the hundred club ethos 🗯️the hundred club ethos🗯️
the hundred club ethos 🗯️the hundred club ethos🗯️
This ethos is an evolving shared understanding of WHAT WE BELIEVE, HOW WE WORK WITH CHILDREN & ARTISTS, WHY WE DO IT
This has been written over the last 9 months, by Ruth Beale and Natasha Bird, in conversation with the families and artists involved in the Hundred Club.
Below is an abridged version of our ethos. For a full version, please email nb@taco.org.uk
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The Hundred Club is an experimental creative space that uses arts and play for children to explore social justice issues that matter to them. Free and open to 5-12 year olds and their siblings, parents and carers. Members of the club take part in sessions in collaboration with artists and designers, and contribute to our own kids-produced newspaper WAAAAH!
The club was developed by artist Ruth Beale and is produced by TACO! We run sessions in Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Plumstead and Woolwich. A family club, we ask grown ups to stay and get involved!
WHAT WE BELIEVE, HOW WE WORK WITH CHILDREN & ARTISTS, WHY WE DO IT
What: Art and Play
Why: Making and play gives children the opportunity to express their creativity and opinions, and explore ideas through verbal and non-verbal communication. Children benefit from being involved in open-ended activities and free play, and being given opportunities to flex their imaginations - they have brilliant ideas that adults can help facilitate. We believe in the nurturing and transformative potential of socially and politically engaged art.
How: Children are given access to exciting and unexpected tools, materials and concepts. Sessions are non-hierarchical workspaces for group making and experimentation. We work with professional artists and designers who share their practices, skills and approaches with the children by devising exciting activities.
What: Collaboration, child-led approaches, and collective decision-making
Why: We think that children should shape the club, and that they are the experts of their own experience. Learning to collaborate and participate in democratic processes are important life skills: listening to others, being heard and having a say gives them confidence and independence.
How: We centre collaboration, co-learning and opportunity in our work with children. Inbuilt into sessions are mechanisms for children to shape activities - prompts and materials are offered, but not dictated, and the physical and theoretical space for creating and play is not rigid. We test out different methods of decision-making such as voting and consensus. We are attentive to what is important to children, and plan future sessions responsively based on what children have told us. A regular steering group of families guides our programme.
What: Talking about social justice
Why: We believe that children can and should participate and contribute to discussion about social justice issues - they have a strong sense of fairness, what’s right, what their neighbourhoods should be like, and the importance of a sustainable human and planetary future. We want to empower children to take a role in making a more just world for themselves and others.
How: We try to create inclusive, safe spaces for conversation, creativity and to express feelings about current events, often through the lens of children’s experiences and rights. We dig deeper and do not shy away from topics - for example, taking an intersectional approach to environmentalism - whilst keeping the information and conversation age-appropriate, and making sure that the whole family is involved. We are conscious of the positionality of those having the conversations, and our sources for topics and subjects.We invite artists and other experts and practitioners with diverse backgrounds to discuss their work and experience with the children. We are planning to develop a small library of inclusive literature and children’s books about social justice issues.
What: Working with artists and designers
Why: Artists and designers bring creative skills and conceptual thinking, and are often good at communicating complex ideas. They can share with children the ways they research and create art, and involve children in creative processes such as designing the newspaper. We want children to see themselves in the artists, and feel that they too are agents of culture.
How: We invite a diverse range of artists to develop workshops, and have developed ongoing relationships with several local artists. Artists are involved in all aspects of the club from decision-making to producing to assisting and facilitating sessions.
What: A family club
Why: Parents, carers and families play a really important role in the club - parents getting involved means that they can support their children to realise ambitious makes and set the boundaries of what they consider age-appropriate. We also want to reduce barriers to access and attendance by welcoming whole families of all kinds.
