Our mission at Embracing Arts is to improve the quality of life for children with complex care or educational needs and life limiting conditions by providing high quality interactive Christmas shows, Inclusive Parties and Schools Workshops across the UK!

Our Workshops

This image is of a woman looking up at lots of green and blue lights on a wall. The woman has her mouth open in wonder and some of the lights are shining on her face.

Our Embracing Arts Workshops, are a real hit! Based around a chosen theme, and featuring intensive interaction, sensory play, singing, music and lots of participation, they are perfect for SEN schools, play groups, community groups and anywhere where children come together to create, learn and explore...

Here's what people have been saying about them:

“As the MM members left today, they were singing Claire's praises. I don't remember getting such positive feedback before. Today was the first day the members lingered as they were all saying Happy Christmas having had such a good term."

- Community & Education Manager, Discover Children's Story Centre (Mighty Mega workshops for children aged 5-11)

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for yesterday's session. Our heads have passed on such incredible feedback, they really felt that the children were engaged and thriving and have asked us to book you back in as soon as possible!!"

- Programme Administrator, The KEF Centre

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Our work is...

Inclusive

Everyone is welcome! Our shows, parties and workshops are made for children with special educational needs and/or life limiting conditions, to enjoy with their family and friends. Our shows are designed for children who are often excluded from experiencing and enjoying the arts due to barriers they face through disability.

This is an image of a classroom. Inside the classroom there is a line of children cuing to walk down a black line on the floor. At the end of the black line is a woman with brown hair and wearing an embracing arts tshirt. On the left there is a black hoop with red, yellow and orange scarved tied around it.

This is an image of a person with brown hair holding a white fan and blowing piece of white tissue paper up in the air. The white tissue paper is blowing up in the air and looks like pieces of snow. The person is wearing a shiny gold sequined jacket.

Sensory

We aim to stimulate the senses using lights, textures, props and puppetry to create engaging and captivating experiences for every child.

Musical

Our shows use music and song to go beyond language. We incorporate musical participation, harmony singing, underscore and original songs to create a full musical experience.

This is an image of a bird puppet being held by a man with yellow curly hair and a monkey puppet being held by a woman with brown hair. The bird has yellow, green, blue, purple and orange fluffy fur and has it's mouth open. The man has yellow shorts and an embracing arts tshirt on and is smiling. The monkey puppet has pink, yellow, purple and blue fluffy fur and has it's mouth open. The woman is wearing sunglasses and an embracing arts tshirt and has her mouth open too. The picture is outside on a sunny day.

This image is of 2 children dressed in blue school jumpers. Both have scarves, ribbons and bubble wrap loosely hanging around their necks. The child close to the camera is holding 2 lights with red and orange cellophane wrapped around them, they look like small glowing fires.

Interactive

We perform with our audience, not to them. Our shows, parties and workshops are designed to be engaging, participatory and fun.

Bespoke

Every performance we deliver is tailored to be just right for that audience. We happily adapt to different spaces, different interests, and different needs.

This is an image of a Chirmblesense performance. There is a lady with red hair and a green jumpsuit crouching in front of 3 children sitting on chairs. The 3 children are wearing blue school jumpers, they have Christmas hats on, scarves and colourful ribbons loosely wrapped around their necks and they are playing with Christmas themed toys.

This image is of a boy and a woman under a colourful parachute. The parachute is has blue, yellow, red and green colours on it. The boy has brown hair and is wearing a blue school jumper. He is facing towards us and looking up at the parachute. The woman has glasses and a black jumper on. She is behind the boy and holding his hands up in the air.

Child-led interaction

We have a wonderful team of professional actor-facilitators, who are experienced in working with children with additional needs and use their responses to guide each session.

Our Impact

Our projects are designed especially for children are often excluded from theatre in its traditional form due to health needs, care needs, educational needs and because most theatre spaces aren't accessible for them. We make the content of our shows, parties and workshops inclusive - involving siblings, carers, parents and teachers just as much as the children themselves to provide a shared experience that everyone can enjoy.

Our Outcomes:

To enable children with complex needs and people in their wider support network – parents, siblings, carers, and staff - to experience escapism and joy through high-quality arts provision.

To enable children to feel included through fully interactive shows, workshops and parties that reflect and celebrate being different.

To provide children with a unique theatrical experience provided by top-class performers who adapt to each individual and audience.

To improve the emotional wellbeing of children, parents, siblings, carers and staff.

To share skills and ideas creative exploration with teachers, carers and family members.

To provide skills development and community engagement opportunities for actors – with a focus on those early on in their careers and actors with visible/invisible disabilities.

This image is of a boy touching a colourful bird puppet. The boy has brown hair and a blue school jumper on - he has hit arm stretched out touching the bird puppet. He is looking at the bird puppet and a person is holding his arm. The bird has green, blue, purple and orange fluffy fur. The woman has brown hair and is holding the bird puppet. She is looking at the boy touching the bird puppet.

This image is of a girl and a blue monster puppet. The girl has brown hair, is wearing a grey jumper and is laying in a bed. She is looking at the blue puppet. The blue monster puppet has fluffy fur and is facing towards us with big eyes and an orange button nose.

"We had one teenager that struggles with his expressions and in fact this was a first time in a very long time we saw him smile and give active eye contact, which was amazing to catch on camera and I was able to show mum this.”

- Carer, Haven House Children’s Hospice

Work With Us

We are seeking the following to join our team, please do get in touch!

Actor-Facilitators

We are looking to expand our pool of actor-facilitators for our increasing output of Workshops and Parties.

If you have experience delivering workshops and parties, then we would love to hear from you.

We are looking for fun, friendly facilitators who love people, are organised, adaptable and intuitive.

Experience of working in SEN schools desirable. DBS certificate essential. Driving licence and own transport preferred.

We are particularly interested in hearing from people based in West London, Surrey, North London and Hertfordshire.

Contact claire@embracingarts.org.uk with your CV and an outline of relevant experience.

We look forward to hearing from you!

This image is of a purple monster puppet, a lady with brown hair wearing an embracing arts t-shirt and a man with yellow curly wearing an embracing arts tshirt. They are all smiling at us.

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