All work and no play – rethinking town centres through play and community with MakerWorld

Join us on 7 November for a special event exploring how play can help reshape and enliven our local high streets and town centres.

The session will open with a screening of Maire Tracey’s award-winning short documentary about MakerWorld, an innovative initiative from The Children's Art School that has transformed an empty retail space in Huddersfield into a hub for free, creative workshops for children and young people and has launched a new children's art gallery in the centre of Huddersfield. 

The documentary offers a window into how creative interventions like MakerWorld create connections, build resilience and inspire a sense of community ownership.

Following the film, there will be introductions from community leaders and a Q&A session with the film’s creators and contributors including Emma Bearman, director of Playful Anywhere. Emma brings extensive experience from her work with pop-up play spaces, Playlabs, Playlaws, PLAYBOX, creative festivals and playful projects that make public spaces more inclusive and welcoming. Our speakers will share their expertise from their work on playful place-making and community participation.

Discussion will centre on the role of play and creativity in public spaces, how children and young people experience town centres and the impact of projects like MakerWorld on place-making, spatial justice and community’s rights to the spaces they live in. The conversation will look at how participatory cultures flourish and how the UK’s towns could shift from consumer-led models towards ones grounded in community and collective action. This event is designed to generate new partnerships and prompt attendees to consider how play, creativity and civic engagement can help our high streets thrive. 

The event will last 1.5 hours, allowing time for networking and conversation.

The event is about offering an alternative options on the high street in out town centres.  As our high streets change, we will dicuss  the value of playful projects, free community art sessions and how they can build resilient communities.

Maire Tracey, Senior Lecturer in Media Practice at The University of Salford. Chloe Williams Founder and CEO of The Children's Art School.  Emma Bearman, Founder of PLAYFUL ANYWHERE C.I.C

Anyone is welcome.

It will be of interest to those designing high streets, working with young people, finding ways to reinvigorate our town centres and build resilient communities.