Birmingham Hippodrome are recruiting people aged 14 – 22 for their 2024 Young Advocates programme.
Birmingham Hippodrome’s Young Advocates is a group of young people that, whilst on their own journey of learning and development, shape and influence the Hippodrome’s work with and for young people.
The new cohort of Young Advocates will follow in the successful footsteps of the first two groups who; created and launched the Young Community Drop In sessions which are now a regular part of the Hippodrome’s programme of events for young people, hosted their own events as part of TEDxYouth@Brum, curated a stage of artists at Birmingham Weekender, and spoke at a fundraising event which raised £10,000 for Birmingham Hippodrome’s work with young people.
Mathilde Petford, Young People & Community Manager at Birmingham Hippodrome said: “Our past two cohorts of Young Advocates have worked on some fantastic projects, giving them a chance to represent the Hippodrome from a young person’s perspective and take ownership of their own creativity.
“This programme offers young people a platform to have their voices heard and opinions valued, whilst developing their skills and confidence to ensure more young people see a career in the arts and creative industries as a viable option. We’re looking for applicants that have an interest in different areas of theatre and performance.”
Noor, a member of the Young Advocates commented: “The Young Advocates programme has been such an amazing and insightful opportunity for me.
“I've been part of a wonderful team that has allowed me to put forward my ideas and taught me skills to develop them further!” Two access and information sessions will take place on Friday 5 January at 1pm and 5pm.
The deadline for applications is Tuesday, January 9. Interviews will take place on Saturday January 20. Long recognised as one of the UK’s premier presenting theatres, the past five years have seen Birmingham Hippodrome develop into a creative producing organisation focused on access, diversity and inclusion, doubling our impact to match our annual audience of 550,000 with a further 450,000 people engaged via festivals, learning, participation and produced work.
Recent partnerships have included working with China Plate on the new musical To The Streets!, the immersive performance Waswasa – Whispers in Prayer with Soul City Arts, our co production with Curve of the award-winning The Color Purple and our collaboration with Rambert on Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby. This year, they established their New Musical Theatre and New Work & Artist Development departments, alongside our existing Associate company programme as it continues to produce and commission bold new work, telling fresh and engaging stories, reflecting the youth and diversity of the city and region.
They have also further enhanced their reputation as a leading provider for festivals, engaging over 150,000 people annually through B-SIDE Hip-Hop Festival, co-producing the city’s Lunar New Year celebrations, and regularly collaborating with Bullring & Grand Central on events including Birmingham Weekender.
Our Hippodrome Education Network delivers creative activities in 44 partner schools every week – 80% of which are in the UK’s 10% most deprived communities – with over 40,000 young people taking part over 120,000 times each year.
We are also the largest dance campus outside London, home to Birmingham Royal Ballet (led by Carlos Acosta), FABRIC, Dance Consortium, OneDanceUK and digital agency The Space.
Birmingham Hippodrome is an independent charity, run by a board of voluntary trustees with no regular revenue funding from public sources.