Our cultural exchange correspondent Angus Young reports on an outfit from over here doing very well over there.
A Hull-based education company is encouraging young people across Bradford to design their own escape room challenges as part of the 2025 UK City of Culture. Tutors and designers from Creative Briefs spent three days working with a small group of special needs youngsters from Bradford schools earlier this year in the initial phase of the project.
Based in Albert Avenue in Hull, the company specialises in working with young people with special education needs (SEND). Bradford 2025 first approached Creative Briefs after seeing their work on an Arts Council England-funded project with virtual schools in North Yorkshire, recognising its potential for young people in their own area. In the pilot stage, children designed an escape room using locks, codes, puzzles, tasks and clues. It was then tested by a group of participants who had to crack the codes and use clues to escape.
Now the team at Creative Briefs is returning to West Yorkshire in November to oversee a roll-out of the project in select special educational needs settings and alternative provisions in the district as part of Bradford 2025’s PLAY programme. Creative Briefs founder Jason Bowers said: “It’s been a great project so far and we are really looking forward to going back to Bradford later this year. It’s also been a bit of an education for us too because many of our team had never been to an escape room before. As part of our preparation, we did the one in Princes Quay with some of our young people in Hull and it gave us some new ideas. It was a great experience and it was really well designed.
“Doing the pilot in Bradford allowed us to test things out over three days and the young people thrived on the experience. The experience offered more than just fun. It was a deep dive into problem-solving linked to real-world skills and future potential careers in the art, design and digital sectors.”
As well as developing new design skills, the young people taking part also learned about legendary escape artist Harry Houdini and met some of the Bradford 2025 team involved in large-scale creative projects forming part of the UK City of Culture programme. At the end of the three-day sessions, the pupils also received Discover Arts Award, an introductory national qualification aimed at encouraging the creative development of young people.
Jason added: “By embedding Arts Award into the Escape Room Challenge, we created opportunity for skill-building, creative growth, confidence and links to creative careers, while having a lot of fun at the same time. It’s very exciting to be part of Bradford’s year in the cultural spotlight. The Bradford 2025 team have been fantastic to work with and we are looking forward to the next stage of this project and beyond”