Pianist Derek Paravicini (who is blind and has severe learning difficulties) and his music teacher Kelly Smith have been regulars at our creative:space events for disabled children & their families since their inception. Here they talk about what they enjoy the most.

Derek: “I enjoy playing my music on the piano for Create. The bands that play with me are always good. We play instruments together with the children – I especially like the egg shakers! My favourite part is when I take requests from the audience – I never know what music they are going to ask me to play! My favourite request was for the Bare Necessities and everyone was really singing along, it felt good. The concerts help children and their families to enjoy great music!”

Kelly: “I really enjoy coming to support Derek at the creative:space events. The atmosphere is always so friendly and welcoming and there is a real sense of togetherness that the music provides. The way in which the concerts are presented include everyone who wants to be included, and I think the children get a lot out of being so close to the musicians and being involved with the music making. My favourite part is always when the children take turns at ‘conducting’ an instrument. The look on their faces when they realise they are in control of the sound is always a joy! The concerts make live, top standard music accessible to people who might otherwise find it difficult to go to mainstream concerts, and that is a valuable and most worthy thing to be a part of.”

This piece is from 2014.

During spring 2014, we collaborated for the first time with Sense, the national charity that works with and supports people of all ages who are deafblind or have associated disabilities.

A group of deafblind children and other family members took part in our creative:connection project, working under the guidance of two of our professional musicians. Using a variety of instruments – and iPads – designed to stimulate a range of senses including sound, touch and sight, they experienced sound and vibrations through playing the instruments themselves and worked collaboratively to create soundscapes and melodies.

Chandni wears a cochlear implant on her left ear. She is partially sighted and experiences pain when there are bright lights. She cannot see people very far away, so relies on her cochlear implant. She can walk by herself, and can climb stairs with a rail. When it is windy, she feels wobbly but can walk well indoors. To speak, she needs to see faces and lip-reads to help her. This is her experience of creative:connection.

“This is the first music project I have done outside school. At school, we have music day, where we learn about instruments. For example, once we did Hawaii, and played ukuleles and did dancing. I loved learning how to play New World instruments with Create because those instruments are basically not from England. I liked the Cahon best.

“Playing with the instruments in general and performing were my favourite parts of the workshops! And the Bollywood dancing. The others participants liked my ideas, I think, because they always agreed with them. They always listened when I was giving ideas. This made me feel happy because at school, normally we don’t listen to each other as much. We only agree on the same things sometimes.

“I love music because it makes me relax. Music is good for you when you’re deaf because you’re not being stressed on what you’re not hearing. I enjoyed singing songs and putting them together. The workshops made me feel a bit more confident – showing people what I can do. The workshops have given me something to talk about at school, I’m not at home just sitting on my Mac all the time – I have got something to do. They’ve also taught me to be more considerate: I think I should let others speak first because I’m always speaking first. I made good friends, friends with people who have the same problems as me, similar.”

Name changed to protect anonymity.

This story is from 2014.

creative:space, our interactive music event for disabled children and their families, gives them the opportunity to hear live music, dance and do craft activities in an informal, relaxed and friendly environment that has been carefully tailored to their needs.

Here Matt Pearce, who has been bringing his son Sam to the event at The Stables in Milton Keynes since last year, talks about what it has come to mean to him and his family.

“Sam has learning difficulties and sensory processing disorder. He is not able to stay still or concentrate for more than a few minutes, which makes it difficult to take him to public music events. We do go out with him to other events at The Stables as well as autism friendly cinema showings.

“We are always very excited about coming to creative:space. After having been to many of them, Sam now recognises the route and knows that we are coming to a creative:space event at a certain point on our journey. The event provides a safe place for the entire family to enjoy something together, where everyone understands how Sam behaves. There is no need to worry about offending anyone or having to keep quiet or remain in your seat. It is very flexible and tailor-made to the needs of our family.

