- Arts-Engagement-And-Outreach-November-2025-News
Arts Engagement & Outreach: November 2025 News
Arts Engagement & Outreach: November News
Here’s a taste of what our Arts Engagement & Outreach team at The Octagon & Westlands have been busy working on this month…
Our Arts Engagement & Outreach team develop and deliver programmes and activities that benefit health and wellbeing, enrich learning and education in and outside school, inspire and celebrate talent. Creating work that will support local artists and tell “local stories”. In everything we do and programme we will seek to improve inclusion and remove barriers, whatever they may be, so that everyone is able to enjoy and benefit from the creative arts. Our Arts Engagement & Outreach team look to provide more opportunities for our communities to watch, take part and benefit from arts and cultural activities where they live.
November has been a vibrant and memorable month, alive with creativity and community spirit. From championing local events to welcoming over 320 GCSE and BTEC students from across Somerset and Dorset to a specially designed BSO Concert to support their studies. Our inspiring community platform ‘A Christmas Extravaganza’ saw over 200 people came together to perform live and celebrate the joy of singing, dancing, and acting, and we hosted a Creative Careers Day where more than 60 students tried their hands at acting, directing, producing, lighting, sound, and stage management.
Please read more below
Productions & Events
Over 200 People Stepped into the Spotlight
On Friday 28 November 2025, Westlands Entertainment Venue hosted A Christmas Extravaganza, a spectacular evening of song, dance, and spoken word. Nearly 300 audience members enjoyed performances from over 200 participants, drawn from the venue’s own classes and local community groups. The stage came alive with talent from the Octagon Choir, Octagon Street Dance, Somerset Youth Dance Company including Tinys and Juniors, Octagon Tappers, Jazz Dance, THUMKA Bollywood, Octagon Junior Choir, and the Octagon Youth Theatre. They were joined by two fantastic local groups: the Suzie Q’s and Langport Youth Club. Community events like this provide a wonderful opportunity for performers of all ages to shine—whether it’s their first time on stage or their hundredth. The evening truly celebrated creativity, collaboration, and the festive spirit.
“All our young performers who took part in A Christmas Extravaganza performing with the Octagon Youth Theatre had a wonderful time. For many it was their first time performing on a professional stage and it was their first time performing together as a company. The experience has been instrumental in boosting their confidence, growing their understanding of a working theatre and professionalising the youth company.” Octagon Youth Theatre Teacher
Immersive Sensory Theatre Captivates Families
This month, we were delighted to partner with Oily Cart in presenting two immersive sensory experiences for babies, young people, and their carers at Westlands.
When the World Turns is an award-winning, accessible show created for and with disabled children and young people who face the greatest barriers to access. 16 young people and their carers were captivated as the studio was transformed into an immersive sensory landscape, complete with surround sound, singing, dynamic lighting, shadows, scents, flowing water, puppetry, and more than 300 plants.
Oily Cart also welcomed 19 babies aged 0–12 months and their carers to Great Big Tiny World, a sensory theatre journey like no other. Families explored a vibrant ecosystem where every sound, scent, shadow, and touch carried meaning—igniting curiosity, magic, and wonder. For some babies, it was their very first encounter with theatre, experienced through the excitement of music, textures, and discovery. Together, these performances opened doors to creativity and connection, ensuring that everyone has the chance to experience live performance.
All audience members who responded to our after-show survey said it was unlike anything they had experienced before and felt the production was exceptionally well thought through.
“The performers’ ability to connect and adapt during the experience was a testament to their skills.” Audience
Celebrating Community Spirit
This month brought a wonderful opportunity to nurture community bonds with local residents at both the Birchfield Celebration Event and Bridgwater Together. Over 50 community members joined us for an afternoon filled with creativity, fun, and community connection. Our team led arts and crafts workshops, where families and young people crafted beautiful paper roses inspired by the enchanting world of our upcoming Beauty and the Beast pantomime at Westlands Entertainment Venue. Alongside the hands-on fun, we shared news about our weekly classes, inclusive initiatives, and exciting shows we have coming up.
Bridgwater Together was a vibrant celebration of culture, featuring Bulgarian and Greek dancing, folk music, and films that offered insights into diverse backgrounds and traditions. Participants also enjoyed board games, delicious food, and music from many cultures, creating a joyful atmosphere of discovery and connection.
Together, these events highlight the warmth, talent, and energy that make our community so unique, while strengthening community spirit.
“The schemes you offer are amazing for the community” Community Member
Rediscovering Identity and Wellbeing Through Dance
Our Movement Through Cancer project offers specialist dance sessions for people undergoing cancer treatment, in recovery, and beyond. Samantha Gillingham, co-teacher of the project, recently completed her MSc research project with some of our Movement Through Cancer dancers. Her research highlights how this specialist dance project helps to address a critical gap in cancer care by offering dance as an artistic, person-centred approach to support health and wellbeing, rather than a clinical intervention. Her studies found that by dancing, participants experienced a rediscovery of identity beyond illness, reclaimed their bodies with kindness and autonomy, built joyful connections through music and movement, and reduced isolation through peer support. The report demonstrates how dance can complement healthcare by nurturing emotional, social, and physical wellbeing, positioning Movement Through Cancer as a transformative, community-driven initiative that restores confidence, agency, and joy for people living with and beyond cancer. We are proud of how these unique, specialist classes support our dancers, and of Samantha, for completing such compelling research that will contribute vital knowledge to the dance in cancer care field, and will support future research and advocacy for this important work.
