Our celebration of 20 years of long-term partnerships starts this autumn with a public Arts Symposium on 18 September.
As the RSC, our Associate Schools and theatre partners begin our celebrations of 20 years of deep, long-term partnerships, we are calling for every child to have meaningful arts entitlement within the curriculum. This makes up the central message of our public Arts Symposium, coming to The Other Place (TOP) in Stratford-upon-Avon on Friday 18 September.
The Symposium, titled Building Partnerships: A 20-Year Story, will bring together 200 school leaders, teachers, artists, theatre practitioners, arts leaders and policy makers, for a day of presentations, conversation and reflection. The day is part of a series of events and performances taking place across the autumn to celebrate 20 years of schools partnerships.
The Symposium will include:
- A conversation between The Rt Hon Georgia Gould MP, Minister for School Standards and Geoff Barton, RSC Trustee and former General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.
Georgia Gould’s ministerial responsibilities include access to arts and music in schools, while Geoff Barton brings more than three decades of experience as a teacher and school leader.
They will discuss the role of the arts in schools and explore how strengthening partnerships between the arts and education sectors can support national priorities around opportunity, removing barriers to participation and ensuring that all children have access to high-quality arts education as part of their school lives.
- The launch of Finding Every Child, a new report from the RSC that sets out our key learnings from more than 20 years of working in partnership with schools and regional theatres.
- A performance of Factory, a brand-new verbatim play performed by our Next Generation Act young company and supported by young trainees from our Next Generation Backstage and Next Generation Direct talent development programmes.
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS: A 20-YEAR STORY
The Arts Symposium is the first in a series of events programmed across the autumn to celebrate 20 years of deep partnership working between the RSC, its partner theatres and schools.
The Building Partnerships 20-year anniversary programme will continue with First Encounters: Julius Caesar, a co-production with KPPL Productions and reprisal of Phyllida Lloyd’s groundbreaking 2012 all-female production, featuring Dame Harriet Walter as Brutus.
The production will tour to five RSC Associate Schools across the country before arriving in Stratford-upon-Avon for a short run at The Other Place in November. At each school across the tour, the company will remain ‘in residence’ for one week of performances, workshops and post-show conversations.
The programme of events will conclude with a Young Creatives Festival on Saturday 21 November. Creatively produced by members of the RSC’s Youth Advisory Board, the day will involve discussions and workshops, as well as a special performance showcasing young people’s creative responses to Julius Caesar.
Together, the events will celebrate what can be achieved when schools, regional theatres and the RSC work as equal partners - and make the case for ensuring that every young person can access high-quality arts learning, wherever they live and whatever their background.
The RSC and its partners are also calling for a co-ordinated research and evidence infrastructure for arts education. Better data would help schools, cultural organisations and decision-makers understand what works, identify where investment is needed and make access to arts-rich education more equitable.
Find out more about the 20-year anniversary programme
