Education & Community Officer
Hi, I’m Louise Kerwin, the Opera House’s Education & Community Officer. My job divides itself into three main areas:
- Liaising with schools and professional theatre and dance companies, to organise workshops in schools. This gives primary and secondary age students the opportunity to work with professional actors and dancers. These are known as our “Schools Specials” series, in which half of the cost of a workshop is paid for by the Opera House if the school brings 10 or more students to the relevant performance.
- I also organise holiday-time programmes of performances and workshops in dance, drama, music, art, puppetry, and photography, for young people from toddlers to teenagers. The workshops take place in different venues in Buxton and often involve working in partnership with agencies such as Sure Start, the Derbyshire Youth Service, the Library Service and the University of Derby, Buxton.
- Organising larger scale projects is also a part of my work. These can be as diverse as a High Peak Dance Residency in partnership with Derby Dance or the third No More Chocolate! Easter Children’s Festival, due to take place from 30 March to 23 April 2008. This festival will include workshops and performances for children aged 1 to 12 and their families.
I also provide tours of the Opera House for school groups.
If you are an experienced artist in any artform and would like to discuss working with the Opera House’s education & community programme please don’t hesitate to contact me on 01298 72050 or .