatres.
They create games, adventures and play where people can choose to take a meaningful part. Coney's work always follows the principles of adventure, curiosity, and loveliness.
The experience starts when you first hear about it, and only ends when you stop thinking and talking about it.
Coney make play with ideas that resonate in the world: from the everyday to the extraordinary. Their work is inspired by the belief that the world can be a magical place where ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Collaboration and dialogue are at the heart of how Coney make work: with audiences, peers, partners, and a network of makers.
Barbican Box schools will become part of Coney’s Playful Secret Agency: an introduction to playful activism in schools built on three principles of play: adventure, curiosity and loveliness. It aims to prompt creative responses to the passion and challenges young people are experiencing – emotional health, resilience, transitioning - empowering them as agents to have an amplified voice and bring about change that will affect them and their peers.
Coney’s practice incorporates digital, interactive, innovative and adventurous approaches, and teachers and students will be invited to explore these elements within their own work through the Box process.
About Harlow Playhouse
Harlow Playhouse is a leading creative hub and venue in the East of England. It provides enjoyable cultural experiences for everyone, working in partnership to support healthier, happier and safer communities; and to stimulate opportunity, creativity and innovation. It has a programme of quality music, comedy, spoken word, dance, and circus arts events across its 400-seat and 120-seat theatres, as well as other reach-out locations, and provides space and support to many artists, groups and companies throughout the year.
Costs of Barbican Box
Requirements for Barbican Box
Before applying please ensure that you are aware of the commitment needed from you, your school and your students and ensure that your Senior Management Team is aware of your application. Please be aware of the following participation requirements:
- At least one teacher from each participating school must commit to attending both the introductory session and the CPD day at the start of the project.
- Barbican Box is designed to be experienced by one group or class of students (two form entry primaries can apply for both classes in the year group to take part, but they would need to participate as two separate groups).
- This Box has been designed to be as flexible as possible with regards to the level of lesson and artist mentor-run session time required from June to mid-July. At the very minimum, we advise at least 6hrs in total is set aside. This is based on 3 x 1.5hr artist mentor-led sessions with students plus two independent 45min lessons or this equivalent within an off-timetable week / 2 weeks etc., should you choose to run the project as a more intensive offer.
Of course, we encourage schools wherever possible to allow more time! For instance, 3 x 3hr artist mentor-led sessions with students plus 2 or more x 1.5hr (or double lessons) in between. - Teachers will be required to take a lead on activity with the young people in the Summer term, outside of the artist mentor sessions.
- Students will be in the duty of care of their teachers for the duration of the project, therefore teachers will need to be present in the space in which artist mentor sessions take place.
- During the Box project, classes will require access to the internet, ideally on a shared computer.
Selection Criteria
- Please note that due to funding commitments, we are unable to consider applications from non-state schools.
- If the programme is oversubscribed, schools with higher levels of Free School Meal eligibility, schools that experience challenges to accessing cultural provision, and/or who plan to run the project with groups who experience challenges to accessing cultural provision, will be prioritised. We will also take into account where the project is likely to have the most impact.
If you are shortlisted at the application stage, we will get in contact in April 2021 to discuss your application and any questions you might have, before confirming if you have been successful.
If you have any questions about the programme or application process, please contact Barbican Guildhall Creative Learning by email via [email protected].
We will be holding a Q&A for teachers ahead of the application deadline to help support with questions about this year’s Barbican Box project. This will take place on Wednesday 17th March, 16:30 – 17:30. We encourage all teachers who are interested in applying to attend. Please email us on [email protected] to confirm your attendance.
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