Category: Blog

Walsall – RicNic Associates with The Royal Air Force Museum

We’re delighted to be working with RAF Museum Midlands through their community grants programme to run our next Ricnic Associates programme.

The Royal Air Force Museum Midlands, located at RAF Cosford, is a free museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular.

Our RicNic Associates programme supports creative young adults aged 16+ to develop and deliver their own community projects while exploring pathways into creative careers. This year we’ll be running a programme called Flying Colours. You’ll receive mentoring from the RicNic team and will work to a creative brief to produce a children’s colouring and storybook inspired by RAF stories, beginning with the mascot “Twinkletoes” the cat. 

You’ll spend a day initially meeting and exploring what the project could look like, along with some interactive training to support your personal development, including employability skills. Then you’ll spend a day in the museum to uncover more information from the exhibits and take photographs and sketches that you can develop into your final piece.

You’ll then develop these into a collaborative colouring book to be distributed to children across Walsall and visitors to the musem. You’ll manage artistic creation, digital production, and research into printing and distribution. 

Key Dates & Things To Know

You’ll need to be available for these dates:

We’ll provide transport for the trip to the museum, and will cover any travel costs to make sure that you can get to and from the sessions, which will take place in Walsall Town Centre. This might be by covering the cost of bus tickets or paying for a taxi for you, or it might include providing lunch during sessions. We’ll discuss this with you when confirming your place.

Eligibility

This project is open to anybody who fits the following criteria:

This project is made possble thanks to the RAF Museum Midlands Community Grants Programme

Register for your place here

The first term of Foundry makes…

At the start of the year, our team made a few significant changes to our previous Foundry creative sessions with the aim of presenting a more exciting challenge for our young people who attend.  Since April 2024, RicNic had delivered free after-school provision under our Foundry banner, with different classes for different age groups and a flexible programme covering a range of art forms.  After reviewing how quickly participation had grown and consulting with our regular attendees, we identified that we needed to build more structure AND more exciting challenges into our plans. 

This term, we launched our first ‘Foundry Makes’ projects across our sessions in Rushall and Bloxwich.  Foundry Makes offer 10-week creative projects each term, each with a project brief, end goal target and RicNic’s unique youth-led approach.  Participants can sign up for per term to take on each project.  This term our Friday project was focused on the design and publication of a food-themed activity book.  Funded by a grant from ‘Feeding Our Future’ project funding (via Walsall Council), the project saw 20 of our young people researching recipes, creating puzzles and games, designing characters and learning how to publish items using Canva. 

They have created a 24 page activity and recipe book which is now being distributed to local families through Walsall’s Family Hubs.  

Our Foundry Makes Makers have all loved the idea of seeing their own work in print, becoming authors, editors, artists and designers.  

We have definitely sparked an early interest in graphic design in some of our youngest participants!

The next Foundry Makes theme is ‘Carnival’ and this will stretch across our two groups, with participants exploring performance, costume making, set design and more!

Registration is now open to anyone aged 5-16 years.

Walsall – How to Launch Your Own Creative Career

We’re delighted to be running another creative producing programme this summer from the 17-19th June, after the success of our past ‘Breaking In‘ sessions.

This three‑day programme will introduce you to the wide range of careers within the creative sector. We’ll explore what a creative job could look like for you, identify your ideas and ambitions, and learn how to bring those ambitions to life. You will also discover how the creative skills you already use can transfer into many other areas of life and work.

Open to anyone aged 14 – 25, the course will be tailored to your abilities, prior knowledge, and interests. Whether you’re drawn to design, media, writing, performance, or production, we’ll support you to kickstart your dream career or uncover what it could be.

During the placement, you will work alongside other young people and have the chance to meet and quiz industry professionals. RicNic will guide you through a series of sessions designed to develop your career aspirations and give you insight into the skills needed in the creative industries, exploring topics such as creative pathways, budgeting, event planning, marketing, and fundraising.

