Hollie Coxon, Creative Learning Manager at Sunderland Empire discusses the drive and teamwork required to make the magic of theatre accessible to all as Sunderland looks towards UK City of Culture 2021.
Creative Leaning is a key ethos at Sunderland Empire and the team have strived to deliver unique and innovative projects for the past 4 years to ensure all have the opportunity to engage with and experience the magic and power of live theatre, supported by creative engagement in and around Sunderland.
From arranging accessible performances from signed (BSL), audio described and relaxed performances – through to our engaging programme of Creative Learning which includes exciting behind the scenes theatre tours, a range of participatory learning workshops, as well as a programme of weekly groups – we are proud to engage with the public, schools and communities.
The highlight of our whole programme is the key work we have strived to develop which engages families and people with Autism and additional learning needs with Creative Learning and access to live theatre performance.
We were delighted to be acknowledged for the ground-breaking work delivered at the National Autistic Society’s 
prestigious Autism Professionals Awards for ‘Inspirational Education Provision (Other)’. An independent panel of 10 autism experts commended the team for going “above and beyond” in our work to provide opportunities to autistic people and their families.
It was an absolute honour to collect the award and the success of our projects is heavily dependent on strong, local partnership work across Sunderland, with whom we work closely with to devise engaging and enticing projects.
The turning point in the development of our work with the autism community was made possible in 2015, supported by Arts Council funding to support ‘Get Curious!’ This Autism Friendly Family Learning project was delivered in Partnership with National Theatre and their acclaimed production the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The project was supported by local cultural organisations from across Sunderland, who all developed Autism Friendly family activities delivered across the city over the summer of 2015.
From fantastic hands on drop in sessions at Sunderland Museums, NGCA and Arts Centre Washington – through to a 5 day long family learning project at Sunderland Empire supported by National Theatre – The Get Curious project has been instrumental in leading Sunderland towards boasting a city wide autism friendly family offer, specifically across the Sunderland Family Arts Network. Supported by the expertise of No Limits Theatre, the partnership has also developed inspiring ways for groups to access learning through Arts Award which enables participants aged 7-25 to achieve an accreditation through their engagement with Cultural Organisations.
At Sunderland Empire alone, over the past year we have supported 1,239 in accessing as audiences at Relaxed and Supported experience performances, and 723 instances of people with Autism accessing creative learning. The astounding outcomes of this very special project based learning have resulted in the identification across the UK of this project as a unique example of best practise.
The close working relationships forged across Sunderland and in the community continue to grow, and our Autism-specific youth theatre in collaboration with No Limits Theatre has continued to develop and perform a series of high quality and evocative performances. Great opportunities continue to flourish and we are proud to be working with Sunderland Music Education Hub, Orchestras Live and the world class Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in this year’s large scale accessible project Sound Around with performances this month.
Moving forward we believe teamwork and partnership are key to putting creativity at the heart of the community to ignite and inspire a passion for the arts. We are excited for future partnership opportunities which I am sure will only grow and develop further as Sunderland comes together to get behind Sunderland 2021.
— Hollie Coxon
