The Projects

The Voices of Children

In 2005 PLACES began working with Manchester City Council Children’s Services to plan and deliver a collaborative EYFS programme to facilitate children’s creative learning in Children’s Centres across the City. This involved artists being based in the Centres to work on developing arts based project work alongside children, teachers and families.
As a part of this programme PLACES worked with artists and teachers to develop ways in which children can explore the built environment of the city. These visits generated creative project work based on the experience of the city and stimulated children to talk about their ideas and explanations with teachers and parents. Together they visited museums, galleries and places in the local environment and the context-based learning that took place during visits, project work and play is documented in the film The Voices of Children.

PLACES role in the collaborative programme:
  • To expand the creative potential of children through a process of learning in which they value their own imaginative ideas and those of others.
  • To assist the children’s response to an expanded range of experiences.
  • To develop a deeper understanding of how sensory experience and creative response can promote learning in young children.
  • To explore how such creative experience during early childhood can promote ‘life long’ learning and develop individual abilities.
  • To explore how such creative experience during early childhood can assist in establishing emotional stability and personal fulfilment in later life.
  • To explore ways in which the environment of the children’s centres can stimulate and facilitate creative learning.
  • To investigate ways in which the children’s exploration of buildings and urban spaces can stimulate creative learning.
  • To promote an understanding in young children and their families of the essential role of creativity in everyday life.