The Institute of Everything
2018 - 2022
A project with primary schools, exploring learning through creativity and critical thinking.
Institute of Everything, a collaboration between Fevered Sleep and Clifton Green Primary School in York, began exploring learning through creativity and critical thinking in 2018. The project’s first phase saw Fevered Sleep’s artistic directors David Harradine and Sam Butler, alongside a range of artists from different disciplines, introducing their ways of thinking and creating to the whole school community.
From an encounter exploring a staff member’s experience of displacement, to interspecies dialogue through communication with the school’s dog – Institute of Everything was broad-ranging, exciting and sought to inspire the children and staff as agents of change and creativity. Then came Covid-19 and the pandemic-induced hiatus, when everything ground to a halt…
Institute of Everything by Fevered Sleep, 2018
Institute of Everything by Izzy Brittain, 2022. Photo by Coralie Datta
Why don’t we let children think creatively?
Institute of Everything by Fevered Sleep, 2022. Photo by David Harradine
We were finally able to return to the school Autumn 2022. Planning discussions suggested that a more focused approach would be most supportive. In particular, Year 3 were identified as being severely impacted by the pandemic, having missed two formative early years of schooling. We invited associate artist Izzy Brittain to be a consistent presence, curating and delivering a term-long festival of creative care and recovery with the year group.
The arc of the term focused on care for self, environment and other, moving primarily between three approaches: improvised movement and music, yoga and mindfulness, nature connection and tactile work. We got our hands dirty exploring ‘what’s beneath’, and created radical visions of kid-centric futures through dance, sound, drawing and resting practices. The culmination is the Clifton Kids Takeover of the Winter Edition of Artychoke Zine, a seasonal magazine dedicated to the arts as a means of resistance.
A festival of creative care and recovery post-Covid.
Institute of Everything by Fevered Sleep, 2018. Photo by John Hattam.
Meet the team
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS (2022)
Izzy Brittain
ACCA Collab
Abdullah Adekola
Michaela Lesayova
Tora Hed
Georgie Buchanan
Coralie Datta
James Dearden Bush
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS (2018-19)
Alex McLean
Amanda Holiday
Catherine Long
Garry Cook
Hannah Buckley
Hannah Sullivan
Kate Lane
Lewys Holt
Nicola Singh
Rachel Briscoe
Rayvenn Shaleigha D'Clark
PROJECT MANAGER (2018-19)
Clare Price
Supported by
Wellcome
Paul Hamlyn Foundation