The BYT Project
The Bright Yellow Thinkers Project
BRIGHTENING THE LIVES OF YOUNG PEOPLE
The I Shine Arts Hub
If you would like to be involved with the Arts Hub Launch or you are interested in registering your child for September, we would love to hear from you!
Please visit our Crowdfunder page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-byt-project-1179524
The I Shine Theatre Project & Arts Hub
In light of the current climate we have set up a professional Theatre & Arts School to be delivered to young people aged 2-18, giving them access to training in singing, dancing and acting in Grahame Park and Colindale. This will enable children, especially those from challenging backgrounds, to fulfil their talent and have a pathway into the ‘Arts World’ and beyond. The Arts Hub will provide a safe haven and bring light into the lives of lots of deserving children during an unsettling time.
Giving children access to a professional arts and drama school will not only develop a child’s performance ability but improve key life skills such as self-confidence and teamwork, with a strong emphasis on being fun! Each child’s artistic journey will be a personal and unique experience.
Classes will run in the evenings and on Saturdays throughout the year. We will also set up a pop-up box office so that we can hold regular shows, performances and art galleries to the general public.
We have access to a Theatre space within The Orion Primary School where we can facilitate the Theatre & Arts School and we know we are surrounded by a wealth of talent from children within the local and wider community.
We count ourselves very lucky that we have access to such a great space enabling people to be creative and be able to put on professional shows to further enhance and give back to the community. Currently the Theatre space is under-utilised and not best serving our community.
In our local environment we do not have an accessible Theatre School that is set up, specifically dedicated to the Arts which supports low income families.
Our biggest goal with the enterprise is creating access to the Arts for all!
Funding Need
We require funding to help us maintain our current provision to over 200 pupils every term.
The funding will be used to provide teaching (at the weekend academy) and the broad range of programmes are accessible to all children between the ages of 4-11 that have an artistic flair or have not yet been able to explore their artistic talents.
The funding secured will be used to cover over-heads such as equipment, advertising costs and most importantly the subsidised places for those who cannot afford to pay.
This investment will allow children to carry the skills learnt with them through-out their lives enabling them to be more confident and may even give them access to opportunities within the Arts world later in their career.
The Communities Need & How we will serve them
We know that the talent is out there and we would love to be able to change many children’s lives by providing quality accessible teaching.
Recent surveys have been conducted to get our plans out to the community and the positive responses and support for bringing a professional theatre school to Grahame Park, has blown us away!
87% of children said that they enjoy singing, acting, music & dance & it makes them feel happy. A huge 81% of families surveyed said they would like to have access to an affordable Theatre school. We also found that 53% of children did not access any classes or extra-curricular activities outside of school hours.
Our local community is made up of 75% non-native English speakers and we know this can also cause barriers.
Regardless of class and background all children in our community should be able to participate in singing, theatre, drama and dance. We will also be bringing our work into the community through performances where we will utilise the Theatre space and have a big impact on other age groups. Local organisations and voluntary groups will also be able to make use of the space throughout the year.
Over the years The BYT Project has built up relationships with local artists, music bands, talent agencies and networks with dancers from the well-known dance troop, Flawless. By using our connections we will be able to provide diverse and enriched programmes for our community.
The Theatre and Arts Hub will be primarily in an educational setting so we will organically follow best practices from the outstanding graded Orion Primary School, adopting learning methods and styles of teaching and ensure that we regularly seek feedback from the students and parents attending the Arts & Theatre School.
Our Collaboration with Achieve Arts
Achieve Arts Speech and Drama School is fast becoming one of the top Speech and Drama Schools in North London. Registered as a private centre with LAMDA ( London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) Achieve Arts has a 100% Success rate in LAMDA Acting, Musical Theatre, Verse & Prose and Public Speaking Examinations.
The team at Achieve Arts have all trained at Accredited Drama Schools and work professionally in the world of Theatre and Television.
The Achieve Arts Team are very excited to provide Performing Arts Classes at the ARTS HUB every Saturday morning starting in September 2022!
Please note, these sessions will not be LAMDA exam classes, they will be performance based, working on fantastic , fun skills such as building confidence through drama, scriptwork, improvisation, team building skills , mime, and solo speaking ! We will provide weekly sessions where your child will work towards an end of term Drama showcase for parents.
Please do check out the Team and our sessions at www.achievearts.co.uk
Achieve Arts also run a very successful actors agency with many of their students working in the West End, Television and Film. Please do check out their agency at www.achieveartsagency.co.uk
The Team behind the proposal
The BYT Project was founded by Chris Flathers, Principal of two Outstanding Ofsted rated schools, The Orion & Goldbeaters Primary. Having dedicated over 30 years to helping this community, Mr Flathers also heads up a passionate team of arts teachers, who are dedicated to teaching the next generation in music, drama and dance.
A small scale, successful theatre school is already up and running on site and partners with a talent agency, ID Talent which has led to children from this community working in West End Shows and on TV. The weekend academy will be launched in collaboration with a talented pool of freelance artists and educators.
Through all of our previous voluntary work, we know that we are trusted within the community and have built a strong rapport with local families who will feel comfortable attending classes at The Arts Hub.