Young Cultural Creators in the UK flourishes through partnerships between libraries, museums, archives and galleries, and aims to enhance the use of all these places by children and their families.

However in some countries this partnership of venues, and the above structure for running a project, may not always be possible. This section provides a framework and ideas for running a YCC project outside the UK. (You could also use some of these ideas to enhance any YCC activity.)

The Young Cultural Creators approach can be adapted according to the resources you have in your local environment. A key principle of Young Cultural Creators is that any picture, artefact, landscape, or place of interest can be used to stimulate visual responses and creative thinking.

This can be linked to poems and stories that relate to the area of focus. Children create their own stories, poems and art work based on the event.

Places of focus for a Young Cultural Creators event

A Young Cultural Creators event can be held in any place that stimulates creative thinking. Think about places of interest that are easily accessible in your local environment. This may be a library, museum or gallery, but it could also be:

• an interesting building or other piece of architecture
• a significant place – a site of historical interest or a memorial
• a site of natural beauty
• places where people embark on, or come to the end of, journeys - a port, airport, bus station, railway station…
• and the many virtual places on the web – sites with art work, sites linking young people world wide, sites that address children’s issues – see the Resources and Partners sections on the Young Cultural Creators web site for ideas

In fact, a Young Cultural Creators site can be anywhere that fires the imagination.

Once you have selected the piece of art, artefact or place you will need to carefully select the books and pictures to complement the event.

Selecting words and pictures

A particular book or poem may be your starting point. Equally the work of art or place may be your initial source of inspiration. Whatever your starting point, you may well need to find suitable complementary material. Your materials may be accessed by the children online, or you can use web sites to help you make choices about the literature you select - or to get ideas about the kinds of art work you could use or refer to. To assist with your selection have a look at the websites listed in the Resources and Partners sections on the YCC website.

You may get further ideas from the web links listed in the British Council section of this website.

Publishing the children’s work

Publishing children’s work gives them a great sense of pride in their achievement. It also gives others insights into their world, their thoughts and imagination.

Think about the places where the children’s work can be displayed or published. This may be:

• Online on a school or other web site such as Stories for the Web
http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/sfwhomepage.htm

• In spaces around the school or learning centre or in other public spaces such as in a public library or community centre

• In school magazines or other news publications

• Compile a book of the children’s work. This could be reproduced and given to friends and family of the children, or sold at a low price, for example to raise funds for a charity or other good cause.

• Create a calendar using short stories, poems and pictures created by the children

• Hold a show for friends and family of the children where children talk about their work, read their stories and poems, and describe the journeys of their imaginations.