By the end of the week, you will create your own project and pitch it to a panel.

Sessions take place 10am-2pm (with lunch break) at The Table, Lower Hall Lane, Walsall, WS1 1RR

Book your place now

Burton – Creative Careers Work Experience 2026

For anyone in the West Midlands in years 10-12

Dreaming of a Creative Career? Whether you’re curious about design, media, writing, performance, or production, we’re here to help you kickstart your dream career or discover what it could be. After the success of our 2025 programme, we’ll be delivering a week-long work experience programme this summer from Monday 6th July – Friday 10th July in partnership with the Brewhouse Arts Centre.

During this placement, young people will work alongside each other, meet and quiz industry professionals and shadow members of the Brewhouse team. We’ll lead those on placement through a series of sessions that aim to develop career ambitions, whilst providing an insight into skills needed for the creative industries. Sessions will cover topics such as creative pathways, budget management, planning an event, marketing, and fundraising. At the end of the week, participants will create their own project and pitch this to a panel.

Interested in getting involved? Apply for your place here

Introducing RicNic’s New Programmes

Established by school students in 2004 as a summer project, RicNic has grown into a charity where young people are at the heart of everything; from shaping creative projects to taking leadership roles across the organisation.

Our core programmes provide regular opportunities for children, teenagers and young adults to be creative and produce their own events, products and small businesses. We promote youth leadership with tangible results, helping young people to develop their financial literacy, communication and understanding of the world.

Our vision is clear:

A world where every young person has the confidence, tools, and platforms to shape their communities through creativity and leadership.

Our New Programme Strands

Our new strands create a clear pathway for children, teenagers, and young adults to explore creativity, build confidence, and step into leadership.

Foundry

Aimed at under 16s, Foundry provides spaces for children and their families to explore creative skills with an end goal of creating events or products for their local community. This includes after-school young-enterprise style projects, free holiday clubs, and one-off workshops with visiting artists such as West-End performers.

Recent Foundry projects have included:

FORGE – Skills, Mentoring & Creative Careers (16+)

Forge supports young adults as they explore creative industries and develop transferable skills for work and life. It includes:

FLOURISH – Workshops for Schools, Businesses & Communities

Our Flourish programme offers a creative arts approach for young people to engage in independent thinking, social enterprise, youth leadership, socialisation and life-long learning, and to develop their sense of self, wellbeing, and sense of hope.

This flexible programme caters for targeted groups including but not exclusive to

Why This Matters

RicNic’s impact goes far beyond creative output. Young people tell us that RicNic is:

We also offer paid roles, work experience, and trustee opportunities—because young people deserve real responsibility and real investment.

As one participant put it:

“Coming to RicNic just makes me feel happy!”

Find out more about what we do or Get In Touch

How RicNic’s Creative Careers Coaching Helps Young Creatives Get Unstuck

If you’ve ever felt lost, overwhelmed, or simply unsure about your next steps in the creative industries, you’re not alone, and you’re exactly who RicNic Chats is designed for.

Creative career paths rarely follow a straight line. They veer off course, go off on tangents, and next steps often aren’t obvious. That’s why we created RicNic Chats; affordable, friendly, one-to-one coaching sessions for 16–25-year-olds navigating their next steps. Whether you’re applying for drama school, considering roles in fashion, exploring a freelance career as a designer, looking to publish your first novel, or simply trying to figure out what jobs actually exist, our mentors are here to help you breathe, focus, and move forward across the creative industries.

After completing a mentoring session:

For a single, free 30–45 minute chat, that’s a huge impact, and exactly why we run this programme.

What Participants Found Most Valuable

Every participant brings a different challenge, and every session is tailored to the individual. Here’s what young creatives told us they valued most

Why It Works

Our Creative Careers Mentoring is built around three principles:

1. Personalised, real-world guidance

Every mentor works actively within the creative industries; from theatre and design to producing and technical roles. They bring lived experience, current knowledge, and practical advice, and contacts across the UK.