“It brings the barriers down … you drop any façade that’s there and you’re just you.” Movement Through Cancer participant
Developing Students’ Knowledge and Understanding for GCSE
We welcomed back the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for a concert designed specifically for students studying GCSE and BTEC Music. Over 320 young people from 15 secondary schools travelled from across Somerset and Dorset to participate. The concert explored key composers featured on GCSE syllabi, contextual factors that influence composition, and showcased how pivotal works are performed professionally. The orchestra also performed compositions from two schools and featured a student flautist who accompanied the ensemble, an experience that left a powerful impression on both students and teachers. This concert aimed to bring schools together and to not only increase understanding of course content, but to expose students to a range of live orchestral pieces. Teachers reported that the event supported their own professional development and deepened their understanding of classical genres.
“As a non-specialist in this area, I feel more confident and better equipped within this genre of music after this concert and I feel that this has offered my students an exposure to music that we could not have at our school” Teacher, Holyrood Academy
Engaging and Nurturing a Love for Music at an Early Age
As part of our Elevate Programme, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) visited 6 primary schools in Somerset, delivering workshops that introduced KS1 students to the orchestra and its instrument families. Over 150 students explored the sounds of different orchestral instruments through live demonstrations and collaborated as a class to create their own song. The sense of ownership and empowerment was evident throughout, with students contributing ideas with enthusiasm and confidence. The songs created will be developed by BSO and taught to the children ahead of their live performance at our KS1 Concert in April.
'Thats our song! I helped you make that!' Year 1 Student, Milford Infants
Inspiring Student Creativity Through Design
At the beginning of November, we hosted the Royal Opera House Stage Design CPD Day, offering 8 primary and secondary school teachers and assistants specialist training to deliver a five-lesson Set Design course. This course develops students’ ‘design thinking’ using the same processes professional set designers use to bring a story from page to stage. Led by two professional designers, the workshop guided participants through hands-on resources that support creative problem-solving, career awareness, and connections between STEM and the arts. Participants praised the workshop’s versatility and its ability to link across multiple subjects.
“I found the workshop worked well across different subjects like Drama with its theatre element, Art and Design incorporating key terms like textures, colours, tone etc. and Design and Technology working out scaling for set models. From working in schools, they’re always looking to crossover subjects, and this lesson plan achieves that.” Participant
Discover! Creative Careers Month shines a light on routes into the industry
This month marked Discover! Creative Careers Month, and to celebrate we released a four-part video interview with international musical theatre star, Kerry Ellis. Available across all our social media platforms, these videos are designed to inform and inspire anyone considering a future in the arts. Each instalment highlights a key moment in Kerry’s journey from starting out, to auditioning, to her time in Wicked, and how she balanced creative work with other jobs along the way.
"’Wicked’ was a real training ground for me, I learnt so much about my voice and I learnt so much about myself" Kerry Ellis
Hands on experience in tech and production roles for secondary school students
60 year 7-9 students from Stanchester Academy, Bucklers Mead Academy, King Arthur School, and Holyrood Academy took part in November’s Creative Careers Day, exploring creative theatre pathways. Students tried their hands at acting, directing, producing, stage management, lighting, and sound. They staged a scene from The Woman in Black and a new piece of writing, directed, produced, stage managed and operated by the students themselves. The event broadened their understanding of onstage and offstage roles and highlighted real opportunities within the theatre industry. When surveyed, 100% said this was their first experience discovering technical theatre roles. Students left inspired to pursue creative futures in the performing arts and beyond.
“As an actor there is a lot more going on stage with the whole team that you have to think about.” Student
Driving Inclusion, Inspiring Change
In November the Octagon & Westlands Inclusion Group met to share their powerful perspectives on how we can continue to raise the standard for accessibility across our venues. Meeting three times a year, the group provides a welcoming forum where lived experiences guide us in removing both physical and invisible barriers for disabled visitors. Formed to ensure that disabled voices remain central to every decision we make, the group recently celebrated the positive impact of continuous improvements. Their feedback highlighted not only our responsiveness but also suggested that our approach could serve as a model for other venues striving to improve. We’re very thankful for the guidance and encouragement the Inclusion Group continues to bring. Their insights are making lasting, meaningful improvements that make Westlands a more inclusive space for everyone.
One member shared how even small adjustments can make a big difference:
“The disabled toilet door was very difficult to open. We mentioned this to yourself, and it has been sorted. Thank you, it’s now so much easier.” Member of Inclusion Group
To keep up to date with all the activities coming up head over to the What’s On section on our website or check out our Participate page which will link you to all our projects and upcoming opportunities.
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