How: We welcome siblings of all ages, and hold sessions both on Saturdays and in school holidays so that parents can attend. We ask for grown-ups to stay and get involved - family-centred sessions are an inclusive, safe space for creativity and discussion. Creative projects/approaches and conversations started in the Hundred Club can be continued at home, and vice versa.
What: Publishing & public outcomes
Why: Being journalists gives children the tools to investigate and reflect on the world around them: to ask questions and to share their knowledge with others. They then make incredible artwork and insightful writing that is worthy of sharing and celebrating, and which is of interest and benefit to its audiences. Seeing their work in high quality outcomes is validating and builds confidence.
How: Children contribute to public artworks - newspapers, billboards, radio shows and films. The write articles for, edit and design WAAAAH!, as well as thinking about how it’s distributed. They interview ‘experts’ and those around them, and learn to critically evaluate source material. We include creative moments of publicness and discussion within sessions - processions, displays, show and tell.
What: Environmentalism
Why: Led by the concerns of the children in the club, we are keen to ensure The Hundred Club has as low a carbon footprint as possible.
How: We source and use recycled materials as much as possible, building activities around these materials, and recycling them again after use. Where possible we travel to sessions by foot / on public transport with the help of our trusty Hundred Club wagon, and promote transport options to our families to do the same. We are mindful of marketing materials, printing fliers only when necessary. WAAAH! is printed by risograph, one of the more environmentally friendly methods, in soy inks on recycled paper.
HOW WE CARE FOR FAMILIES AND ARTISTS
We welcome -
Whilst activities are devised for children aged 5-12, we welcome all children, including those with neurodiversity and disabilities, siblings, and carers of all kinds. We welcome people of all genders and respect preferred pronouns. We communicate with parents about their children’s needs, making sure they are included in activities, and giving options during the sessions. We try to accommodate all access needs wherever possible, and communicate clearly about access in marketing. We market events to families in specific geographic areas, but the doors are open to everyone who signs up.
We ask parents and carers to get involved -
This helps make sessions an inclusive, safe space to explore issues in an age-appropriate way. Conversations are responsive to the children and geared to the relevant age groups, with us checking in throughout with adults and children.
We are conscious to give parents/carers a heads up when discussing issues that some may not want or be ready to discuss with their kids, through the marketing, blurb, and confirmation communications. We completely respect the right of parents to choose how they engage in these issues, or not. If parents/carers have further questions about the content or session they are always welcome to discuss with Natasha (CYP producer) at any time before, during, or after the workshop, either in person or via email at nb@taco.org.uk.
We promote wellbeing and choice -
We encourage healthy attitudes to health and wellbeing - sometimes we do breathing exercises, or talk about worries, or share inspirational messages. We always provide healthy snacks. In sessions, children have the choice of whether to participate in activities or not. Where space allows, we provide break-out spaces: places to take part in quieter, more solitary activities - often play-doh / books / drawing materials. Sometimes children change or develop the suggested activity, and that’s ok. Everyone is welcome to take a break or leave at any time.
We recognise that conversations happen in many ways - verbally, non-verbally, through making, through action or inaction, enthusiasm or protest!
We open up decision-making -
Children and families are involved in decision-making. The Hundred Club steering group provides a formal mechanism within the programme by which families are paid to attend and directly plan and influence future workshops and outcomes. We regularly gather formal and informal feedback from parents and children, and take this on board. Children are also invited to contribute in more light touch ways - such as suggestions for the playlist, or sharing games they know. We facilitate group decision-making during sessions, such as editing and designing WAAAAH!, and deciding the content of the billboard.
We trust and support artists -
Artists are given an open brief within the themes of the club, and sometimes specific aspects of their practice. We want them to use sessions as a way of testing out new things - to not feel like they need to necessarily make a ‘kids version’ of their own practice.
We also want to encourage and support artists to feel able to talk about social justice issues, to be ambitious in what they want to discuss with the kids, particularly if their practice already engages with these issues and strategies. Having said this, we don’t expect artists from marginalised groups to ‘speak for’ these groups.
