Outside the Exhibit
October 20, 2025ARCHIVE: CREATIVE CONNECTIONS 2025
(September 2024 to July 2025)
Image Credit: Cheniece Warner
OVERVIEW
Creative Connections is an inclusive dance programme that brings together adults with a range of learning disabilities, and neurological conditions and their carers, to foster creativity, connection and wellbeing through movement. From September 2024 to July 2025, Creative Connections was delivered in Central Bedfordshire (Ampthill, Silsoe and Leighton Buzzard) and aimed to prioritise access and agency, creating spaces where participants could feel seen, heard and valued.
AIMS
Creative Connections aimed to build strong relationships across communities, bringing people with a broad spectrum of backgrounds and lived experiences together, by:
- Supporting communities that experience multiple barriers to participation and tackling participants’ associated loneliness and isolation;
- Increasing participants’ confidence to come out and take part in community activity;
- Challenging assumptions, stereotypes and discrimination by raising awareness of disability and promoting equity.
HEADLINE FINDINGS
Creative Connections successfully met its aims by creating inclusive, relational spaces where participants from diverse backgrounds and with varying support needs could explore movement, build confidence, and form lasting social bonds. Through responsive facilitation and participant-led creative exploration, the project enabled individuals to feel seen, valued and celebrated for their unique contributions to challenge social isolation, fostering a sense of self, and cultivating a strong sense of community. Participants reported increased confidence, stronger interpersonal relationships, and a growing sense of agency, both within sessions and in the wider community.
Key learning from the project included the importance of adaptable facilitation that is responsive to participants’ mood and energy and the importance of social time as part of the offer in ensuring social bonds are strengthened beyond dance. Future delivery of Creative Connections will focus on outreach across more settings, and building opportunities for participants to contribute to widening participation efforts as ambassadors and advocates of the work.
EVALUATION
A full evaluation report is available for this project >>
PROJECT CREDITS
Report produced by Elsa Urmston
Photography by Cheniece Warner
Dance leads Carrie Washington (BEEE Creative) and Kezia Jolly (Vacani School of Dance)
The project was funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, thanks to the National Lottery players.
