What actions can you take to make your work more inclusive and relevant?
Discover how you can better understand families’ needs. Learn about partnership projects, dive into the data with research insights, and explore what you can do to ensure families most in need are able to be part of quality creative experiences.

How can you build a network to support and improve your work?
The Family Arts Conference 2024 will give you the opportunity to connect with others who want to make a difference to the family arts landscape. You’ll have the chance to network, make meaningful connections, and discover what wider support is available to you.

What fantastic work has been happening in the sector?
Hear from peers making a big impact; discover incredible initiatives, brilliant activities and out-of-the-box thinking to support underserved families. Whilst the Conference aims to get you thinking, we’ll also be sharing practical resources and opportunities to inspire your work further.

Take time to look at your work from afar, consider your next move, generate ideas, reconnect with others and recharge with some creative activity of your own.

Schedule:

Arrival and registration will take place from 10.30am. Speakers and workshops will be from 11am – 5.30pm.

Is the event for you?

Are you working to engage family and/or older audiences with arts and cultural activities and initiatives? Or are you a support service for families and/or older audiences, curious about how arts and culture can play a part in your work? Then this event is for you!

Whether you’re a programmer, marketer, leader, practitioner, maker or working in community outreach or service provision, the Family Arts Conference is designed to support your work. The Conference Programme will be relevant to representatives from across the family support and cultural sectors, including museums and libraries.

Programme

Click through to our Programme Announcements Page to discover what’s been revealed of the programme so far. The full programme will include opportunities for find out more about:

• How you can use data to understand and grow your family audiences
• How to understand similarities, as well as the differences families share
• Understanding and supporting vulnerable families
• Developing intergenerational work and how to bring very young and older participants together
• Supporting families who require additional support
• Families at risk of exclusion
• Improving age-friendly practices
• Best practice for engaging with teenagers
• Empowering your role in Family Arts
• Latest research on early years engagement

…and much, much more!

We will have keynote presentations, panel discussions, practical workshops, and creative spaces, in order to suit a range of learning needs.

Learn – Find out more about latest research, and practical advice to support your work with families.

Connect – Meet with hundred of fellow professionals, all passionate about working with families.

Inspire – You’ll hear about brilliant case studies and practical advice to help you develop even better work and connections with families.

Recharge – Working in the cultural sector is rewarding, but of course, it can be incredibly challenging. We want to provide you with space throughout the day to not only learn, but also reflect on your own role and practice within the cultural sector. Whether that’s through painting, clay modelling or creative reflection, we’ll provide fun and inspiring activities throughout the day!

Tickets:

• Freelance / Small Org* Ticket: £150
• Standard Ticket: £225
  
• Team Ticket Bundles: Choose a bundle to receive a £25 discount on your extra Standard Tickets.**
  

*Small organisations are any classed as a “micro entity” by HMRC (e.g. has 10 or fewer employees)
**Team Tickets are only eligible for colleagues working for the same organisation. If you are freelance or a small organisation (10 or less employees) please purchase a Freelance / Small Org* ticket for the best discount.

Tickets are subject to booking fees. Tickets are limited so booking as soon as possible is advised.

Booking Terms and Conditions

The deadline for Bursary application has now passed (5pm on Thursday 2 November). Find out more information on our Bursary page.

Accessibility:

The Venue

We are delighted to be hosting our event at Leeds Playhouse, a venue committed to offering a welcoming and accessible experience for its visitors. You can find out more about the accessibility of the building here and photographs of key spaces here. The conference will be making use of the following areas: Courtyard Theatre, Bramall Rock Void, Brooke Room, City Room, Weston Room, Multi-faith reflection room, Level One Balcony & PLAYhouse corner, Level One Terrace Bar, Playhouse Kitchen & Bar.

The Programme

We want to ensure the conference is accessible for everyone and we’ll be releasing a detailed conference programme in due course. To enable you to book with confidence, we’ll be including the following in our conference programme:

• A quiet space, available to all delegates at any point during the conference.
• A multi-faith reflection space, available to all delegates (and staff or visitors to the Playhouse) at any point during the conference.
• A creative networking space, with a range of self-led creative activities on offer, available to all delegates at any point during the conference.
• A variety of large group presentation style and smaller participatory style breakouts to choose from.
• Regular breaks throughout the programme schedule which include a catered lunch as well as tea, coffee and refreshments throughout the day.

We are committed to providing bespoke support for accessibility requirements wherever possible, this could be anything from a BSL interpreter or hearing loop provision, a water bowl for your guide dog or sending you a photo of a named member of the team who you can locate on the day, for any support you may need. When booking online there’s the option to tell us about any access needs you may have, but if you would like to discuss your needs with us in person, or have any access questions please email Anna Dever, Executive Director of Family Arts Campaign on anna.dever@thealbany.org.uk.