Written by Clara Collett, KWMC’s Head of Fundraising and Impact.
I recently attended ‘Who’s Playing Out?’ A conference curated by Heart of Glass and artist Sarah Bailey. There were over 100 people present from across the UK and Ireland. The day brought together artists, educators, youth workers and creative practitioners to explore what it means to make work with children and young people. It was designed as a space for shared thinking, reflection and participation bringing together different practices and perspectives through conversation, creative activity and play.
The day began with a focus on the need for new stories about young people. Not deficit-led narratives, but ones that recognise lived experience, embodied knowledge, imagination and agency.
We began by “landing” in the space, with a quick drawing and paper airplane activity – it was fun, built connection and gave a minute to reflect, land and bring yourself to the space.
There was an early emphasis on voice and more practical questions like: “Who needs to listen? What conditions make listening possible?” This set the tone for the rest of the day. Listening wasn’t positioned as something passive, but something that needs to be actively created and held. We watched a video of young people parading through a town, giving flowers to members of the public. A simple act that built into something bigger: poetry, performance, and a wider message about being seen and heard. It was a reminder that small actions can carry weight, creative practice can open up space for expression and voice doesn’t have to be formal to be powerful.
One panelist’s anecdote particularly stuck with me. It involved breaking apart a chair and then rebuilding it with young people in a classroom, deemed as “naughty” or “problem” kids. They described it as loud, messy, and chaotic. The chair wasn’t restored to what it was. Instead, it became something different.
This led into a wider reflection: what if what we describe as “challenging behaviour” is actually just communication of an unmet need, lack of safety and/or frustration? And who decides that something is a problem? It challenged some of the assumptions that can sit underneath how we work with young people, particularly in more structured environments like schools.
First group exercise: Mapping the process
We were asked to map out what programme design for/with young people looks like.
Using simple materials pens, string and objects we created visual maps to represent the process. Our group included:
- barriers and stopping points
- a forest where ideas get lost
- mountains for perspective
- a tool shed for resources
- an owl for reflection
- a “golden thread” to connect it all
Part way through, we realised we hadn’t actually centred young people in the map. That shifted the conversation. Instead of starting with systems and structures, the starting point needs to be:
- getting to know young people
- understanding their interests and lived experience
- building trust
- designing together from there
Workshop: The School of Tomorrow
This part of the day was led by Andy Field and centred around imagining a School of Tomorrow. The questions were:
- Who goes there?
- Who teaches?
- What do they learn?
But they opened up much bigger thinking not about fixing what already exists, but what it might look like if we started again. The session was co-facilitated with young people who had been part of a longer-term project in a local school in St Helens called Project Parr.
This was the most inspiring part of the day. It didn’t feel like adults leading and young people contributing, it felt like true collaboration. There was a moment where the group was asked whether school was mostly “good” and a lot of the adults went straight to what isn’t working. The young people answered differently. They spoke about liking school because of their teachers, their friends and the opportunities they’ve had to work with artists.
It wasn’t overly positive or negative, just honest, and more balanced than expected. There was also an interesting conversation about how much influence young people should have. They were quite clear: they want more say, and space to talk openly (especially without adults in the room), but they don’t want to be fully responsible for their learning. They recognise that they don’t know everything yet, and that sometimes you have to do things you might not choose in order to learn.
It felt like an important reminder that it’s not about handing everything over, but about finding a better balance. We then watched a film created by Andy and Becky alongside other young people across 5 schools, where they were writing a letter to young people 100 years into the future. It shifted the tone to be more reflective, thinking about what lasts and what we’re building towards.
From there, we moved into mapping out what a future school could look like, what it should have, what it should do, and any “rules” we might want to include. One of the young people, aged 10, said something that ended up framing the rest of the day: “school should have more people with kind hearts”.
Kindness is something small, something we can all do, and it doesn’t cost anything, but it can make a real difference. It cut through a lot of the bigger conversations and brought things back to something more human.
Open space technology and the beehive
The afternoon shifted into a more open format, starting with a simple “pass the parcel” activity that got people talking and gave insight into the different topics people could explore. From there, it became less structured. Conversations happened more informally, following interest rather than agenda. I ended up in a group conversation with a beekeeper, which focused on hive mentality. Together we thought about bees: how they work collectively, how decisions are made, how everything is in service of the hive offered a useful parallel.
- There’s no single voice in charge, but there is still direction.
- There’s constant activity, but also purpose.
- There’s responsiveness and risk.
It made us as a group reflect on our own work. How often do we create conditions for that kind of collective thinking? Not overly controlled, not completely open but something in between. How can we truly learn from non-human species?
Throughout the day, artists were documenting what was happening through sound (live cello), film and photography. At the end, this was brought back to us as a collective reflection.
It captured moments we might have missed, and gave a different perspective on the day, not just what was said, but how it felt. It also reinforced something important, that documentation doesn’t have to sit outside the work. It can be part of the process, part of the reflection, part of how meaning is made.
Across the day, a few things have stayed with me:
- the importance of starting with people, not plans
- the need to actively create conditions for listening
- how often adult assumptions don’t match young people’s perspectives
- the value of open, less structured space
- the importance of time, trust and long-term engagement
If we want to strengthen youth and community voice in our work, this feels less about adding something new, and more about rethinking how we approach what we already do.
How do we create the time, space and conditions for young people to genuinely shape the work – not just contribute to it? And what might we need to let go of for that to happen?
Here are some more resources about the day and the artists leading the space are within the programme here.