Free half-term cultural activities across Sunderland

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A project which aims to transform the lives of low income families in Sunderland through culture, has launched a programme of free arts activities for the October half-term holiday.

Culture Start has an array of free half-term activities across Sunderland.Culture Start has an array of free half-term activities across Sunderland.
Culture Start has an array of free half-term activities across Sunderland. | 3rd party

Aimed at children ages five to 12, the Autumn Sparks programme, brought by Culture Start, takes place at seven venues across Wearside from Monday, October 28 to Friday, November 1.

Culture Start was launched earlier this year to reduce the impact of poverty by giving more access to creative activities and opportunities for children and young people growing up in low income households.

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Venues used during the week are: Hope4All in Pennywell, Space4 in Houghton, Grace House in Southwick, The Pavilion in Pennywell, Building Blocks CIC in Washington, Flatts Youth Centre in Easington and The Hut, Hetton.

A big variety of activities are on offer and all take place during the day. They include:

Painting - Wild Sunderland, Halloween Crafts (masks, monsters), Halloween crafting (clay spiders, ghosts, pumpkins and spooky decorations) with artist Lindsey Grieves, create your own haunted house, dance and even animation techniques.

It is expected that up to 20 places will be available for each session, at which the artists will be accompanied by a co-ordinator and a youth worker.

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Project manager Michael Barrass said: “Culture Start aims to ensure all children and young people in Sunderland have access to creative and cultural opportunities.

"As part of this, Autumn Sparks will give young people the chance to try all sorts of arts activities for free, working with some great artists in venues across Wearside.

"All of our workshops and sessions are free, but booking is recommended.

“As with our first activities programme, Summer Sparks, these workshops are taster sessions to see what sort of arts activities children and young people would like to see in their communities. They will inform our longer-term programme of activities.

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“We want as many young people to attend as possible, so if travel to these sessions is a barrier, we can look at bursaries to help with travel costs.”

For more information, or to book a place on one or more of the activities, visit www.sunderlandculture.org.uk.

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