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!

Where The Bees Fly – Schools Choir Opportunity!

As part of our Where The Bees Fly project, two members of our team have been busy delivering workshops in local schools. Jess and Sophie have been teaching music from the show to pupils from years 3 to 6 of Churchfield school in Rugeley & are currently taking bookings in more schools in the Walsall area. Pupils have learnt the song Silent Riot which they’ll be singing during the show, and we’re incredibly excited to have them joining in as part of this production.

We would also like to open the opportunity to take part in the children’s choir to our website audience, so if you or anyone you know would like their child to gain the opportunity to perform to family & friends in a brand new piece of musical theatre for the community, please fill out the form below, which contains all the information about rehearsal videos, costume etc. We can’t wait to see you there!

https://forms.gle/LQpWQNzLv9RJvets5

Tickets are now on sale for Where The Bees Fly and selling quickly. You can purchase yours now through this link. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-lamp-arts-centre

Summer Productions 2023

Our incredible Production Teams are working hard to bring their shows to a stage near you this summer across 4 locations! Please continue reading to find out about each of these productions and if you wish to book tickets to any of these shows, please visit https://ricnic.org.uk/events/ and click ‘register for event’ to book yours!

RicNic Alumni – Oxford

Our first ever RicNic Alumni Fundraising Cabaret is taking place in the heart of London. We are proud to present En Femme En Homme! After much work behind the scenes, Sas Morgan and River James are pleased to be presenting this brand new cabaret, bringing together an incredible cast of previous RicNic participants. Tickets for this one-night-only event are selling quickly. Head to our Whats On page and get yours now before they’re gone!

RicNic Hampshire

Following last year’s success of Spongebob the musical, RicNic Hampshire are thrilled to announce their upcoming production of Disney’s High School Musical, returning as a branch once again to Hangar Farm Arts Centre in Totton, Hampshire on the 10th-12th August 2023. Bringing the beloved movie franchise to life on stage, the show features all the catchy tunes and energetic dance numbers that made the movies so popular. It’s a fun-filled, family-friendly production that’s sure to be a hit with fans of all ages.

RicNic Staffordshire

Hot off the press, we’re incredibly excited that RicNic Staffordshire will be staging GREASE! this August summer bank holiday at The Brewhouse Theatre, Burton on Trent for those last few ‘Summer Nights’ of the year! If you think you were ‘Born to Hand Jive’ make sure you book tickets to head back to 1950s Rydell High with this beloved musical & experience the friendships, romances, adventures, and of course all those unforgettable rock ‘n’ roll hits that make GREASE! one of the world’s most popular and enduring musicals.

RicNic Cheshire

This year RicNic Cheshire are excited to be performing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Malbank School & Sixth Form, Nantwich, Cheshire on the 24th-26th August 2023. This Tony Award-winning musical comedy follows a group of eclectic contestants as they compete in a spelling competition. Filled with hilarious moments and catchy tunes, the show is a crowd-pleaser for all ages. We can’t wait to S-E-E you there!

Community Art Events in Walsall

This year RicNic is running an exciting new project in Walsall which brings all 4 of our working strands together – Outreach, Engage, Productions & Commissions. We are partnering with Work In Progress Theatre to bring their brand new musical Where the Bees Fly to a public audience in June at the Lamp Arts Centre in Brownhills from June 23rd-25th. Not only is every member of the theatre production company under 25, the entire cast of young people (also aged 16-25) has been recruited from Walsall & surrounding areas through our Engage sessions & via our social media.

To support the marketing of the show, a separate group of Young Producers from Walsall have been working hard since January to conceptualise, market & deliver a series of Community Art events for all ages in the area. These events have included everything from arts & crafts to dance & circus workshops, & have been a fantastic way for the community to come together, learn about climate change (the theme of the musical) & to hear about the show. We have also delivered Own the Stage sessions in several primary schools in the area, where children have gained their arts award, written poetry, drawn pictures & learned about the musical & its themes. Check out our What’s On page to read about our upcoming community art and dance days if you want to get involved!

All the beautiful art produced at both the Community Art events & in the schools will be showing at the Lamp Arts Centre in Brownhills as a curtain raiser to the musical. Book your tickets now!! www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-lamp-arts-centre

RicNic wins 2022 Weston Charity Award

RicNic has been selected from hundreds of applicants as a recipient of a Weston Charity Award for 2022. The awards, run by the Garfield Weston Foundation in partnership with Pilotlight recognise charities across the UK who are making a genuine difference with their work and who are working innovatively to adapt for the future.

This year, 19 charities have received the Award which is accompanied by a 10-month business mentoring programme between charity leaders and corporate executives. Earlier this month, RicNic’s Executive Director Jennifer Holyhead and trustee Sam Oladeinde attended the first of 3 Charity Connect sessions as part of the programme, where they were able to meet with representatives from the other winning charities.

Having worked with Pilotlight on a short programme in 2021, which generated huge changes for RicNic, we are so excited to be a part of this longer programme and cannot wait to see where it takes us in the future.

Cabaret time for RicNic Hampshire

On Saturday 2nd April, RicNic Hampshire held a cabaret event to fundraise for their production of ‘SpongeBob The Musical’ this August. ‘Bonkers Broadway’ featured a programme of music from the West End and Broadway. Thank you to everyone who gave up their time to bring it all together, to perform and to fill the audience. Special thanks to the team at Stage Door Southampton for hosting the event.

A great night was had by all and we are so pleased to see RicNic Hampshire back up onstage for the first time since 2019!

RicNic Commissions – Live Showcase

When the RicNic Commissions programme started as an idea online during the lockdowns in 2021, the idea of staging an evening of brand new musicals seemed a long way off.

Fast forward to March 2022 and we did it! The Commissions programme was well and truly born, in the shape of a 4 -day workshop and performance showcase.

The main focus of the weekend was a new fringe-theatre musical ‘Werewolves’ based on the popular social card game of the same name. Our cast and production team worked with visiting mentors Dr Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins to shape the existing script and score into a dark, murder-mystery immersive experience.

The first ‘Werewolves’ performance was given to an invited audience at the Mad Hatter in Oxford and even featured audience participation from some unsuspecting guests. The evening also allowed members of the company to showcase other pieces of new writing, with music from two new musicals by MD Henry Jensen and a selection of works from student company Work in Progress Theatre from their new piece ‘Where The Bees Fly’.

This was a thrilling start to the RicNic Commissions programme and we look forward to bringing further opportunities very soon.