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Arts and Creative Industries talks and workshops

Explore our breadth of subjects in our Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries through our range of interactive workshops and talks.

Sculpt, Shoot, Share

Audience: Years 12 and 13
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students can learn how to create claymation with just a ball of clay and some animation software downloaded onto their mobile device. They can then share your results on our Instagram channel.

Mini Beast Mini Brief

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students will explore some of our digital modelling software and learn how to create their very own fantastical digital beast. The most creative work will receive a 3D digital print of their creation.

Teamwork makes the Dream Work

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 3 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students work as a team to come up with a concept, then design and plan a functional device that will later be built under the supervision of their teacher, to perform a specific task. Students create their vision in a small team with a range of provided materials.

Loco Roko

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 3 hours
Capacity: 10 students

Explore full body and facial capture techniques using the latest in cutting edge mocap technology. Working in small teams, students will capture a library of animations designed to be used within games and other forms of animated production. They will then go through the production phase of gathering mocap data and retarget this data onto a 3D digital character.

Create your Dance Future

Dance City are currently offering a limited number of free one-hour taster workshops, with an optional Q&A with one of their staff. The class is aimed at KS4 and KS5 students, however there is potential to include younger dedicated students.

To discuss your free taster class booking please email he.enquiries@dancecity.co.uk or call 0191 261 0505.

What Kind of Writer are You?

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 75 minutes
Capacity: 12 students

This interactive workshop explores creative and professional approaches in a series of exercises, designed to develop your students' voices and identities as writers.

Dye in Style

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 15 students

Join our drive to make the fashion industry more sustainable by upcycling any plain old white t-shirt or clothing. Students can create their own coloured clothing using the eco-friendly dyes provided, made from everyday fruit and vegetables.

An Introduction to Designing in 3D using State of the Art CLO3D

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 11 students

Get an introduction to the latest fashion design software, CLO3D, allowing students to design patterns and try out the clothes on 3D models using the latest cloth simulation.

Street Style Clothing

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 15 students

In this session, students can create their own street style garment with spray paint, a piece of white clothing and their imagination. Students will gain an insight into the creativity of the fashion industry whilst having fun and saving the planet by recycling old clothes.

Forecast your own Fashion Trend

Students can learn how to forecast their own autumn/winter or spring/summer fashion trend, then create a mood board and receive feedback from our Fashion Journalism Programme Leader.

Fashion Journalism Experience

In this workshop, students observe a fashion editorial conference, work on content for the Fashion North website and see their stories published. They'll meet current Fashion Journalism students and observe their work and find out about a career in styling and fashion journalism.

Thank You for the Music: Disarray in the Digital Music Industry

Learn about the upheaval that has marked the music industry's transition to digital consumption, from digital piracy to the streaming platform wars. In this session, students explore the murky world of illegal music consumption and legal alternatives, and have a go at making their own "memefied" content.

Zine Workshop

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 12 students

In this Zine workshop, students explore fine art zine-making and take away something for their portfolio.

Screen-Printing Workshop

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 2.5 hours
Capacity: 6 students

In this screen-printing workshop, students' creative ideas will be used to explore the screen-printing process, from experimenting with colour and shape to producing a finished print.

Paper Cuts

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 1.5-2 hours
Capacity: 20 students

In this session, students can draw out a meaningful phrase that can be hand-cut and used in various ways. They then select or make a background and photograph it.

Bonkers Branding

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 1.5-2 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students can take their first steps in identity design by using typography, messaging and letterforms to create dynamic designs that explore the creative process, bringing their message to life. They will explore the design process from conception to creation using various printing techniques to create bold and playful graphics.

Take me to your Larder

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 1.5-2 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students can make a friendly robot or creative creature to drive a visual narrative for everyday objects.

Sketch it Out

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 10 students

Your students can create their own personal sketchbook to explore ideas and experiment with materials, using a variety of papers and our in-house binding equipment. In this session, they can fill their sketchbook with cartoons, flip book animations, fashion designs, or whatever inspires them.

