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.  

Creative Learning at The Met encompasses several different areas of work including theatre groups, music tuition, providing a home for external groups and supporting local artists.  

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 thriving programme of music tuition available at The Met from one to one sessions in guitar  and harmonica to 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 provision for early years children at The Met, in the form of Movers and Shakers, a movement, dance and yoga group for children aged 0-5 and their grown ups. This group is free to attend currently.

Supporting Artists and Communities

Our resident artist Oliver Bishop (Yan Tan Tethera) works with us on a range of projects out in the community including one off workshops as part of the Holiday Activities and Food programme. He has been a lead artist on the Seldom Heard Voices project, working with Prestwich based group The Friendship Circle to create a book of creative writing and led an exciting partnership project with Bury’s Children in Care Council creating an audio story called Noah and The Unknown.

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.

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.

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

Artsmark 

The Met, as a cultural venue at the heart of the local community in Bury values working in partnership with our local schools. As such, we are now 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.