Kid Carpet Comes to Wigan!

The Old Courts is really excited to welcome in the second year of Moving Roots after the incredible success of Rent Party last year. With the aim of exploring new ways of working with our local community here in Wigan, 2022 will see acclaimed artist Kid Carpet work alongside Millbrook Primary School on new collaborative show Epic Fail!

What is Moving Roots?

Moving Roots is a collective of arts organisations spanning across the UK. Over three years, our aim is to explore new ways of creating theatre and live performance in local communities. Since 2021, we’ve been working closely with our community to create opportunities that celebrate local people, their voices and stories.

Last year, Moving Roots brought Rent Party to The Old Courts. A fantastic collaborative show that brought together a cast of talented local creatives to work alongside renowned artist, Darren Pritchard (House of Ghetto). Each partnership area was able to re-imagine Darren’s show with their own local context; passing the mic around the working class communities and platforming the incredible talents of professional, unheard artists in Wigan. Check out more info here.

What is co-creation?

Co-creation delegates leadership to the local people involved in the activity. We want to challenge the top down way of working and encourage a conversation that exists after the life of a project. By giving people more agency and power over decision making, we start to encourage people to shape their own experiences, be the author of their own stories and start to make what feels relevant for them in their hometown. This project works alongside artists as collaborators, platforming the important voices in Wigan.

What’s next for Wigan?

For our second year of Moving Roots, The Old Courts is teaming up with artist Kid Carpet to address the topic of failure in children and young people. Working with the Year 5 pupils at Millbrook Primary School, this project will look to demystify what it might mean to fail and look for new ways to embrace failure and second chances. Working especially with the age range as they transition out of pandemic teaching and into secondary school, we find ways of addressing wellbeing and confidence in young people in new and creative ways.

“Epic Fail is a project made with, by and for young people and their families about failure and wellbeing. Using the lens of Engineering and Art, our primary school residences explore failure as a virtue with young people using fun, engaging and interactive methods” Ed Patrick – Kid Carpet

Kid Carpet is a musician and performance maker, failure has always been key to his work. What if we embraced failure as a virtue in the same way we embrace success? This is Epic Fail.

Moving Roots is generously supported by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.

Our partners are Battersea Arts Centre, Jumped Up Theatre, Common Wealth Theatre and Restoke.