Blueprint
Creative routes for young people aged 13–25 in Bexhill and beyond.
Blueprint is De La Warr Pavilion’s programme for young people aged 15–25, led by our Learning team. The programme provides opportunities to develop creative leadership skills, produce artistic events, and make cultural impact at De La Warr Pavilion and within the wider community.
Through hands-on projects, residencies, mentoring, and events, Blueprint offers multiple routes into the arts – whether you’re interested in making, curating, designing, facilitating, or simply trying something new.
Previous Blueprint projects have included the Blueprint Collective (2022–2024), where young people co-created exhibitions, events, and campaigns alongside artists and Pavilion teams.
You can see more information about these projects here.
Now, Blueprint continues through five strands designed to open up different pathways into creative practice.
WHAT'S ON THIS SUMMER
Throughout August, our Gather sessions for Years 7 to 13 will take place every Monday, while our creative socials for 18 to 25-year-olds will continue on Thursdays as usual.
We’ve invited a range of talented artists and makers to lead hands-on workshops in ceramics, woodwork, hair, and nails, giving you the chance to learn something new and get creative. Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to tackle an escape room with friends, we’ve got one coming up too (for school years 7-13)!
Take a look below at some of our upcoming events and join us for a fantastic month of creativity, connection, and fun.
Blueprint: Gather
A relaxed, welcoming space for young people to hang out, meet others, and feel at home at DLWP.
Blueprint: Gather is our open youth club. You can drop in, spend time with friends, make new ones, and take part in simple activities if you’d like. There’s no pressure to be “good at” anything and no need to book.
Find your Gather session
Blueprint: Gather runs different sessions for different age groups. Click below to find out more:
Youth Club
for school years 7 to 9Thursday 10 September –
Thursday 25 February
Youth Club
for school years 10 to 13Thursday 10 September –
Thursday 25 February
Blueprint: Gather Creative Social
Social Meet Ups for 18 - 25 year oldsThursday 29 October –
Thursday 18 February
Collaborative artist residencies where young people and artists create public takeovers, events, or installations in the building.
Projects have included:
· Film-making with exhibiting artist Callum Hill, culminating in a youth-led Pavilion Late screening event alongside St Leonards-based Benbow Youth Film Collective
· Fibre to Fibre, a textiles project led by artist–teacher Lara Hailey responding to Tayhin by Claudia Alarcón & Silat. These works were exhibited in the Rooftop Foyer, launching during Bexhill Art Weekender.
Creative youth projects that take place beyond DLWP’s walls — in schools, youth clubs, public spaces, and community-led settings across our region.
This strand has included a partnership with Bexhill Academy Art Club, where young people collaborated with artist Corbin Shaw to design sports shirts responding to Allan Weber’s My Order, exhibited as part of Bexhill Art Weekender.
Upcoming Blueprint: Go projects include a collaboration with Bexhill Train Station, exploring placemaking and community identity, see more here.
partnership with Talent Accelerator
One-to-one mentoring and creative development for young people exploring socially engaged practice and facilitation.
This programme runs in two ways:
1. Emerging Creative Facilitator roles — paid, mentored positions that support our Learning and Skills programmes. Local artist Harper Fairbrass is the current facilitator within the Creative Sidley project team.
2. Short creative placements — focused on developing and delivering a one-off workshop or project with mentoring support from the Learning team. Three placements take place each academic year, with the first planned for December 2025 – January 2026.
These two routes offer flexible entry points for young people at different stages of their creative journey.
A strand for reflection, documentation, and connection – where participants from across the Blueprint programme are invited to come together and share stories, ideas, and experiences.
Blueprint: Echo focuses on documenting, storytelling, and conversation, creating space for young people to explore what the projects have meant to them and to shape how their voices are represented.
This might happen through sharing young people’s work on our platforms so others can continue to experience it, through young people hosting their own event to talk about their experiences, or through creating a piece of physical documentation.
See Blueprint: Echo in action – watch the Pavilion Late films with Callum Hill on our YouTube Channel.
Image credits
Photos by Alina Khrebtova and DLWP.