Author: Jennifer

Walsall young people get involved with Hamilton stars!

A huge congratulations to our fantastic Walsall workshop company who took part in two days of creativity, collaboration and fun! Workshop participants created original pieces inspired by historically themed musicals, then performed their work for members of the Hamilton UK tour cast, before working on some Hamilton choreography. A big thank you to Hamilton cast members Sam Oladeinde & Simeon Beckett for leading the choreography workshop and giving an insight into the creative industry.

RicNic delivering free Youth Music Project in Crewe

Crewe Town Council is committed to delivering projects that help to raise the aspirations of young people in Crewe, allowing them to achieve their potential and develop interests in the arts and culture. This Youth Music Project has been designed to facilitate participation in a high-quality, creative activity and offer a valuable learning experience that supports local young talent.

RicNic are facilitating the running of this project, in which participants will be given the opportunity to gain experience in performance and music event production; from planning through to stage tech – for free!

A group of young people aged 16-24 will be supported to create a mini youth festival of music inspired by different genres and represented by song, dance and instrumental performances.

We welcome applications from individuals who will be assigned a group, or from existing groups (e.g. from a school, dance group, amateur theatre company, etc)

How will people get involved?

Young people in Crewe from a variety of different youth settings (including traditionally underserved groups) have been invited to get involved in the project. Three youth sub-teams will be responsible for the design, coordination, management and marketing of the event to showcase local young talent in a variety of ways.

The teams will also be responsible for identifying and programming the event’s acts and activities, which will be drawn from local schools, dance and drama groups, amateur societies and youth groups.

Primary and secondary school children within the Crewe town boundary will also have the opportunity of taking part in interactive workshops in the run up to the event to explore different musical genres and design decorations for the festival venue.

People of all ages will be welcome to take part in the event on the day and come together to support the performers and activities!

Sign up to take part

Creative Team Callouts: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12bVV95zildYjvRldWggWZWDV71i3CrqG/view?usp=share_link

Tech Team Callouts: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yFIUCDnQaIf5b9WxTpbdfLk4c4mJm8pi/view?usp=share_link

Join The RicNic Team

Thanks to recent new project funding, we are looking for two individuals to join our staff team on a temporary basis, helping to plan and deliver our work across the West Midlands, Staffordshire & Cheshire. If you are passionate about the arts & making a difference, we would love to hear from you.

Outreach Co-Ordinator

Hybrid Remote, Part time-Fixed Contract until March 2025
£24,232 FTE / 8 hours per week

The Outreach Co-ordinator will support the delivery of our creative projects across community and school settings in the coming months, leading the delivery of weekly sessions (Friday afternoons) and some school holiday sessions with some our young people, creative workshops in schools, co-ordinating our Community Art Days across local community settings and supporting the administrative planning, delivery and evaluation of our projects. The postholder required to be onsite for weekly, regular sessions in Walsall, West Midlands and able to travel to different workshop locations as and when required.
Full details here: https://www.artsjobs.org.uk/jobs/search/42026

Workshop Assistant

Onsite, Part time – Fixed Contract until December 2024
Up to £11.44 per hour – 2-4 hours per week

Our Workshop Assistant will support the delivery of our weekly drama/creative sessions (Friday afternoons 4pm-6pm) in Walsall during term time. There will be additional hours available to support full-day sessions with our young people during the summer holidays, creating play-in-a-day style workshops for different age groups and to support our Community Art Days which run on weekends or in school holidays across local community venues.

Full details here: https://www.artsjobs.org.uk/jobs/search/42027

RicNic embraces inclusivity, diversity and equal opportunities across our organisations and throughout our projects. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, ages perspectives and skills, who respect the views of our participants and the challenges they face. Together we are then able to promote a culture of understanding, learning and collaboration across generations.

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
To apply please send a CV and cover letter, or a video application telling us why you would like to be considered to the same email address.

Weekly Creative Sessions in Walsall for ages 5-11.

RicNic are running new weekly creative sessions in Walsall for ages 5-11 years. Taking place every Friday during term time from 4pm, sessions are held at Manor Farm Community Association.

Thanks to our recent funding from the Inclusive Communities Fund, we are able to offer all sessions free of charge this year but will be accepting donations to help us continue into next year.

To register for a place please email [email protected]

Places are limited and must be booked in advance.

Introducing “Show Me” – a short film by RicNic

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein.

For 2 days, RicNic brought together a young team of writers, artists, performers and film-makers to create a short film exploring the impact of the arts. Show Me highlights what a young person might be able to achieve in the future if given space to think and work creatively from an early age.

Directed by Ella Sutton

Funded with support from Consolidated Charity Burton

Produced and performed by participants at RicNic

Big Give Arts For Impact

Help us to unlock £2.5k of match funding next week

We’re very excited to let you know that RicNic has been selected to participate in the Big Give’s Arts For Impact campaign, which brings charities like ours together with corporate donors and funders to create match-funding pots for creative projects.

We are aiming to raise £5k towards the delivery of RicNic’s Own The Stage programme, taking theatre workshops to young people of all ages across country.  We have a match-funding pot of up to £2.5k pledged from the Creative Futures Fund, so every donation we receive via BigGive.org during the week of 19th-26th March 2024 will be DOUBLED! 


Can you help us raise £2.5k and unlock all of our match funding?

Whatever you can give, no matter the size, every donation will make double the
difference in supporting us to deliver Own The Stage over the coming year.  

You can read more about the campaign and our work here!


What can you do now?


● Add a calendar reminder to your diary for 19th March 2024, including this link
https://donate.biggive.org/campaign/a056900002SM9JDAA1. The donate button will appear on this page when the campaign starts at 12pm (midday).
● We’d doubly appreciate it if you could share the campaign with your friends, family
or social networks – anyone who may be interested in having their donation doubled!

Thank you so much for your support!

Join the RicNic Board

RicNic has undergone a period of significant expansion and change in recent years, with exciting developments in our programme offer, beneficiary reach and strategic planning.  Due to 2 of our long-standing board members reaching the end of their terms of office, and with an expansion of projects placing more emphasis on our fundraising strategy, we are now looking to recruit 3 new trustees to join our board.

We are looking for individuals who have a strong interest in RicNic’s work and a passion for supporting young people to achieve their potential.  Candidates should possess a positive, ‘can-do’ outlook as well as a good sense of humour.  You will be joining us at a pivotal point in our history, with the potential to make a real difference to the young people who engage with us.

Further information on the different roles can be found here

For an informal chat with the Chair about any of the roles please email [email protected]

RicNic aims to be an equal opportunities organisation and we welcome applications from all individuals regardless of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race.  As a youth-led organisation, working in areas of low cultural opportunity, we are particularly keen to hear from candidates with no prior trustee experience and from those with experience of living or working in our target regions.