Carousel is an award winning organisation that nurtures the talents of adults, young people and children with learning disabilities, through a range of projects in music, radio, performance, tv, film and digital art. Projects include workshops to explore the arts right through to high profile events that showcase people’s artwork in professional settings. Carousel seeks to find routes of access and development for learning disabled children and adults supporting them to reach their artistic goals.
Over half of Carousel’s Board of Trustees have learning disabilities, and each of their programmes are planned and evaluated by a team of learning disabled (LD) artists. Many of the people worked with have additional health needs, sensory impairment or physical disability.
The Radcliffe Trust’s funding allowed The Chorus to deliver 5 workshops for LD young people aged 16-18 in 2 locations. The total number of attendees was 61.
The workshops were run with East Lewes College at their base in Lewes and with Team Domenica in Brighton. Both rooms were familiar to participants to ensure the settings felt safe and comfortable.
In addition to introducing and promoting the many benefits of group singing, other opportunities for young LD people were promoted, including Carousel’s accessible and safe social events for LD people in the region. This has helped reach and engage the next generation of LD creative talent across the projects.
Following the open workshop, one young person subsequently joined the Chorus as a full-time member and attended rehearsals, learning the Chorus’ repertoire and getting to know members.
Over the Radcliffe Trust’s grant period, there have been a total of 6 workshops and 10 rehearsals for the Chorus.