Changing Play is an ongoing partnership between Serpentine Education and the Portman Early Childhood Centre that brings together artists, children, parents, and educators to address issues impacting families with young children.
The Portman Early Childhood Centre serves children and families in North West London through a multi-agency approach, integrating early education with mental health support, ESOL classes, ante-natal and post-natal services, citizens and housing advice amongst many others. Over the last decade Serpentine Education has commissioned artists to collaborate with children, parents and workers at the Centre. Through embedded, long-term creative processes families and early years workers identify and respond to pressing social issues and work towards collective change. The programme celebrates and uplifts the creativity and resilience of families as they navigate austerity measures, hostile environment policies and an ableist education system. Tools developed in these projects are shared through workshops, forums, films, toolkits, and publications.
Changing Play builds on Serpentine’s commitment to exploring the role of artists in society, asking what possibilities can emerge from sustained, genuine engagement with the everyday realities, struggles, hopes, and dreams of young children and their families.
