Celebrating Assemble: A Creative Journey of Joy and Inclusion

Led by National Youth Arts Wales, in partnership with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, "Assemble" started in Autumn 2023. It is a joyful, two-year creative project all about imagination and inclusion, with young people taking the spotlight.

We’ve worked with three incredible non-mainstream schools across South Wales (Ysgol y Deri, Greenfield School and Ysgol Crug Glas) - delivering creative workshops every fortnight, organising cultural visits, and helping young disabled people explore their ideas, identities, and talents through the arts.

On Thursday 10th April, at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, it was finally time to celebrate all they’ve achieved!

Our brilliant Participation and Learning team - Hope Dowsett and Bruna Garcia - opened the day with warmth and energy, welcoming families, teachers, supporters, and young people to a day of performance sharing, celebration, and of course… cake.

“This has been a vibrant, energetic, and occasionally bubble-filled adventure,” – Bruna Garcia, Participation & Learning Officer

Our Wales-based work ran alongside parallel programmes in London and Manchester, with each strand designed to reflect local voices and priorities. Here in Wales, we’ve been proud to lead with care, creativity and community.

From classroom-based workshops to unforgettable theatre trips (yes, the penguins in Madagascar were a definite highlight!), Assemble has been about creating safe and exciting spaces for young people to explore who they are, connect with others, and build their confidence through creativity.

“What’s made this project so significant is the community it’s created”, Hope said. “Young people and volunteers have come together over a shared love of creativity, building friendships, developing teamwork, and becoming advocates for change.”

Over the past two years, there have been sessions every two weeks - filled with laughter, play, thoughtful conversations and more than a few cups of tea. But what really stood out on the day was the sheer joy in the room.

“Assemble has shown us what’s possible when we truly listen to young people—especially those whose voices too often go unheard. The team at National Youth Arts Wales is incredibly proud of every young person who took part. We will continue to champion the vital importance of the arts and creative collaboration for every single young person in Wales, including those in non-mainstream schools.” — Evan Dawson, CEO, National Youth Arts Wales

This project has been a big team effort together with our brilliant partners from National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, the creative minds at Hijinx, Craidd, and Grand Ambition, to the researchers at London Metropolitan University, the Creative Learning Team at Wales Millennium Centre, and the wonderful teachers who let us turn their classrooms into stages, oceans, and dance floors.

A huge thank you goes to our funders—the National Lottery Community Fund and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation—for making projects like this possible, and for backing the kind of arts that genuinely change lives.

Of course, the biggest thank you of all goes to the young people who’ve been part of Assemble. You’ve shown what’s possible when creativity is for everyone.

We ended the day in the best way we know how - with tea and cake. Because if there’s one thing that we’ve learned during Assemble, it’s that great things happen when we come together. And no good party is without tea and cake!

National Youth Arts Wales wants this to be just the beginning for the young people involved in Assemble. This journey doesn’t end here - let’s keep creating, connecting, and celebrating the young people across Wales.