Chispa X Climate Circus Youth Programming
Chispa X Climate Circus – The Youth Area
As part of Creative Sustainability and World Jungle’s ambitious 4-year Youth Climate programme, Chispa CIC was commissioned to develop and curate a dedicated youth area at the Gloucester Climate Circus event. This project saw our team step into the real leadership roles, designing a dynamic, creative, and safe space specifically tailored for the young people of Gloucester to explore the climate issues in a stimulating and creative environment.
The Climate Circus is a celebration of creative activism, and our brief was to ensure that young voices were not just included, but amplified. We moved beyond traditional "eco-workshops" to create an integrated experience that merged making, movement, film, and interactive dialogue, proving that sustainability can be vibrant, accessible, and deeply relevant to the next generation of young advocates.
The Chispa X Climate Circus project marks a significant milestone for our organisation: it was the first event planned, curated, and delivered entirely by the Chispa team, independent of our CEO’s direct supervision.
This project is a testament to the skills, resilience, and curatorial vision our young team has developed through years of real-time, on-the-ground project delivery. By leading the design and delivery, from concept design to logistics and on-the-day facilitation, the Chispa team demonstrated a professional maturity and innovative flair that set a new standard for youth-led climate engagement.
A highlight of the event was our collaboration with the internationally acclaimed theatre company, Complicité, BAFTA nominated actor and climate activist Fehinti Balogun and award winning dancer and choreographer Dickson Mbi. Understanding the power of narrative to shift perspectives, we worked alongside these masters of storytelling to develop a bespoke package for the Gloucester audience, featuring:
A Curated Film Screening: Showcasing work that resonated with the themes of climate anxiety, hope, and the environment.
An Interactive Workshop: Facilitating a space where young people could translate their feelings about the climate crisis into creative expression.
A Live Q&A: Bridging the gap between the audience and internationally recognised artists, demystifying the creative process and inspiring local youth to see themselves as agents of change.
Alongside this the team developed a board game making workshop themed around environmental awareness and climate action and a Grow your Own Pick N Mix providing grow kits for young participants to grow their own fruit and vegetables at home and instruction manuals and guides to go with them.
Impact
The Chispa X Climate Circus youth area successfully provided a platform for young people in Gloucester to engage with complex environmental themes through film, performance, and conversation, proving that youth-led curation is not just viable, but essential to the future of the cultural and environmental sectors.
Working with the young producers at Chispa was a genuine highlight of the Great Big Climate Circus.
They organised the whole youth tent themselves. They set up the blackout, sorted the projector, and even got a solar powered generator running, which fitted perfectly with the sustainable spirit of the day.
They had commissioned a screening of Can I Live?, Fehinti Balogun's digital performance about the climate crisis, presented by Complicité. After the film, they had already liaised with Dickson Mbi to lead a 1.5 hour dance workshop. Then came an hour long Q&A with Fehinti, hosted by Danielle.
The planning behind the scenes was excellent. They also did a brilliant job capturing the day on video and photos, so the event lives on well beyond the day itself.
They are building up their confidence for work at the events themselves, which is a challenge given everything they were juggling, but that didn't show in how well the event actually ran. It says a lot about the culture Chispa is building with its young producers, and I'd be glad to work with them again.