Kettle’s Yard has been programming CIRCUIT since 2014, when it was funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The programme enabled and encouraged young people to have a voice in cultural spaces. Taking on this premise, we rebooted the programme in 2024, working with our community partners to enable more young adults to be creative leaders in their city.
Since reforming CIRCUIT, the group have worked on several projects with different artists, each time growing in their creative confidence and decision-making skills. Whilst a core group of members has been established, every couple of sessions CIRCUIT warmly welcomes in new members to the team. This rolling open door policy enables young adults to join who may have complicated lives and struggle with committing to long term projects.
In 2024, CIRCUIT began by working with artist Kaitlin Ferguson in a pilot series of sessions, exploring different ways of being creative each week to see what resonated with them, and to learn to accept that mistakes can contribute to creativity. Using a variety of artistic techniques including clay, and digital drawing, the group produced a video of their work, proudly displayed at Kettle’s Yard on the window to our Clore Learning Studio. Most of the young adults had never been in a gallery or museum setting before, unless it was as part of a school trip. As the sessions progressed, the group started to not want to leave at the end of sessions – always a sign that something is going right.
Art created during CIRCUIT session
Following this pilot, CIRCUIT worked with artist Hannah Kemp Welch. They learnt how to use an 8mm analogue film camera to make a video that explored why being a member of CIRCUIT at Kettle’s Yard was important to them. They developed the film by hand, recorded voiceovers and sound clips around the house to add ambient noise, and pieced the visuals and the audio together on an iPad – a device they were a little more familiar with. Watch the videos below.
For their most recent project, CIRCUIT had the pleasure of working with artist Harold Offeh, who asked them to create a zine which responded to his exhibition at Kettle’s Yard: Mmm Gotta Try a Little Harder, It Could Be Sweet. Harold explored themes of dreams with the group, enabling each member to contribute their ideas and experiences. The group also collaborated with artist Lily Ash Sakula who took them through different zine types, and how to get ideas down on to a page. The zine was printed using a risograph and launched as a part of the LATE at Kettle’s Yard event in January 2026, and was available for exhibition visitors to take away.
CIRCUIT continues to meet on Thursday evenings, and the group are currently creating responses to the upcoming exhibition Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today. The group are constantly shaping what the programme could become and looking forward as an established, embedded part of Kettle’s Yard, with CIRCUIT offering participants a safe space to be creative.
CIRCUIT
Community and Learning at Kettle's Yard
