Creative Practitioner - The Shine Project, Curve Theatre

We are excited to announce that for the next 3 years we will be working with young people, teachers and a therapeutic partner to deliver a programme to support the mental health and wellbeing of students in schools.

Shine is a new programme working with 5 secondary schools in Leicester which aims to explore how drama techniques and activities can be used to provide strategies for coping with issues such as anxiety and depression. The work is being devised with advice and input from clinical psychologists, teachers and drama professionals, and a robust evaluation framework will be supported by a university partner. The programme hopes to shine a light more widely on the opportunities that the creative arts can offer to support the mental health of young people in a school.

We are looking for freelance creative practitioners with experience of working with young people (aged 12 - 16) with a strong understanding of how drama skills can be used to support mental health and wellbeing. Artists will work with our therapeutic and research partners to design the programme in Spring / Summer 2025 and deliver this over 8 weekly workshops in schools starting in Autumn 2025. Practitioners may be able to work in more than one school. There may also be an opportunity to extend this post into 2026 and 2027 delivering the 8-week programme across 2 terms each year.

This position is offered under a freelance agreement, with an rate of £40 per hour. For the first year, minimum expected hours to be worked is 34 hours per school. A practitioner may work with more than one school.

Training and Supervision from our therapeutic partner is included for each practitioner.

For further information about the role, please find the Job Description and Person Specification at the bottom of the vacancy page on our website.