Starcatchers:
Advocacy and the arts for Scotland’s youngest children
Starcatchers is Scotland’s arts and early years organisation, creating performances and artistic experiences for children from birth to 5 years, and the adults who care for them.
Their inspiring, playful and fun engagement projects explore the role that artists play in communities using arts and creativity to support wellbeing, relationships, confidence and early development.
Artists and early learning and childcare practitioners are also supported to develop their practice using arts and creativity with very young children through Starcatchers’ programmes of professional development.
2021 is Starcatchers’ 15th birthday and to mark the milestone they have launched #15Actions, a campaign to highlight the work they are doing to advocate for Scotland’s youngest children and to support their vision that every child from birth has the right to ongoing artistic encounters.
Underpinning their work is the belief that young children have the right to access innovative, inspirational and high quality theatrical and creative experiences from birth.
Creativity can be a way of giving pre- and non-verbal children a voice.
It can be an incredibly powerful experience for young children to feel they have agency especially as they are often the least heard and the least able to access their rights. By advocating for their right to engage with and participate in arts and cultural experiences from birth, Starcatchers helps to amplify young children’s agency.
In March 2021, Starcatchers joined MSPs and others in celebrating the landmark vote to pass the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Bill. Article 31 of the UNCRC, which enshrines ‘the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities’ and to ‘participate freely in cultural life and the arts’ sits at the heart of Starcatchers’ work.
Image: Exploring the outdoors as part of Expecting Something, courtesy of Starcatchers
Artist-led creative sessions bring a multitude of benefits to children and their families across health, education, community, and more.
Access to creative experiences can help children build connections with others, support emotional and cognitive development, encourage self-expression and build resilience. For example, Wee People, Big Feelings is an artist-in-residence project delivered by Starcatchers in Scots Corner Early Learning and Childcare Centre, which explores the relationship between creativity and emotional literacy in very young children.
In April 2020, Starcatchers launched Wee Inspirations, providing free creative activities for very young children and their families, focusing on agency and empathy and encouraging creative curiosity. One of Starcatchers #15Actions is to ensure that Wee Inspirations will be woven through all activity so there is always free, accessible, creative activity for families to enjoy at home, in their own time, with their wee ones.
“It’s vital to remember the necessity of arts and culture in the lives of our youngest citizens.”
— Rhona Matheson, Chief Executive, Starcatchers
Engaging in the arts can be empowering for parents and carers too, and Starcatchers advocates for positive shared experiences between adult and child.
Projects such as Expecting Something boost confidence and support families to develop bond with their babies, while the joyful creative sessions from Creative Kin have a positive impact on the relationships between kinship carers and the children they care for.
Participatory engagement projects can help build skills, self-esteem and community relationships.
Starcatchers’ Where We Are project champions and delivers outdoor creative play sessions for under 2s, and their grown-ups, to support improved wellbeing, and to immerse artists and creative opportunities in communities across Fife, in partnership with Fife Gingerbread.
Starcatchers’ engagement work in the Wester Hailes community, explores new and exciting ways for local families to play creatively outdoors with their wee ones.
Image: Starcatchers Big Inspirations, Move and Make Credit: Rebecca Fraser
Image: Wee Inspirations Mandala Patterns, courtesy of Starcatchers
Watch this video to find out more about Expecting Something
You can also listen to the Starcatchers Creative Skills podcast - check out this episode, and more.
Opportunities for early years practitioners, carers and families extends beyond these sessions.
Starcatchers’ Creative Skills Programme offers support to improve creative confidence and inspire best creative practice with a wide range of free resources, and Starcatchers’ artist development programme, Playspace, supports freelance artists, by offering commissions, training and opportunities to explore and develop practice.
Starcatchers’ launched Play Fund in 2021, as part of their 15th Birthday commitment to seed new work for early years audiences.
Image: Wee Inspirations - Silly Walks, courtesy of Starcatchers
“[It is a] lovely moment to watch someone with so much adversity in their life have a moment just for themselves and be so focused on something they enjoy.”
— Children 1st, Ayrshire