The Garage is an experienced arts provider. We work regularly in the community on bespoke projects in partnership with other organisations, charities or services. Partners can ‘buy in’ one of our existing programmes, or together we can design something new.
Our outreach work is designed to broaden the range of people we work with. It’s often targeted towards those who, for whatever reason, find it more difficult to engage. Activities are designed to enthuse and excite by giving people a taste for participating in creative activity whilst developing transferable skills.
Activities are normally based around dance, drama and music. We contract professional artists and tutors, complete risk assessments, gather evaluation and feedback information when we are finished. We can even embed nationally recognised Arts Award accreditation into projects.
We’ve worked with a range of different groups, including: Assist Trust, young carers, youth clubs, Norfolk and Suffolk Libraries, MAP, Families House, Leeway women’s refuge and New Routes.
Questions we ask when assessing whether to take on new outreach projects are:
- Would this activity lead to longer term engagement (class programme, holiday activity, Foundations programmes, seeing a show, education, staffing, volunteering etc.) from the people who participate?
- Would this activity lead to boosting the visibility of a group of people in our community who are often overlooked?
- Would this activity lead to us strengthening relationships with partner organisations that could have mutual benefits?
- Would this activity enable us to learn, grow or share practice that will be of benefit going forward?
- Does this activity promote social mobility?
If you have an outreach project that you think could fulfil some or all of these priorities, we’d love to hear from you.
Examples of what we offer (depending on tutor availability) are:
- Ballet
- Band Skills
- Contemporary Dance
- Choir
- Drama
- Musical Theatre
- Percussion
- Song Writing
- Street Dance