WHO WE ARE
Welcome to
young at art
Young at Art, Northern Ireland’s leading arts provider for children and young people, is home to the flagship Belfast Children’s Festival in March each year. We also engage with children and adults year-round through our Education & Engagement and Professional Development programmes and much, much more.
Young at Art believes passionately that every child should have the right to access exciting and original creative experiences, regardless of who they are or where they come from. As such most of its programme is universally accessible. Behind the scenes work such as the Resilient Child engagement programme try to overcome barriers to access – economic, educational, social and physical.
The company believes that arts provision should be FOR children and young people as well as BY children and young people. In this, it promotes child-inspired work by professional artists with an emphasis on performance and exhibition content over participatory activities.
Our Strategic Framework
Who We Are
We believe that every child has the right to access exciting and original creative experiences, no matter who they are or where they’re from.
We believe arts provision should be FOR children and young people as well as BY children and young people. We promote child-inspired work by professional artists and develop child-led programmes and activities.
What do we do?
Create and curate exceptional and innovative arts experiences for all children and young people.
Why do we do it?
How do we do it?
Accessibility and Inclusivity
At Young at Art, we believe every child/young person has the right to access quality arts experiences no matter who they are or where they come from. We actively work to identify barriers to attendance and introduce measures to reduce those barriers to ensure accessibility and equality of opportunity. We respect and celebrate diversity, and diverse models of family.
For families with additional and special needs, we have a range of initiatives to make their festival visits as accessible and inclusive as possible including our ‘Access All Areas’ programme with tailored performances and support provisions, use of welcoming and accessible venues, low-cost ticket prices and plenty of free activity, trained ‘welcome hosts’ and clear, accessible information on these initiatives in our marketing and communications.
Our Safeguarding Policy & Procedures – Accessible Version
Our Data Management Policy & Procedures – Accessible Version
commitment to
sustainability
Young at Art is committed to working more sustainably and being a changemaker for sustainability
with the next generation.
As an international arts festival, we aim to strike a balance when presenting the best international,
national and local arts experiences to our audiences with minimising our impact on the environment
and ensuing ongoing access to the arts.
Young at Art / Belfast Children’s Festival is a Silver-certified Green Tourism event (December 2023)
participating in the scheme with support from Belfast City Council and Visit Belfast. Through our
participation in various working groups and sectoral initiatives, we take the opportunity to
benchmark our actions ensuring best practice, improved standards and shared advice. Led by our
Green Champion, our team continually review our activity for ways to further reduce our impact
whether it be through procurement, travel and transport, energy-management and programming.
We encourage our audiences, artists and partners to join us on this journey.
Our Environmental and Sustainable Development Policy can be viewed and downloaded here.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact our Green Champion, our General Manager.
She can be contacted here.
OUR TEAM
A small, dedicated staff team oversee the delivery of our work by exceptional and experienced artists, project and production support. Our work is overseen by a voluntary Board of Directors, from the arts, education, youth and business sectors, who meet regularly and participate in active sub-committees.
Recruitment opportunities are openly advertised but we are always keen to hear from artists and makers, facilitators, events staff, students and others wanting to work or volunteer with us. If you would like to stay up to date on these opportunities, please sign up to our newsletter, like our Facebook page, follow us on Instagram, or follow us on LinkedIn. Or you can contact us here.
If you think you could contribute as a Board member to our development, we are keen to hear from you too.
OUR Board
