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Jump Studios Stories

‘Our Space’ Celebration Event

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Last month, we ran the ‘Our Space’ celebration event at Knowle West Media Centre. The event celebrated the new artwork created by Yoli Ward-Streeter on the railings outside the media centre on Leinster Avenue to welcome the community inside.

Yoli collaborated with the young people of Jump Studios to create the beautiful artwork and at the celebration event, we invited friends and family down to the media centre to celebrate with refreshments and music performances.

Young people performing for friends and family

The young people co-led the event to showcase their musical talent and share their work that they have been rehearsing and practising over this term at ‘Sound Wave’.

Young people displaying their creations

The young people had the chance to share their creative personal projects with their parents and other members of the community. They took ownership of their space and their achievements, the energy was incredible and there was a real sense of pride and inspiration while we celebrated.

Our Space was such an exciting project to be part of, not only through collaborating with the young people but as an artist, I was given an enormous amount of creative freedom and support throughout the project.

Yoli Ward-Streeter

If you get the opportunity, please come down to the media centre and check out the new artwork on display and if you would like any updates you can follow us on Instagram or Twitter.

Young People’s Photography Showcase At We The Curious

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The final photography exhibition held at We The Curious

In October 2021, Jump Studios ran a Photography Programme for 10–16 year-olds throughout the half-term holidays. The programme featured a day where the young people got to learn and collaborate with We The Curious. The goal was to produce a photograph that expressed their take on climate change, in the community, for COP-26.

A lot of the young people had never used a DSLR camera before so Jump Studios spent the morning running creative workshops at We The Curious, before heading out onto the harbour for them to put their new skills into action.

Young people taking photos at Filwood Community Centre

The goal was to produce one photo, with their storytelling and social action skills that they have been learning in after-school sessions at Jump, that creatively expresses their views on climate change. Aside from this, the trip allowed young people to meet new peers and explore new parts of central Bristol.

A young person capturing the scenes of Bristol Harbour

“ It was nice having a walk around town. We got to see the ducks, the pigeons and I learnt how to use a DSLR camera.”

Young person

The exhibition was such a success; the young people wanted to send their work to We The Curious in hope of being chosen for the public COP-26 exhibition in central Bristol.

We were delighted when we found out the young people’s work was being displayed and We The Curious also gave out some free family memberships for the young people involved.

You can now find the work exhibited in our very own main studio at Knowle West Media Centre.

An image captured by a young person presented at Knowle West Media Centre

We are going to be running another Photography Holiday Programme over the summer.

Please get in touch via megan@kwmc.org.uk or jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk if you know a young person who would like to be involved!

The Youth Council Of 2022

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On the 20th of January, we ran the first KWMC Youth Council of 2022 with our new cohort of young people. We started with some fun interactive games to get the new cohort thinking about the difference between facts and opinions. We split the main studio at KWMC into two; one side “agree” and one side “disagree”, we then read out a range of varied statements and the young people ran up and down the room making their decisions. They then took it upon themselves to share their own facts and ideas with the group and the game continued with them leading it. Through this active, fun warm-up, the team started to communicate with each other and the group dynamic began to flourish. 

The young people went on to think about what the Youth Council was and what it meant to them. They proudly chose their job titles and joined together for a photo as the new ‘KWMC Youth Council Committee’! 

ReCREATE Filwood 

The young people got stuck in straight away with ‘reCREATE Filwood’; a local project which is currently redesigning the local Filwood high street. As a group, we looked at the map of Knowle West and the young people shared the locations of places that they knew.  

‘ReCREATE Filwood’ created interactive maps which we used with the young people. This enabled them to click on locations in the area and write what they liked or disliked about these spaces. This was a great way to get the young people thinking about their community and we went on virtual tours around the neighbourhood using Google street view.  

Thinking about Filwood Broadway specifically, the young people thought about the following ideas: 

What would make Filwood Broadway a “go-to” place for young people? 

