In 2024 we ran our first iteration of our program ‘Beyond Boundaries’ with Big Picture School, Alesco College and Kotara public school. This program ran as a collaboration between Curious Legends and Newcastle Parkour, with a shared focus on wellbeing and creative expression through art and movement. The essence of this program is access to performing and creative arts for disadvantaged youth. The program offers a range of depth of exploration of the arts and creative practice through a series of mini workshops and opportunities to engage with the work here at Curious Legends. At the core of the practices covered in the mini workshop series is vulnerability, creativity, wellbeing and peer relationships. We focus on creating a fun, supported accessible space for young people to learn, play and create and asking students to reflect on their experiences.
Our 2024 program tailored content to each school, covering a combination of the following:
Physical Theatre: Participants were guided through exercises designed to encourage physicality as inspiration for character development and a form of creative expression.
Improv. Theatre: Students engaged with a range of games and exercises designed to help them respond spontaneously to situations and prompts. We worked on skills such as public speaking, word association, thinking on the spot, connecting to emotions as a source of inspiration and creative expression, and other forms of character work.
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Mask and Prop Design: Participants created masks and/or props during the program, and were asked to base their design on a character or theme.
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Mask and Ensemble Work: Arguably the most vulnerable and challenging element of the series, we asked students to form a relationship with their mask and embody a character through the mask. We also gave participants opportunities to direct each other and create short ensemble pieces.
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Creative and Artistic Development: For students showing greater interest in engaging with arts outside of the program, we offered them work experience with us designing and creating a storyline, designing illustrations and props for an art installation. We invited them into brainstorming discussions with our staff, giving them insight into project management and creative development.
Our Beyond Boundaries Program works with students to meet them at the depth of experience that they are willing to engage with. For some students, engaging with one or a few of the mini-workshops gave them a first taste of the arts. Some participants experienced a stretch in their comfort zone engaging with the content, and reflected back to us feeling challenged in specific workshops, opting in or out based on their comfort. Other students experienced a lot more comfort with the content and were able to reflect on themselves as performers and artists openly with their peers, receiving constructive feedback and tools for supporting their wellbeing as developing young people and artists.
Our Beyond Boundaries program is set to run yearly, expecting a return in Term 4 of 2025 with a customisable 4 week mini-series followed by opt-in creative practice development through involvement with commercial and community art projects.
Our 2024 program was proudly support by our City of Newcastle and Create NSW