Life Drawing Taster Session

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 15 students

This life drawing workshop lets students have a go at some quickfire gestural drawing, capturing movement and exploring different mediums when drawing longer poses. They will get some top tips to improve their drawing skills, learning how to understand their subject and train themselves to draw what they see to tell a visual story.

Fashion Journalism

Fashion Journalism Experience

In this workshop, students observe a fashion editorial conference, work on content for the Fashion North website and see their stories published. They'll meet current Fashion Journalism students, observe their work and find out about a career in styling and fashion journalism.

Journalism

Investigative Journalism

Students learn how to investigate crimes in a variety of locations and settings and discover more about why crime stories have fascinated audiences for centuries.

Sports Journalism

Reporting on Professional Football: A Behind-the-Scenes Peek

Discover how professional football is reported by newspapers, TV, radio and websites, and find out how a football club's media team operates on a behind-the-scenes tour of Sunderland AFC's Stadium of Light.

Sports Journalism for Girls

With the roaring success of the Lionesses and England’s women cricketers winning the World Cup, there’s never been a better time for girls to become sport journalists. Your students could be the next Gabby Logan, Clare Balding, or Laura Woods. They could be reporting from football, rugby and cricket matches, golf and tennis tournaments, the Olympics, or working for a sports club such as Manchester United or Real Madrid. Our graduates have also worked in Formula 1, golf, horse racing and cricket.

Our Sports Journalism Programme Leader Neil Farrington, who has a wealth of experience and contacts in the industry, would love to come to talk to your school about our Sports Journalism course and the wealth of opportunities the course offers. He will be accompanied by current students who can answer questions and inspire your students to consider a career in sports journalism.

TV Studio Taster and Steadicam Workshop

Audience: Years 12 and 13
Duration: 1-2 hours
Capacity: 25 students

Gain access to our state-of-the-art studios where your students can explore the process of content creation, consider the different roles that contribute to the final product and gain hands on experience with industry standard equipment.

Develop Skills to Audition

Audience: Years 12 and 13
Duration: 1-2 hours
Capacity: 6-15 students

Students will explore opportunities for creating an audition piece for the performance industries. They'll learn how to present themselves to an audition panel and how to select material for an audition, developing confidence in presenting their work and shaping pieces that will excite an audience.

An Introduction to the TV Studio

Audience: Years 12 and 13
Duration: 3 hours
Capacity: 10-15 students

Students will get to know the workings of a TV studio, from camera to actor and everything in between. They'll explore how to operate a live TV studio using cameras and editing software and perform scripts for TV on a live set.

Once upon a time... then what?

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 70 minutes
Capacity: 25 students

In this session, students will work in groups to rearrange the narrative, change the characters and modernise a traditional fairytale, collaborating to create an original and innovative performance.

Musical Medley

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 70 minutes
Capacity: 25 students

Your students will work in a multi-disciplinary way and draw upon the varied skillset of their group to work on a medley from a selected musical, boosting their confidence in performing.

Studio Lighting

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 16 students

In this workshop, students can create professional portraits or stylised selfies in the photographic studio. Using professional studio flash lighting, colour gels and camera equipment, they can explore different lighting set-ups to create unique portraits to add to your portfolio.

Darkroom Printmaking

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 16 students

Experiment with photography in our photographic darkroom where we'll help your students to create experimental 'photogram' images with objects and light sensitive paper. Students will explore the relationship between objects, light and shadow, and create black and white photographic prints for their portfolio.

Boost your Content with GIFs

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 12 students

This session will teach your students how to turn graphics, stills and videos into animated GIFs that people will want to share on social media.

TikTok and Reels: Mastering Transitions

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: 12 students

Students can learn the simple tricks required to make stunning transitions within videos that will take TikToks and reels to the next level.

Studio Experience

Audience: Year 12
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 25 students

Students can gain experience of working in radio, using the equipment and presenting a radio show.

On-campus Takeover

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students can plan and record a short programme for broadcast and gain experience of planning, selecting music, operating equipment and radio presenting.

Off-campus Broadcast

Audience: Year 13
Duration: 1.5 hours
Capacity: 20 students

Students can produce a live radio show from their own school or college. They will select the music and work with the Spark team to script and present the show live.