“At home we use music and songs to teach Sam; most of the words he learns come from the songs he likes. We are also trying to make sure that he interacts with people other than friends and family. creative:space helps us to do that. We noticed that due to the creative:space events, he has been able to speak and his communication has improved. Before coming to our first event, he did not speak at all. We have now also started to teach him how to make collage pictures. We loved your masks. Sam always enjoyed the event but he is a lot more responsive to what is going on now.

“My daughter really enjoys coming as well. She says that she loves all the craft activities and conducting the band. The events are a really nice way for our family to enjoy an afternoon out together.”

This story is from 2013.

During spring 2013, 10 adults with learning disabilities from Tower Project took part in our moving:images film-making project. Here Judith (29) gives her reflections.

“I have been coming to the Tower Project about nine years now. I come here five days a week. I’ve done Create’s projects before. The last one I remember was in Poplar; we went all over the place to take pictures of transport and then did a dance about it which we performed to older people in Poplar. We got our own CD and our own certificate so it was quite good. That’s how I know Nicky [Create’s Chief Executive] and Sabita [Create’s programme manager]!

“I’ve really enjoyed the filming workshops this time, too, especially the acting and creating our own DVDs. It’s nice to work with people, staff and Create, different people. If we work as a team we can get a lot of things done. We can show it to people and to our parents and then our parents will be able to see how their daughters, how all the students have done and how we’ve progressed.

“My favourite one of the films we made is the Ghana film and the DLR one. And my own one to welcome people to the Tower Project, all about Tower. I learnt a lot about different shot types making the Ghana film: we used long shot, medium shot and other ones. The close-up is for the expressions on their faces.

“It’s been awesome, just awesome to have Denise [Create’s film-maker] to help us filming and all that. She’s been kind and respectful of what we would like to put on the DVD and she takes all the words to put to people. Nice. I learnt new things, too, like editing and filming and acting and all that. I enjoyed that very much. I’d never done that before.

“I’m really looking forward to sharing our films with the older people [a group of vulnerable older people in the local area]. It’s gonna make us feel proud and all the work that we’ve done I think they’ll be proud of us, all the work that we have produced.”

This story is from 2013.

Bridget has been bringing her autistic son, Felix (14) to Create’s interactive music events specifically designed for disabled children & their families, creative:space, since 2005. Each event gives families the opportunity to hear live music, dance and create masks/crowns in a relaxed and friendly environment. Concerts are informal with seating around tables. Here, she talks about the event and what it has come to mean to her.

Every time we go, Felix gets exposed to something new.

Bridget

“I first heard about creative:space through a friend, who passed on the booking form to me and suggested I go and have a look. The musical base attracted me to the event – Felix loves music – and the fact that families in similar situations would be there made the first step a lot easier. Going out was still a big hurdle for Felix, who was nine at the time, so I thought creative:space would be perfect as a small introduction.

“For Felix, the event gets better every time because each time he understands more of what will happen.

“At the beginning he was really shy about joining in, for example, and now he will often go and have a little dance by himself at the front!

“He also really likes making masks and crowns and loves stickers, so the craft activities have been great for him. The crowns have even been worn at birthday parties, he just loves dressing up!

“What I enjoy most about creative:space is that the music changes every time we go, so Felix gets exposed to something new. When the swing band was playing, he even got to have a go on their instruments – he absolutely loved the drum kit! The workshop leaders are great as well, really inspiring in the way that they interact with the participants – they’re not too upset if they don’t get a big response.

“Personally, it’s also nice to be able to go to a concert where you don’t have to worry about other parents judging you because we’re all in the same boat. You can relax from your daily routine and just enjoy the music.

“creative:space really has given Felix and me the confidence boost to try other things: we recently went to a concert for young children at the Barbican. It was an hour long, and Felix sat through all of it and was very much engaged.

“creative:space has helped us develop skills in going out – there really is no other event quite like it.”

To protect anonymity, the photo in this blog is not of the participant.

This case study was captured in 2010.