Any ideas from other high streets they may have been to… 

Any suggestions on street activities/events/… 

Arts and culture – linking to public art strategy   

How would they like to be involved in improving Filwood Broadway going forward? 

The Youth Council fearlessly took complete ownership of the task and came up with a wide range of ideas of how they would like to redesign the area. They carefully thought about the diverse needs of the people living locally and how they could help the community and environment in practical and creative ways. 

We recorded all of the young people’s work from the session and fed it back to ‘reCREATE Filwood’ who went on to use the young people’s voices to help develop the design ideas for the Broadway.  The Youth Council is eager to get involved and help with future developments and they were really excited to hear that their voices were going to be heard by the wider community.

Looking forward

We understand how important it is that local young people get their voices heard and our new Youth Council committee is willing to use their voice and start making positive change! 

Our Youth Council sessions will be running monthly. We want to talk to the community and understand current affairs for the young people to work on together. We are determined to bring together people from all different ages and walks of life and build an even more beautiful Bristol!  

If you would like to hear some of the discussion between the Youth Council of 2022, check out a link to our Soundcloud.

To find out more about the Youth Council please contact megan@kwmc.org.uk or jumpstudios@kwmc.org.uk 

Jump Studios Summer Programme – What We Got Up To!

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What have we been doing?

Over the course of 3 weeks, we had a plethora of workshops lined up. This included 2 days of ‘Young People Can Make’, 2 days of ‘Maker City’ and 3 days of ‘Sound Wave’. We had a jam-packed summer, full of fun here at Jump, and we are really grateful to everyone involved, from the young people to the Jump team!

Young People Can Make

Jump Studios, local young people, We Can Make, and Automated Architecture collaborated to create Young People Can Make. The young people learned vital design skills and had hands-on experience working with the construction blocks.

Those that participated in YPCM were given the ability to design and materialise whatever structural or architectural ideas they may have had. Houses, bridges, community centres, and anything else their creativity allows them to manifest.

If you want to see what happened during the days of Young People Can Make, click here. Check out our blog, which reflects the fun-filled time we had.

Maker City

The Maker City Summer Programme welcomed a brand-new cohort of aspiring creatives and makers eager to learn how to create socially conscious products for causes that are important to young people! They developed STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) skills, product design, and participated in digital fabrication masterclasses. The participants also mastered collaborative creative problem-solving tasks, such as the infamous egg drop challenge and building spaghetti bridges that could hold 1kg of sugar! By the end of the two days, new friendships had formed, new skills had been learned, and confidence had been built!

Maker City is where we design products about things we care about.

young creative

We are excited to restart the Maker City programme at KWMC The Factory in October. Please contact clara@kwmc.org.uk if you would like your young person to become part of the Maker City Movement.

Sound Wave

Over the three days of ‘Sound Wave’ in the Summer Programme, young musicians’ musical creativity shone through. Our young musicians demonstrated their musical abilities in a variety of ways, including playing together, conducting the entire room, creating podcasts, and writing and performing their own songs.

The young people started off by building their first beats and exploring the beauty of loops using the FREE web-based DAW(Digital Audio Workstation) Soundtrap. We even saw some future podcasters shine through with podcasts that included facts about bunnies, inspirational quotes, and things they care about within their community and wider Bristol.

On Days 2 and 3, the emphasis was on the students working together to compose their own songs. Our two groups not only wrote the lyrics, melodies, and chord progressions to their songs, but also performed them in front of KWMC personnel, thanks to seminars on rhyming and song writing and performance advice from our music facilitators!

All in all, it was an amazing experience to see such an array of musical talent come through in such a short amount of time.

Not only did we learn about music but we made new friends!

Young musician

To learn more about how you can get involved with Sound Wave in the new term, contact Mike at mike@kwmc.org.uk.