2. Time to reflect and plan

Sometimes, the hardest part is figuring out the first step. Your mentor helps you break big ambitions into manageable actions.

3. Follow-up resources

Every session includes links, contacts, suggestions, and next steps so you can keep moving after the chat ends.

Ready to Get Unstuck?

Whether you’re trying to break into the creative world, make sense of your options, or simply want someone to talk things through with, RicNic is here for you.

From 2026, sessions will cost £10 for a 30–45 minute chat, including follow-up resources and signposting. This helps us cover our costs, but we don’t want payment to be a barrier to access.

Sessions are free for:

Find out more and book your chat

Looking Back at The Big Walsall Waddle

In August 2025, 21 giant rubber ducks took over Walsall to mark RicNic’s 21st birthday. Hosted across parks, libraries, community hubs and public spaces across Walsall, each duck was designed and decorated by a local group, organisation or business, transforming the town into an open‑air gallery that families could explore throughout the summer.

The project was made possible through the support of partners across Walsall. The Canal & River Trust came on board as headline sponsor, helping to highlight the borough’s rich canal heritage and the communities that live alongside it, with a variety of local organisations hosting ducks in libraries, leisure centres and other public venues to ensure the trail was accessible to families in every corner of the borough.

Every sculpture had its own story, brought to life by the groups who designed them. Some of the summer’s favourites included:

Alongside the trail, a number of pop-up activities took place: children were invited to design their own duck or write a duck‑themed story; duck-decorating workshops took place; and we held a raft day in Walsall Arboretum. This culminated in a celebration of the project, with all the ducks displayed at Walsall MakerFest and the winning ducks announced.

Find out more about The Big Walsall Waddle

Crewe Performer & Creative Team Callout

We’re launching a brand new project in Crewe this February. Get involved and create a brand new show to be performed, all within the space of a month.

The Show In A Month project is your chance to explore creating a new show from scratch collaboratively. Every element of this show is yours to create. We hand you an empty stage, and you decide what to fill it with.

You’ll form a production team to stage the show, with a director, MD, choreographer, producer, and technical director. Then it’s over to you to work with a cast of performers in the room to collectively explore your ideas and bring a show to life from a blank canvas. It’s your show, your rules.

All rehearsals take place in and around Crewe (venue details to be confirmed). Performances take place at the Lyceum Theatre Studio, Crewe

Open to anybody aged 16-22

Signup now at https://forms.gle/gJZzYBBGDUuqYxPg9

New Year Arts Festival – Walsall

New Year Arts Festival took place on Saturday, 11th January 2025 at The Crossing at St Paul’s, Walsall.

Organised by young creatives aged 16–21 with support from RicNic, this vibrant festival was a free celebration of creativity and community, offering a wide range of activities for all ages.

The event featured storytelling, performances, an open mic, junk drumming, choir and dance workshops, crafts, and lots of cake!

This project was funded by UK Government through the Shared Prosperity Fund, with Walsall Council.

Book now for RicNic’s Fundraising Gala

Hemmingway’s is an immersive fundraising event written, produced, and performed by RicNic Alumni, designed to be a night of twists, turns and lots of fun!

Throughout the course of the evening you will be introduced to a cast of quirky characters, one of whom is a murderer! Together with the cast, you’ll collect clues and solve the mystery together! Plus, you’ll be supporting the work that RicNic does!

This unique gala will be full of mystery, networking, and entertainment that brings together a diverse audience of creative professionals, art enthusiasts, and supporters.

Tickets include a drink on arrival and photography for you/your group, and all ticket sales support the future of RicNic.

Discounts apply for whole table bookings (10 people); perfect for a group of friends or a social event with colleagues.

Early-bird pricing applies until 8th December.

Limited tickets available, book now to avoid disappointment.

Friday 24th January, 7:30pm

The Old Library, Birmingham

Book Now