Young Creative Bucks is a collective of organisations from Buckinghamshire ranging from local organisations and businesses from the arts, heritage, creative industries, health and social care, schools, and higher education. Since our launch in November 2021, we have been busy getting to know many schools and local arts, culture, and heritage organisations across Bucks. It’s exciting to be embarking on something really tangible, something to inspire the imagination, curiosity and development of young people, and finding new and innovative ways to be creative and inclusive.

We’re developing the Young Creative Bucks Forum, in partnership with Bucks Culture. We’re asking young people aged between 14-18 with a keen interest in arts and culture or who feel passionate about their local community to get in touch with us and help us shape our plans. If you know of anyone who might be interested in taking part, please email [email protected]. So far, we have a great response from young people but need more representation from the very north and south of the county. We are committed to being inclusive for all and are encouraging expressions of interest from all backgrounds and abilities.

We have been gathering thoughts and views of young people, looking to find out what they understand about the terms ‘Arts’ & ‘Culture’, how they currently engage with both in and out of school, what they feel is missing from Buckinghamshire and what they see as the barriers. The young people we met from Primary, Secondary, and other youth settings were extremely engaging and their thoughts and ideas inspiring.

Just before half term, we had our first Partnership Meeting, which was open to any arts, culture and heritage organisations from Bucks, as well as individual artists and practitioners and schools alike. Our theme was ‘Creating Collaborations’ with guest speaker Lallie Davis from Bucks Culture talking about her experience of creating collaborations, which for those who know her will know she does extremely well. We gave organisations the opportunity for a 5-minute slot to talk about what they do, what projects they have and how they would like to collaborate in the future. It was a very inspiring session and a great opportunity to understand more about the landscape of Bucks and opportunities for young people, schools, and families. We also discussed new project ideas with working groups identified to drive them forward. We were ecstatic at the level of engagement from everyone and of course the collaborations already in motion as a result!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Rothschild Foundation and Artswork for all their support which allows us the opportunity to support young people in Bucks.