We are delighted to say this summer break has been amazing! With a wide array of activities and endless enjoyment, on behalf of everyone here at Jump we would like to say a big thank you to all involved its been a blast! But even though the summer is over and young people have returned to school, we are returning with after school workshops and half term festivities to carry on the fun!

Interested in coming to Jump Studios After-School sessions in Autumn 2021? Sign up here!

Young People Can Make: Summer Spirit

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Over the summer break here at Jump Studios, we having been hosting a number of workshops. Most recently, we have been working with the ‘We Can Make’ team to help introduce sustainable community architecture to the young people.

What have we been up to?

Now that the schools have broken up for the summer holidays what better time to get creative with Jump. With our enrichment activities we’ve been organising, young people will now get the opportunity, outside of school, to learn new skills while having fun! By partnering up with the ‘We Can Make‘ project, young people now have the chance to construct sustainable models of their choice. They use a scaled down version of the Lego-like building blocks that those at ‘We Can Make‘ are using to build housing amongst the community.

Young People Can Make is a collaboration with Jump Studios, local young people, We Can Make and automated architecture. The young people gained some valuable design skills and were able to get first-hand experience working with the construction blocks. They were given a design mission to re-mix the main studio at KWMC! The final product was absolutely brilliant, they worked so well as a team and combined everyone’s ideas to create a really useful, imaginative design. There was a hangout seating area, different levels and space to display things during an exhibition. They even thought about incorporating a podium for people to present during workings and meetings! The structure they created had three parts and you could configure it in different ways, meaning that it is multipurpose, portable and looks really cool! One young person said “I feel really proud of myself” At age 10 she had contributed her ideas, learnt how to design the app and got on the power tools to fix the final product together.

CLARA COLLETT, Project Manager (Young People and Creative Tech)

What is Young People Can Make?

Young People Can Make is a subsidiary of ‘We Can Make‘ which focuses on involving the younger generation in community driven projects in regards to housing development. ‘We Can Make‘ is striving to create sustainable living firstly within Knowle West then the whole of the U.K, whereas YPCM gets children involved so they can have an understanding of what is going on whilst contributing. At YPCM, those involved are given the opportunity to create and manifest any ideas that they’ve had, in terms of structures and buildings. This could be houses, bridges, community centres and anything their imagination will allow them to produce.

What we aim to achieve?

With Young People Can Make, we hope to guide the new generation with an understanding of sustainable living, as the children of today will be the adults of the tomorrow. It is important for us here at Jump to pass on valuable information which will aid them and offer them the relevant knowledge that could change the world for the better.

It was great witnessing young people’s imaginative ideas highlight what was missing in a space that could be brought to life through the creative process of digital design to physical construction.

MIKE MOAST, Project Manager (Young People and Music)

If you want to follow us for updates on spaces in the sessions, opportunities for young people and sharing some of the work they have been up to – you can follow us on Instagram or Twitter.

The Jump Studios Summer Showcase: Celebrating Young People’s Work

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This week, we opened our doors for a very special three-day event: our summer showcase!

The showcase was all about celebrating the work of the young people who have been attending sessions over the last few months to create a whole range of podcasts, designs, prototypes, music and much, much more.

What is the Summer Showcase?

The Summer Showcase is a chance to show off the work created by an incredible group of young people over the last ten weeks. Work from ‘Control Alt Delete‘, ‘Maker City‘, ‘Creative Hub‘ and ‘Sound Wave‘ was on display to the young people from all of the groups.

Clara, the lead facilitator from Maker City, described the showcase as:

The end of term Summer Showcase was really a chance to celebrate the amazing creative work the young people have been doing despite going through a global pandemic! We have been really lucky to work with local young people who have shown immense resilience and ability to adapt and be flexible in order to get back to doing the things they love doing! I was really impressed with all the work we showcased, and it was a really lovely experience seeing the young people engaged and interested in what others had been up to! We were able to invite the funders from Maker City to come and have a look at this year’s projects. The Maker City projects really demonstrated how important it is to young people to be able to amplify their voices on social topics that matter to them! From wooden protest placards to 3D models “Clean up our Beaches boxes” their ideas were inspiring!  

