Ideas Foundation: eyes wide open

Summary

The Ideas Foundation is a charity on a mission to create a new creative generation, according to Heather MacRae, FRSA, the organisation's Chief Executive. Through workshops in photography, poetry and creative writing, and in collaboration with professional creatives, The Ideas Foundation exposes students from less advantaged schools across the UK to the potential of creative careers. This photo essay exhibits work from students at two schools in the northeast, providing a snapshot into their lives and highlighting the importance of nurturing this form of expression.

Reading time

Four minutes

The Ideas Foundation provides opportunities for students in less advantaged schools across the UK to build creative and cultural capital through workshops and excursions. Their mission? To nourish a new creative generation.

The words and images featured here were created by young people aged 13 to 16 living in a beautiful but remote area of outstanding national beauty – the coastal region of North Yorkshire, England. Working with photographers, poets and scriptwriters brought into the school by the Ideas Foundation, students from Eskdale School in Whitby and Old Farm School in Saltburn learned that there are different ways to tell a story. They learned how to spot the compelling in what might otherwise appear mundane. Most had never used a camera before.

Inspired by the works of photographers such as Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, and with the generous loan of cameras by Canon Europe, students were able to look at their world through a different lens. Some wanted to capture the physicality of their home turf, its connection with the sea, or the beauty and bleakness of the surrounding moors. Some concentrated on Eskdale School, which, despite a rich heritage, was faced with closure (and, indeed, has since closed). And many brought cameras into their homes or along to activities, working to capture the daily reality of what it means to be a teenager in North Yorkshire.

The works in these pages were originally showcased in Belonging, an exhibition hosted at the Pannett Art Gallery in Whitby in May 2024. The works shown here are collective efforts; student groups worked together during the 2023–24 school year as photographers, art directors and models, and on creative writing.

Finding me,

Is hard.

The me I know is different.

Not the me I want

to show.

“My photos might not be connected to each other in full, but they are me, all me. So, I don’t care if they are not perfect. I know I’m not.”

When Will I Bloom On?

He gave me those flowers when I saw him last,

We were full of fun and joy, we had a blast,

Now he is lost in the snow and so am I.

I used to call my mates and hang around at this park,

But now I stay alone, swing alone in the dark,

I didn’t want to grow up.

The Dog Under the Christmas Tree

The dog under the Christmas tree, next to a cold cup of tea,

Aisha keeps distracting Mum’s mood, with the mess, the noise and the demand for food.

Too many kids in the house, not as quiet as a mouse.

The dog is posing for the picture, thinking she’s a lot richer,

She wants to go on a walk, over the tops over the moor.

Cold Morning Ballet

There’s nothing like feeling the butterflies in your stomach, waking up on a cold morning just thinking about the day ahead. You know the pain in your feet will hurt with dried blood and popping blisters, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Tying the lace ribbons around your achy ankles of the shoes that just never seem to fit right. Posing for those thousands of photos that make it look so easy.

But nobody knows the truth that the more effort you put in, the more effortless it looks.

I’m in a whole different world when I dance, it’s like nothing else exists. 

Just costumes and sequins and sparkles and me.

Just me in a world of my own.

The place where people belong is now gone.

Community is gone.

Family is gone.

“My parents have always encouraged me to get involved in activities like gymnastics to keep me focused and away from trouble. While I appreciate that, I feel living in the north east, I am at a disadvantage, because gyms in the north east are not as well equipped.”

The Death of a Birthplace

Eskdale, a school of memories,

However slowly the walls begin to crack,

Grey tones paint walls and our minds,

We are like a lost cause,

As rain pours down to the wet and rough ground,

A school being lost with no one to be found,

Eskdale, a school which once kept generations alive,

Dying away.

Heather MacRae, FRSA is Chief Executive of the Ideas Foundation.

Eskdale School: Madeleine A.; Aysha B.; Ella C.; Ty C.; Katy C.; Emily D.; Zane D.; Esme H.; Faye H.; Skye J.; Tilly K.; Freya K.; Elsie L.; Taylor L.; Beau L.; Sky P.; Zahnoor S.; Ruby S.; Ellie S. Old Farm School: Jack C.; Kateleigh C.; Echo L.; Lolah M.; Dylan T.

The Ideas Foundation is able to bring projects to life through funding from businesses and organisations and the generous expertise of professional creatives. This work was made possible with support from the UCB Community Health Fund and the inspiration of photographers Michael Cockerham and Tom Martin, creative writers Adisa the Verbaliser and Ben Worth, teachers Ian Bloor and Katherine Sedman, and of course, the students from Eskdale School and Old Farm School.

The Ideas Foundation invites the RSA community to get involved in mentoring students or providing creative experiences. To learn how, contact: heather@ideasfoundation.org.uk.

This feature first appeared in RSA Journal Issue 4 2024.