Urban Fairytales was a cross artform project working with year 5 pupils from Webster Primary school. With an aim to inspire writing, MA Creative Writing students Karin & Ellie from MMU went into the classroom to talk to the children about being writers and the writing process. The children learnt about what inspires them from everyday characters, objects and places, where they write and listened to their own stories.

We started by looking at traditional fairytales; their motifs,characters and story structure before introducing them to the concept of contemporary Urban Fairytales. The Urban Fairytales day at Z-arts focused on characters, the children took part in drama, visual art and writing workshops with artists to spark their imaginations.

ODD Theatre Company performed a funny modern day version of Cinderella with Blackberrys, BMXs and a Manchester backdrop and explored places and settings and potential modern day hero and villain characters such as dinnerladys & librarians!

Later we ran a Live drawing session with Illustrator Tasha Whittle, learning how to add emotions and feelings to characters, the children also went on sketching walks around Hulme looking at locations and buildings.

The finished storybooks were exhibited at MMUs Out of Schools Exhibition in lovely 3D treehouses.