Thirty-One: A cultural assembly to realise Article 31 of the UNCRC for care experienced children and young people

A participatory event inspired by the principles of Article 31 of the UNCRC.

At Articulate, we are on a mission to transform the lives of care experienced children by harnessing the power of art, creativity and culture. According to UNCRC Article 31, every child has the right to participate in cultural and artistic activities and we know that these can be a source of healing, empowerment and personal growth.

Our goal is to drive a paradigm shift in care planning for care experienced children by embedding access to the arts at its core. We are dedicated to creating a brighter, more inclusive future with these children, one where their voices are heard, their stories are celebrated and their creative potential is realised.

At this year's cultural assembly, we will take more valuable steps towards realising Article 31 for care experienced young people with your help ....

Call to Action

Join us on this transformative journey as we advocate for change and champion the rights of care experienced children. Here's how you can take action:

Participate: Attend our two-day event to engage with care experienced children, artists, educators and policymakers. Be inspired by their energy, ideas and the potential to influence policy change.
Educate: Learn alongside your lived experience community, friends and family about the transformative potential of the arts, especially for marginalised children and young people.
Advocate: Use your voice and agency to support the cause. Engage with your local and national representatives to emphasise the importance of embedding arts in child plans, aligning with Article 31 of the UNCRC.
Share: Using what you know, raise awareness about the rights and needs of care experienced children by sharing their stories and our manifesto for improvement.

By taking these actions, you become an integral part of a movement that seeks to empower and inspire care experienced children through the transformative power of art. You will help ensure their rights under Article 31 of the UNCRC are honoured and upheld. Together, we can create a future where every child's creativity and potential are celebrated and nurtured. And that Scotland is indeed the best place in the world to grow up …

Watch last year’s video: ....

In our 2023 cultural assembly, we established 10 recommendations that the Articulate Creative Changemakers felt were important to realise Article 31. This year’s event will seek to progress recommendations 4, 5 and 9,which are to:

Get the arts, creativity and culture into every child’s care plan
Do more Artivism (Art + Activism = Artivism) work around creative use of lived experience for positive change
Develop Articulate Cultural Trust’s creative life stories approach

The outcomes of the 2023 31 event will be published into a special edition of our online magazine, Culture 360 to share with people across Scotland and encourage individual and collective action around these goals.

This event is for anyone who values our mission and wants to be part of this campaign for change: everyone has a place at our table.

Saturday 25 November

Grassroots Activism and Social Change

Kathryn Welch, Arts professional and activist

The introductory speech from Kathryn Welch, former programme manager of the Culture Collective run by Creative Scotland, will introduce universal themes of grassroots, creative activism and the potential for social impact the comes from this type of activity.

Dear Artists - Language of Care Manifesto

Ezra Berrnico, Articulate’s Emerging Artist in Residence

'Care is an experience, but not one that totally defines us.'

This immersive and thought-provoking workshop will explore the language and sensitivities needed in this work and will set the tone of how we should navigate our time together from a lived experience perspective.

Journey to 31

Jessica Gillies, Articulate’s Artivism Project Assistant

This workshop, led by Articulate’s Jessica Gillies will help us to visualise a route to success, using the experience and expertise in the room, we will map a route to 31. Train and bus tickets will feature as we will plot the stops and what we need to take with us on the way to realising a positive destination.

The Art of Lived Experience, Fractured Faces

Saffron Hill and Eve Woods, Lived Experience leaders of Children of a Revolution

Saffron is from Children of the Revolution and will join us to introduce her programme, The Art of Lived Experience, and will deliver a workshop from the programme. The focus will be on exploring the success of celebrities who have told of broken childhoods, gone through the care system and used these experiences to transcend barriers, How can their successes motivate our own? Together we will use colour theory and relate it to emotions, use stencilling to create meaningful quotations, consider what is negative in experiences and focus on the creation of positives from the trickier times in life.

Pelters fae Belters

Ankna Arockiam, Singer, Musician and Producer and Paque, Rapper and Producer

Songwriting workshop focusing on the creative exploration of Article 31 using original words and lyrics created in real time by participants. The workshop will empower everyone to express their thoughts and feelings about this important issue through words and music in contrasting genre and styles. Whether you shout or whisper, how does the listener react/act?

Sunday 26 November

Artivism: Fabric of Democracy

Laura Frood, Articulate’s Producer

This workshop is designed to combine art, civic engagement and storytelling and explores how textiles have been used historically to push political agendas as propaganda. Participation encourages everyone to express their thoughts, experiences and visions of a future where Article 31 … on a simple, single handkerchief. These designs will form part of the campaign material to influence policy and ensure children and young people in care have access to the arts, creativity and culture as is their right.

The Vault

Jason Gillan, Articulate’s Digital Assistant

Introducing Articulate’s app The Vault - a safe space for keeping and curating positive life stories, this practical exploration of the new app will and explore positive ways to use it as a memory box, a treasure trove, a store for details and documents and a repository for creative life story expression and outputs.

The Salon: LE Pod Cast

House of Seisay

'Talking to my hairdresser is my therapy'

Recent care experienced graduates of The House of Seisay Hair Academy will be on hand to assess your hair needs as well as hold discussions about the nuances in experiences of care across urban, rural and island contexts. These chats will be recorded, coiffed and published as the first edition of our assembly podcast called 31.

Postive A(u)ction

Michael Archibald, Articulate Creative Changemaker

This creative workshop will help determine individual and collective available agency for Article 31 campaigning. We will explore existing individual skills and resources in the room as well as fostering a sense of creative collaboration within the wider assembly. Positive actions will be auctioned off to the most ambitious, passionate and influential bidder!

Fringe events throughout the programme will provide opportunities to learn new skills, engage in dialogue and debate, and for younger children to express their opinions on the arts through supported creative play-based activities.

All weekend we will be joined by spoken word artist Craig Houston who will deliver poetry performances throughout the weekend and respond to the event with a piece of writing we can use in our campaign for access to the arts and artist Steven Grainger will be our key note taker, observing and digesting the day and the dialogue that unfolds.

By the end of the weekend attendees will:

Understand Article 31 and the importance of action that ensures it is upheld in the lives of care experienced children and young people
Appreciate the importance of representing lived experience in action planning
Understand the significance of life stories work for those with disrupted childhoods
Begin to appreciate the breadth of experience available to us across Scotland
Have participated in a positive change experience with others
Experienced The Articulate Approach in action including having met and worked alongside homegrown and lived experience talents
Be motivated to support us on our mission … and maybe create one of your own.

Food and travel expenses will be provided, please get in touch if you have any other needs that we can support with.