Creative Schools

Creative Schools

Creative Schools Micro Grants

Creative Schools Micro Grants initiative – a series of seed funding grants for schools and educational settings in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The grants are designed to empower schools to develop creative partnerships with professional artists, build creative skills and confidence, spark new ideas for arts activity, and embed opportunities for creativity within their settings.

£500 grants are available to state-funded schools and local authority-funded SEND settings working with children and young people across all educational key stages. Funding is intended to support artist-led practical arts activities delivered within these settings. This may involve building on existing creative practice or providing opportunities to explore new techniques, approaches or art forms.

Download the application pack

Deadline for applications: Monday 2 November 2026

If you have any questions about the Micro Grants initiative or the application process then please contact: fcc@nnfestival.org.uk

Creative Residencies

Artist-in-school residencies are a core element of Festival Connect & Create. They provide unique creative and cultural experiences for children and young people and help to develop the skills of teachers and artists across East Anglia.

Our residencies place socially-engaged artists in a wide range of educational settings, often in areas most in need of support and with low levels of cultural engagement and opportunity.

By holding the voice of participants at the heart of our work, we aim to unlock the creative potential of children and young people; to develop their creativity skills and support social and emotional wellbeing.

Interested in getting involved? Get in touch here: fcc@nnfestival.org.uk

Read on below to learn more about some of our current and past projects.

Case Study

‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity, our students have enjoyed the experience so much and gained so much from it. What an inspiring team of artists we have worked with!’

Teacher, Thorpe St. Andrew School
(River of Hope)

Current Projects

The Museum of Small and Overlooked Things

A temporary museum which will be curated, created and designed by up to 250 local children. The exhibition will be made up of objects the children care about or value but which might otherwise have been overlooked by adults.

Spaces and Places

Artist-in-schools residencies that aim to develop a sense of community and pride in the children, and to support teachers to deliver creative engagement and develop the delivery skills of artists in educational settings.

From the Dunes

A poetic film work, telling the story of Norfolk coastal erosion through the eyes of two local teenage boys, aiming to give voice to a community that feel forgotten and abandoned.

Past Projects

Crossing the Line

Following a successful scratch performance at the Festival in 2025, Crossing the Line returned as a full-scale production, touring regional venues as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2026.

TreeKin

‘TreeKin’ is a new outdoor family show by Trigger, commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival, that explores eco-anxiety in young children through a gentle and imaginative engagement with the natural world.

The King's Lynn Nine

A project developed by Bootworks Theatre Co., The King’s Lynn Nine brought together a group of nine-year-old children at The Workshop at the Old Library in King’s Lynn to collaborate and create a performance piece for Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2026.

MONSTERS

This film-based project used familiar tropes of Hollywood monster movies as a way for young people to reckon with ecological change and its impact on the fragile landscapes of the Eastern region.

The Norwich Nine

Nine nine-year-olds collaborated with Bootworks Theatre Co. and created a thought-provoking performance piece for Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2025.

River of Hope

An arts-based learning project that used environmental themes and creative arts practice to help young people express their concerns about the climate crisis.

Rebel Resistors Radio Club

11 year old girls self-built analogue radios and broadcasted their manifestos for the emerging world.

The Book of Thetford

Part fictional imagining, part actual guidebook, The Book of Thetford allowed young people to write stories about life on their streets as they see it.

HotSpot

A pilot for a three-year programme of artist-in-schools residencies, that will form a core element of the Festival’s schools provision across East Anglia.

Make Me

Writer Molly Naylor ran creative writing workshops to GCSE pupils and used these workshops to inform the writing of her new play, Make Me.

Creative Schools Partner

Masthead credit: ETT Photography

Creative Schools supported by the Ellerdale Trust