Our Making The Future PLAYLAB* Summer Workshops invite children and young people aged 6 – 16 yrs to join us in re-imagining and re-making the world around us. Through craft, design and creative play, the workshops will spark curiosity, encourage experimentation and provide fun, hopeful ways of thinking about the future.

• Every weekday in August, 2 - 4pm
• For residents of Balsall Heath and surrounding areas
• FREE!
• Children aged 6 - 11 must be accompanied by a grown-up
• Each workshop is different, and you can attend as many as you like - see below for further details and dates.

Workshop Details & Dates:

Mon 2nd Aug ~ MINECRAFT MISSION 1 (6 – 16 yrs)

Work together to build exciting new virtual worlds and co-operate to complete the mission. Mission 1 - Create a village by each building a house out of only three materials! Requirements: Bring your own laptop and charger.

Tues 3rd Aug ~ PAINTING PLANT POTS (6-11 yrs)

Decorate a plant pot with hopeful messages for the future before planting a seed inside it. Take it home, care for it, and watch it grow.

Wed 4th Aug ~ PICKLE MAKING 1 (6-11 yrs)

100 years in the future, what and how will we be eating? In this drama-cum-cooking workshop we will learn about why pickles might be the answer and prepare some of our own tasty treats.

Thurs 5th Aug ~ DEN BUILDING (6 -11 yrs)

How can we create spaces that are shared, safe and fun to be in? Let's find out! Collaboratively build a den and play in it together.

Fri 6th Aug ~ COLLECTIVE COLLAGING (12-16 yrs)

What a year it’s been. How do we even begin to explain it? How might we show people in the future what this time has been like? Using newspaper collage let’s make a collective image to sum up this sometimes indescribable world we live in.

Mon 9th Aug ~ MINECRAFT MISSION 2 (6 – 16 yrs)

Work together to build exciting new virtual worlds and co-operate to complete the mission. Mission 2 - Work together to collect resources to gear up for a battle to overthrow the host! Requirements: Bring your own laptop and charger.

Tues 10th Aug ~ BIG UP THE BEES (6-11 yrs)

Bees are amazing creatures that need protecting for the future of our planet. Using recycled waste materials and print-making techniques we will build bee hotels and other craft items to celebrate our fuzzy buzzy friends.

Wed 11th Aug ~ CARDBOARD CITY (6-11 yrs)

What might Birmingham look like in 100 years? How and where will we spend our time? What will our transport look like? What will school be like? Explore these questions and more in a crafty workshop where we will make a future city out of cardboard.

Thurs 12th Aug ~ MAKING INVENTIONS (6-11 yrs)

What problems exist in our lives, our society, our world? What solutions can we dream up when we put our imaginations into action? Put your thinking caps on and let's get crafty, as we use drawing and model-making to design technological inventions to change the world for the better.

Fri 13th Aug ~ BOARD GAME PARTY (12-16 yrs)

Let's get together to play some classic board games, or what about a more modern, experimental game? We have it all here in this relaxed afternoon of board gaming where you can meet new people and make new friends through playing together.

Mon 16th Aug ~ MINECRAFT MISSION 3 (6 – 16 yrs)

Work together to build exciting new virtual worlds and co-operate to complete the mission. Mission 3 - Build a castle together in creative mode! Requirements: Bring your own laptop and charger.

Tues 17th Aug ~ PROTEST BANNERS (12-16 yrs)

Create a fabric protest banner that can be hung from your window or taken out onto the streets. Use craft and stenciling techniques to make demands for a better future and shout about an issue that matters to you.

Wed 18th Aug ~ IMAGINATION NATION (6-11 yrs)

Imagine that you and your friends were rulers of your own brand new country. What would it be called? What laws would you have? Would you even have laws?! How would your country provide for its people? Do you have a national sport? What language do you speak? Have fun building your own nation!

Thurs 19th Aug ~ SEEDBOMBS (6-11 yrs)

Learn about the bees and butterflies and about your local natural environment, all whilst getting your hands dirty as we make seedbombs - little balls of soil and seeds that with a bit of time will brighten up your neighbourhood!

Fri 20th Aug ~ TINKERING 1 – MACHINES OF THE FUTURE (6-11 yrs)

Kids dismantling stuff! Use basic tools to take apart simple mechanisms - such as toasters, old keyboards or weighing scales - to explore how they work. Then use a glue gun to create your own machine of the future using all the components. What kind of machines will be useful in our communities in the future?

Mon 23rd Aug ~ MINECRAFT MISSION 4 (6 – 16 yrs)

Work together to build exciting new virtual worlds and co-operate to complete the mission. Mission 4 - Starting with tools and armour, everyone must work together to make it to the End and race to defeat the Ender Dragon! Requirements: Bring your own laptop and charger.

Tues 24th Aug ~ RE-IMAGINING THE HIGH STREET (12-16 yrs)

What would you like Balsall Heath high-street to look like in the future? What will it look like, sound like, smell like? What can you do there and who is it for? In this playful and experimental workshop, we will work together to envisage our future vision for Moseley Road. We'll walk, talk, map and draw.

Wed 25th Aug ~ PICKLE MAKING 2 (6-11 yrs)

Come back together to taste our pickles from the first workshop and try an assortment of foods from over the world, all over a conversation about the future.

Thurs 26th Aug ~ MAKING MAGIC POTIONS (6-11 yrs)

Create your own potions with the power to bring positive change into the world! Mix and match your own concoction of weird and wonderful ingredients, decorate your bottle and design a label.

Fri 27th Aug ~ TINKERING 2 - ROBOTS OF THE FUTURE (6-11 yrs)

Kids dismantling stuff! Use basic tools to take apart simple mechanisms - such as toasters, old keyboards or weighing scales - to explore how they work. Then use a glue gun to create your own robot using all the components. How can robots be helpful to the community in the future?

* PLAYLAB is an ongoing project by The GAP Arts Project. PLAYLAB is all about taking play seriously, providing a wide range of fun opportunities to grow and develop, through engineering, digital, drama, art, food- and tinkering-based activities. Through creative, purposeful and social engagement PLAYLAB seeks to enhance critical 21st century skills amongst young people, including Motor Skills, Problem-Solving, Collaboration, Innovation and Empathy, with the aim of nurturing can-do abilities and attitudes, and the huge potential for young minds and eager hands to shape the future.