Updates in extraordinary times

23rd March 2020

A message to all our friends and supporters from Starcatchers Chief Executive Rhona Matheson  

I hope you are all staying safe and well during this difficult time.

I just wanted to share an update with you about how we at Starcatchers are responding to the Covid-19 situation and what this means for our work. We are navigating a new landscape but the whole Starcatchers team are staying positive and focused on our commitment to inspiring babies and young children through arts and creative experiences.

Our work has always been rooted in connection and on face to face engagement with children, families, Early Years professionals and artists. The current restrictions we are navigating means we are having to adjust what we can offer over the coming weeks.

We had been preparing to bring Little Top, our co-production with SUPERFAN, to the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in May. Unfortunately, this is no longer taking place but we are working on future plans for this production and look forward to sharing these with you soon.

Over the past few months, we’ve had a number of artists working to develop new, innovative live performances especially for wee ones aged 0-5. We are continuing to work with these artists remotely over coming weeks and we hope we will have some things we can share with audiences later in the year.

For Expecting Something, our community engagement project we are finding new ways to stay connected with our participants and using online platforms to inspire them to engage in arts and creative activities with their little ones at home.

For the early years professionals who have taken part in our Creative Skills training programme, and the parents and children they work with, we’d like provide as much support as we can. Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing simple, low or no cost, creative ideas to help parents stay connected with their little ones. These will be shared widely and we hope they’re helpful for everyone.

We are also exploring ways in which we can enable artists to respond creatively to this current situation and create small projects that can be shared with children and families online. More on this to come!

We’ve always talked about how the arts bring people together, strengthen relationships, inspire and bring joy. These are challenging times but we hope there will be magical moments with little ones in households across Scotland. We’ll do all we can to help inspire these.

We will be sharing developments and opportunities with you by email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @StarcatchersUK

In the meantime, I hope you stay safe and well

Rhona

13th March 2020

At Starcatchers we are doing all we can to help ensure we’re supporting the health and wellbeing of those who participate in our projects, the artists who work with us and staff.

The situation with Coronavirus COVID-19 is continuously shifting, and all decisions about whether to run, cancel or postpone activity will be made with our partners and according to the latest official guidance.

We will remain in close contact with all participants and others affected and communicate decisions as early as possible.

This space will be where we share updated information but if you do have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@starcatchers.org.uk

If you are worried about Coronavirus COVID-19 more broadly please visit NHS Inform