Here at The Met, inspiring the next generation of artists and performers is one of our biggest priorities. As a charity we work hard to support our community, and we invest between £80,000 to £100,000 each year into our outreach work which is designed to get people of all ages and abilities involved with the arts.  

Education and Learning at The Met encompasses several different areas of work including theatre, dance and music groups, community project work, partnerships and networks and supporting our local schools and colleges. 

Groups

We are a hub for quality participatory drama and theatre for children, young people and adults with and without disabilities. Bury Youth Theatre, Aiming High and Met Express all meet on a weekly basis to support children, young people and learning-disabled adults to explore their creativity, find new talents and make friends for life in a creative and inspiring environment. 

We have a unique programme of music tuition available at The Met from one to one sessions in harmonica and the chance to perform and enhance your skills by playing in an ensemble with the brilliant Metro Jazz. 

In 2021 we set up a brand new social arts group for the over 50s, Meet Me at The Met. This group meets fortnightly to take part in a range of taster workshops in artforms as broad as theatre, songwriting, ceramics, dance and more. The group is totally open access and can be joined at any time.

We are also now running dance and movement provision for children from early years upwards, in the form of Movers and Shakers, a movement, dance and yoga group for children aged 1-5 and their grown ups and Leaps and Bounds, our youth dance group for children aged 7-14.

To enquire about any of our workshop groups, just email education@themet.org.uk.

Community Projects

We run a range of projects with local communities both on and offsite including…

Between April and July 2022, we were fortunate to be able to deliver a ground-breaking music industry careers project called Blueprint, funded through Youth Music. This project enabled five young people to work intensively within the venue over a period of three months, learning about the operations of the venue and putting on their own final show. Head over to the blog page to find out more.

Our No Barriers project, running since April 2023 support neurodivergent young people to access expert tuition and mentoring in the music industry to help them discover career pathways and create their own portfolios of work to take forward into the future.

Our International Women’s Day event started in 2023 and will be running again in 2024 featuring music, workshops and a chance for local female identifying businesses and initiatives to share their work. Check out 2023’s event here.

Each school holiday we engage in the Holiday Activities and Food programme, supported by Bury Council. This project enables us to run exciting projects that enable children and young people in receipt of Free School Meals to engage with arts and culture. In the past two years this has included offering free tickets for our annual pantomime, running a pop-up shop in the Millgate Shopping Centre for arts workshops, free drama days and workshops in satellite locations across the borough.

Partnerships and Networks

Since Autumn 2020, we have been running the Creative Case Steering Group. This is a group that brings together people from a variety of different charities and community groups throughout Bury to work on projects and strategy around how arts and culture can support the diverse communities they represent. As well as supporting The Met with developing our plans, this group has also held its own events helping to educate against hate crime in the community, delivering half day workshops for young people from local schools.

The Met is a key partner in the Bury Local Cultural Education Partnership. This is a group of local partners across arts, education, health and the third sector who work strategically to support the development of cultural education in the borough through projects, networking and advocacy.

Schools and Colleges 

The Met is a local hub for the performing arts and can support schools and colleges in a range of ways through offering bespoke workshops and projects, facilitating work experience placements, hosting careers days and building tours and acting as a ‘home from home’ venue for shows and events. Over the last two years we have particularly expanded our support for work placements with young people with SEND and are able to support placements for students from Year 10 up to University.

To make an enquiry about work experience, please contact education@themet.org.uk.

We are also part of the Artsmark Partnership Programme. Artsmark is a national kitemark for schools that demonstrates commitment to cultural education. Being an Artsmark partner means that we, as an organisation, understand the award and the steps that schools need to undertake to achieve it and are ready with a range of offer that speaks to the different elements of the journey. We have a range of information available to how we can support schools, if you would like to have a conversation about your Artsmark journey, please contact Education and Learning Manager Steph Meskell-Brocken on steph.meskellbrocken@themet.org.uk. 

Safeguarding

The Met takes the welfare of all our groups members very seriously and we regularly review our Safeguarding Policies and Procedures. In order to ensure that all parents, carers and partners are aware of the measures we have in place, we have made our General Safeguarding Policy available to view here. If you have any questions about our approach to Safeguarding, please contact steph.meskellbrocken@themet.org.uk.

We are able to deliver this programme thanks to the support of our members, corporate sponsors and through donations from the public.