We pay artists a standard rate which includes the session as well as their time and planning. We support them in practical ways by managing materials, venues and marketing. Artists are credited in external communications.
***
This has been written over the last 9 months, by Ruth Beale and Natasha Bird, in conversation with the families and artists involved in the Hundred Club.
Below is an abridged version of our ethos. For a full version, please email nb@taco.org.uk
***
The Hundred Club is an experimental creative space that uses arts and play for children to explore social justice issues that matter to them. Free and open to 5-12 year olds and their siblings, parents and carers. Members of the club take part in sessions in collaboration with artists and designers, and contribute to our own kids-produced newspaper WAAAAH!
The club was developed by artist Ruth Beale and is produced by TACO! We run sessions in Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Plumstead and Woolwich. A family club, we ask grown ups to stay and get involved!
WHAT WE BELIEVE, HOW WE WORK WITH CHILDREN & ARTISTS, WHY WE DO IT
What: Art and Play
Why: Making and play gives children the opportunity to express their creativity and opinions, and explore ideas through verbal and non-verbal communication. Children benefit from being involved in open-ended activities and free play, and being given opportunities to flex their imaginations - they have brilliant ideas that adults can help facilitate. We believe in the nurturing and transformative potential of socially and politically engaged art.
How: Children are given access to exciting and unexpected tools, materials and concepts. Sessions are non-hierarchical workspaces for group making and experimentation. We work with professional artists and designers who share their practices, skills and approaches with the children by devising exciting activities.
What: Collaboration, child-led approaches, and collective decision-making
Why: We think that children should shape the club, and that they are the experts of their own experience. Learning to collaborate and participate in democratic processes are important life skills: listening to others, being heard and having a say gives them confidence and independence.
How: We centre collaboration, co-learning and opportunity in our work with children. Inbuilt into sessions are mechanisms for children to shape activities - prompts and materials are offered, but not dictated, and the physical and theoretical space for creating and play is not rigid. We test out different methods of decision-making such as voting and consensus. We are attentive to what is important to children, and plan future sessions responsively based on what children have told us. A regular steering group of families guides our programme.
What: Talking about social justice
Why: We believe that children can and should participate and contribute to discussion about social justice issues - they have a strong sense of fairness, what’s right, what their neighbourhoods should be like, and the importance of a sustainable human and planetary future. We want to empower children to take a role in making a more just world for themselves and others.
How: We try to create inclusive, safe spaces for conversation, creativity and to express feelings about current events, often through the lens of children’s experiences and rights. We dig deeper and do not shy away from topics - for example, taking an intersectional approach to environmentalism - whilst keeping the information and conversation age-appropriate, and making sure that the whole family is involved. We are conscious of the positionality of those having the conversations, and our sources for topics and subjects.We invite artists and other experts and practitioners with diverse backgrounds to discuss their work and experience with the children. We are planning to develop a small library of inclusive literature and children’s books about social justice issues.
What: Working with artists and designers
Why: Artists and designers bring creative skills and conceptual thinking, and are often good at communicating complex ideas. They can share with children the ways they research and create art, and involve children in creative processes such as designing the newspaper. We want children to see themselves in the artists, and feel that they too are agents of culture.
How: We invite a diverse range of artists to develop workshops, and have developed ongoing relationships with several local artists. Artists are involved in all aspects of the club from decision-making to producing to assisting and facilitating sessions.
What: A family club
Why: Parents, carers and families play a really important role in the club - parents getting involved means that they can support their children to realise ambitious makes and set the boundaries of what they consider age-appropriate. We also want to reduce barriers to access and attendance by welcoming whole families of all kinds.
How: We welcome siblings of all ages, and hold sessions both on Saturdays and in school holidays so that parents can attend. We ask for grown-ups to stay and get involved - family-centred sessions are an inclusive, safe space for creativity and discussion. Creative projects/approaches and conversations started in the Hundred Club can be continued at home, and vice versa.
