Creative Room recently celebrated one of their most ambitious projects to date with a day long event at Nottingham’s Old Market Square followed by a celebration evening at the Council House.

Creative Room’s Media Bus was stationed in the Old Market Square for a day of creative writing on the streets. Young people were invited to come and share A Moment in Time with members from Creative Room’s Art on Toast Young Artist Group and develop their own writing which was recorded and displayed in an innovative street exhibition that evolved throughout the day. This exhibition included a unique project titled ‘TxtiN’ where young people could text in samples of creative writing, which were displayed on a big screen in the Old Market Square.

In the evening young people from Nottingham and around the East Midlands came together to launch the Words on your Street book, a collection of creative writing by young people. This celebratory event held at the Council House was an evening of spoken word, stories, MCing and beatboxing by young people co-hosted by established poets and writers from the Nottingham area. Distinguished guests included the Mayor of Nottingham, Cllr. Mohammed Munir.

Words on your Street is an ongoing programme of creative writing projects funded by Arts Council England and Nottingham City Council’s Youth Service, which since 2004 has inspired and nurtured a new generation of young creative writers in Nottingham. This is the third year young people’s creative writing has been exhibited in street based exhibitions and read by thousands of people around Nottingham. This ambitious project has engaged over 200 young people in spoken and written word as a way of positively and creatively communicating their aspirations, thoughts and ideas about life as a young person in Nottingham.

Nottingham Footsteps continues the project, a poem written during February and March by young people who attended nine community groups in Nottingham which was exhibited in full for the first time on Friday 28 March. Extracts from the poem were previewed on billboards in the city centre leading up to the main Words on your Street event.

Creative Room is the arts provision for Nottingham City Council Youth Service. Words on your Street is a project supported by Nottingham City Council Youth Service and funded by Arts Council England.

For more information or details on future projects call Creative Room on 0115 9159542.