Ignite! past and future:

History

Ignite! was established as an independent company in October 2006, limited by guarantee and with an application for charitable status pending.

The company has grown out of the pilot project at NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. The programme was set up in 2003 to identify and support exceptionally creative young people between the ages of ten and twenty-one. In the first three years Ignite! supported over 120 exceptionally creative young people, devised, tested and evaluated a series of creativity workshops and residential labs, appointed and trained a comprehensive mentoring network, and created a range of materials and resources for identifying and supporting the development of creative capacities in young people.

We supported teachers and schools to develop their own projects around creativity and creative thinking, and worked in the West Midlands, South West and in Northern Ireland in particular. Ignite! worked with thousands of young people in workshops, and supported 120 directly as part of the programme. In 2005 we started work with young people in the South West who attended Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) which opened up a new direction for us.

In 2006, NESTA supported Ignite! to take the step into independence. We still manage a legacy of young awardees from the NESTA programme, and now work with other partners to build on that experience.