What: Publishing & public outcomes
Why: Being journalists gives children the tools to investigate and reflect on the world around them: to ask questions and to share their knowledge with others. They then make incredible artwork and insightful writing that is worthy of sharing and celebrating, and which is of interest and benefit to its audiences. Seeing their work in high quality outcomes is validating and builds confidence.
How: Children contribute to public artworks - newspapers, billboards, radio shows and films. The write articles for, edit and design WAAAAH!, as well as thinking about how it’s distributed. They interview ‘experts’ and those around them, and learn to critically evaluate source material. We include creative moments of publicness and discussion within sessions - processions, displays, show and tell.
What: Environmentalism
Why: Led by the concerns of the children in the club, we are keen to ensure The Hundred Club has as low a carbon footprint as possible.
How: We source and use recycled materials as much as possible, building activities around these materials, and recycling them again after use. Where possible we travel to sessions by foot / on public transport with the help of our trusty Hundred Club wagon, and promote transport options to our families to do the same. We are mindful of marketing materials, printing fliers only when necessary. WAAAH! is printed by risograph, one of the more environmentally friendly methods, in soy inks on recycled paper.
HOW WE CARE FOR FAMILIES AND ARTISTS
We welcome -
Whilst activities are devised for children aged 5-12, we welcome all children, including those with neurodiversity and disabilities, siblings, and carers of all kinds. We welcome people of all genders and respect preferred pronouns. We communicate with parents about their children’s needs, making sure they are included in activities, and giving options during the sessions. We try to accommodate all access needs wherever possible, and communicate clearly about access in marketing. We market events to families in specific geographic areas, but the doors are open to everyone who signs up.
We ask parents and carers to get involved -
This helps make sessions an inclusive, safe space to explore issues in an age-appropriate way. Conversations are responsive to the children and geared to the relevant age groups, with us checking in throughout with adults and children.
We are conscious to give parents/carers a heads up when discussing issues that some may not want or be ready to discuss with their kids, through the marketing, blurb, and confirmation communications. We completely respect the right of parents to choose how they engage in these issues, or not. If parents/carers have further questions about the content or session they are always welcome to discuss with Natasha (CYP producer) at any time before, during, or after the workshop, either in person or via email at nb@taco.org.uk.
We promote wellbeing and choice -
We encourage healthy attitudes to health and wellbeing - sometimes we do breathing exercises, or talk about worries, or share inspirational messages. We always provide healthy snacks. In sessions, children have the choice of whether to participate in activities or not. Where space allows, we provide break-out spaces: places to take part in quieter, more solitary activities - often play-doh / books / drawing materials. Sometimes children change or develop the suggested activity, and that’s ok. Everyone is welcome to take a break or leave at any time.
We recognise that conversations happen in many ways - verbally, non-verbally, through making, through action or inaction, enthusiasm or protest!
We open up decision-making -
Children and families are involved in decision-making. The Hundred Club steering group provides a formal mechanism within the programme by which families are paid to attend and directly plan and influence future workshops and outcomes. We regularly gather formal and informal feedback from parents and children, and take this on board. Children are also invited to contribute in more light touch ways - such as suggestions for the playlist, or sharing games they know. We facilitate group decision-making during sessions, such as editing and designing WAAAAH!, and deciding the content of the billboard.
We trust and support artists -
Artists are given an open brief within the themes of the club, and sometimes specific aspects of their practice. We want them to use sessions as a way of testing out new things - to not feel like they need to necessarily make a ‘kids version’ of their own practice.
We also want to encourage and support artists to feel able to talk about social justice issues, to be ambitious in what they want to discuss with the kids, particularly if their practice already engages with these issues and strategies. Having said this, we don’t expect artists from marginalised groups to ‘speak for’ these groups.
We pay artists a standard rate which includes the session as well as their time and planning. We support them in practical ways by managing materials, venues and marketing. Artists are credited in external communications.
***
