Events
Launching Seen and Heard
12-15 February 2024 [Audience: Project Consortium]
Berlin, Germany
What is creative protest and how can it, as a genre, make young people’s voices heard? During this transnational meeting, we explore creative protests, young people’s rights, and their understanding of freedom of expression through various artistic media, including docuseries production, comic book illustration, slam poetry, and community theatre.
Participating artists include: Kate Coleman, Charlie Cauchi, Uli Decker, Ed Dingli, Grips Theatre, and Hamburger Bahnhof.
Workshop: Illustrating Protest, with Chris Riddell
October 2024 [Audience: Project Participants Ages 12-14]
Online, Malta, Germany, and Poland
The workshop will be led by Chris Riddell, a multi-award winning artist and one of the UK’s top contemporary illustrators and cartoonists. He is often celebrated for his inclusion of themes of ‘otherness’ and tolerance in books for young audiences without ever becoming didactic or pedantic. His own books include the highly-acclaimed Ottoline titles and the 2013 Costa Children’s Book Award-winning Goth Girl. He was appointed the UK Children’s Laureate in 2015 in recognition of his outstanding achievements in children’s literature.
Workshop: Creative Protest with Young People
09 December 2024 [Audience: Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
What power does a creative protest hold for young people? If you are an academic, educator, artist and/or activist, we would like to hear from you. Our approach is twofold: merging research and practice, we explore the history of protest, public knowledge of the human right to freedom of expression and what this means in lived experience, the impact of geopolitics on the opportunities and risks associated with protest, the value of intergenerational activism, and the role of different media in securing a platform for young people’s expression.
Seminar: Documenting Voices of Diverse Youth Communities and Freedom of Expression in Europe [Launch of the Seen and Heard Docuseries]
15 January 2025 [Audience: Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
Our Seen and Heard project is documented through a docuseries, featuring the creative protests of our young collaborators and conveying their voices, interests and positions. Directed by filmmaker Charlie Cauchi, this docuseries meant navigating the different challenges and opportunities that care-full activism brings with it. The development of the docuseries also meant facing ethical questions involved in producing artwork representing the voices of others. Supported by various participating schools, institutions and experts, documenting these voices has been an eye-opener and the artful outputs of the youth in its different media have become a vehicle for change. Book your place here.
Roundtable: The Process of Production and Participation in Social Movements Led by Young Migrants
15 January 2025 [Academics, Educators, Artists, and Young People in Project Consortium]
Online
Hear, hear! Young migrants will run a session with us on social movements and the young participants in the Seen and Heard will share their creative protests. Together, we will explore the topics that young migrants are most passionate about: issues of inequity, good case practice of successful resourcing, the role schools play in facilitating freedom of expression, importance of community and intergenerational support. Book your place here.
Roundtable: Literature and Human Rights Education [With the participation of Amnesty International]
30 April 2025 [Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
Literature acts as a window into the lives of others and a mirror of our own. How can we use literature as an art form enabling educators and young people to have a conversation about human rights, such as women’s rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression and assembly? Amnesty International’s vast portfolio of books and literary projects for children and young adults aimed at discussing these themes can shed light on this. Book your place here.
Amnesty International Human Rights Education Teacher Training Programme
20 June 2025 [Audience: Educators]
Online
Part of the legacy of the Seen and Heard project is the generation and dissemination of a toolkit for educators. Through this programme, we will be training educators to understand and express themselves openly and carefully about the rights of children and young people to discuss what freedom of expression means in different countries and contexts, and what activism through art could do to open doors for all. More details to be announced in due course.
Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression Conference
6 - 8 February 2026
Valletta, Malta
Details to be announced in due course.
A call for papers will be published in 2025.
Launching Seen and Heard
12-15 February 2024 [Audience: Project Consortium]
Berlin, Germany
What is creative protest and how can it, as a genre, make young people’s voices heard? During this transnational meeting, we explore creative protests, young people’s rights, and their understanding of freedom of expression through various artistic media, including docuseries production, comic book illustration, slam poetry, and community theatre.
Participating artists include: Kate Coleman, Charlie Cauchi, Uli Decker, Ed Dingli, Grips Theatre, and Hamburger Bahnhof.
Workshop: Illustrating Protest, with Chris Riddell
October 2024 [Audience: Project Participants Ages 12-14]
Online, Malta, Germany, and Poland
The workshop will be led by Chris Riddell, a multi-award winning artist and one of the UK’s top contemporary illustrators and cartoonists. He is often celebrated for his inclusion of themes of ‘otherness’ and tolerance in books for young audiences without ever becoming didactic or pedantic. His own books include the highly-acclaimed Ottoline titles and the 2013 Costa Children’s Book Award-winning Goth Girl. He was appointed the UK Children’s Laureate in 2015 in recognition of his outstanding achievements in children’s literature.
Workshop: Creative Protest with Young People
09 December 2024 [Audience: Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
What power does a creative protest hold for young people? If you are an academic, educator, artist and/or activist, we would like to hear from you. Our approach is twofold: merging research and practice, we explore the history of protest, public knowledge of the human right to freedom of expression and what this means in lived experience, the impact of geopolitics on the opportunities and risks associated with protest, the value of intergenerational activism, and the role of different media in securing a platform for young people’s expression.
Seminar: Documenting Voices of Diverse Youth Communities and Freedom of Expression in Europe [Launch of the Seen and Heard Docuseries]
15 January 2025 [Audience: Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
Our Seen and Heard project is documented through a docuseries, featuring the creative protests of our young collaborators and conveying their voices, interests and positions. Directed by filmmaker Charlie Cauchi, this docuseries meant navigating the different challenges and opportunities that care-full activism brings with it. The development of the docuseries also meant facing ethical questions involved in producing artwork representing the voices of others. Supported by various participating schools, institutions and experts, documenting these voices has been an eye-opener and the artful outputs of the youth in its different media have become a vehicle for change. Book your place here.
Roundtable: The Process of Production and Participation in Social Movements Led by Young Migrants
15 January 2025 [Academics, Educators, Artists, and Young People in Project Consortium]
Online
Hear, hear! Young migrants will run a session with us on social movements and the young participants in the Seen and Heard will share their creative protests. Together, we will explore the topics that young migrants are most passionate about: issues of inequity, good case practice of successful resourcing, the role schools play in facilitating freedom of expression, importance of community and intergenerational support. Book your place here.
Roundtable: Literature and Human Rights Education [With the participation of Amnesty International]
30 April 2025 [Academics, Educators, Activists, Artists]
Online
Literature acts as a window into the lives of others and a mirror of our own. How can we use literature as an art form enabling educators and young people to have a conversation about human rights, such as women’s rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression and assembly? Amnesty International’s vast portfolio of books and literary projects for children and young adults aimed at discussing these themes can shed light on this. Book your place here.
Amnesty International Human Rights Education Teacher Training Programme
20 June 2025 [Audience: Educators]
Online
Part of the legacy of the Seen and Heard project is the generation and dissemination of a toolkit for educators. Through this programme, we will be training educators to understand and express themselves openly and carefully about the rights of children and young people to discuss what freedom of expression means in different countries and contexts, and what activism through art could do to open doors for all. More details to be announced in due course.
Young People’s Voices and Freedom of Expression Conference
6 - 8 February 2026
Valletta, Malta
Details to be announced in due course.
A call for papers will be published in 2025.