Clara Collett, head of maker city

What did the young people make of the showcase?

My project was about pollution and recycling. So I made a bag out of old jeans which contributes to climate change.

Jasmine, 13

I made productions to raise awareness about women’s rights and sexism to empower women.

Lois, 13

What skills have they been developing this term?

Every Monday to Wednesday, a group of young people have been coming into Knowle West Media Centre to engage in a series of activities to help learn and develop new skills.

On Mondays, Control Alt Delete is about tech and coding.

On Tuesdays, Maker City is about digital fabrication and social action.

On Wednesdays, Creative Hub is about engaging creativity and Sound Wave is about music and podcasts.

In Control Alt Delete, numerous programmes were made in a variety of programming languages, games through Scratch and creative builds in Minecraft! At Creative Hub, it was really exciting to be able to display young people’s photography and digital design projects. And in Sound Wave: After School, it was great to be able to share everyone’s podcasts and original songs. We also had the chance for some live performances on the day.

mike moast, head of control alt delete, creative hub and sound wave.

If you would like to check out some of the music created by the young people over the term, check out a link to our Soundcloud.

At the showcase, we were also able to present a project that some of the Maker City participants have been working on – in collaboration with University College London. They have worked with researcher Kylo Thomas to undertake important field work on equitable Maker Spaces for Young People. 

Here is one of those participants, Max, made of the project…

Maker City has made it easy to create products to show what is going on in the world.

Lexi, 12

This whole term has been a very unique one. With lockdowns and restrictions changing what looks like a ‘normal after-school session’, we had to adapt both virtually and safely.

So we are incredibly proud of the work they showcased and cannot wait for the next term of activities.

If you want to follow us for updates on spaces in the sessions, opportunities for young people and sharing some of the work they have been up to – you can follow us on Instagram or Twitter.

Interested in coming to Jump Studios After-School sessions in Autumn 2021? Sign up here!

Jump Studios Stories: Jack Louis Cooper

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We sat down and spoke with musician Jack Louis Cooper about his experiences with Jump Studios and how they have impacted his life.

We first met Jack during The Male Room programme in 2018. This was a programme we ran to support young men in exploring their own masculine identity whilst simultaneously developing their skills as creative professionals.

Jack (middle) with some of the participants of ‘The Male Room’ project in 2018.

Jack met multiple future collaborators and friends on the programme, whom he still works with to this day.

Soon after ‘The Male Room’, Jack was heavily involved in our Sound Wave: Retreat which led him to becoming one of our volunteer Youth Facilitators in our after-school sessions.

Jack leading in a Sound Wave session on a Wednesday afternoon.

In the interview we recorded with Jack, he talks about his own experiences in education and how important he finds after-school sessions in a young persons personal development.

Jack has been working with us for multiple years now and we can’t wait to see how he progresses both professionally and creatively.

If you want to follow Jack’s music, then you can do so at his Instagram found here.

Keep up to date with our journey by following Jump Studios on Instagram and Twitter.

Jump Studios Stories: Millicent Grant

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We sat down and spoke with musician Millicent Grant about her experiences with Jump Studios and how they have impacted her life.

We first met Millie when she joined our Change Creators programme and formed the social action group Hack a Heckle.

In this group, she went on the streets of Barcelona to perform and challenge street harassment.

The social-action music group Hack a Heckle.

After this experience, she also joined our Sound Wave retreat to meet and collaborate with other musicians.

Watch the video now if you want to hear about her experiences about becoming a musician and how her time with Jump Studios has impacted her.

If you would like to see what Millicent has been up, you can follow her on Instagram.

Keep up to date with our journey by following Jump Studios on Instagram and Twitter.