Magic Acorns has grown out of a 25-year legacy of pioneering work in early childhood arts with families in Great Yarmouth in the East of England.
Our vision
A world that recognises and values the innate creativity and curiosity of people under three – a world where their unique ways of understanding are honoured through extraordinary arts experiences.
Our mission
To co-create multi-sensory arts experiences, guided by very young children’s ways of engaging with the world. By championing children as experts in creativity, we design nurturing spaces where under 3s and their grown ups can explore, make, move, and connect. We bring together children, artists, researchers, and educators to play, create, question – and ultimately shape the future of early years arts.
Our values guide everything we do:
Children’s ways of knowing: We respect young children as powerful thinkers, makers, and our most valued partners in creativity.
Creativity: We love to play, and we are guided by children in all our artistic explorations.
Community: People are at the heart of everything we do. We’re building an open, inclusive community of early years arts practice in Great Yarmouth and beyond.
Collaboration: We grow connections and plant possibilities by creating welcoming, nurturing spaces for children, families, artists, and educators to create and play together.
Curiosity: We listen, learn, and research with children, whilst making space for reflection, rest and response.
Care: We create thoughtful, inclusive spaces where people, places, and ideas can grow with empathy and unhurried time.
What we do
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Creative sessions for children and families
We run weekly sessions for people aged 0-3 to explore and play with materials, sound and objects in our fabulous multi-sensory space, hosted by Magic Acorns’ specialist early years artists.Book a session -
Creative training
We deliver inspirational, cutting-edge creative professional development training to early years practitioners, artists and cultural organisations.Find out more -
Research
We are creative researchers with an international reputation for boundary-pushing thinking in arts and education. Academic research, philosophy and thinking-with-children reflects and informs all our artistic work. Together with children, families and artists, we ensure exploration and enquiry are the creative heart of our culture.Find out more -
Artist development
We offer paid artistic opportunities, mentoring, and residencies to bring artists together with children and families to play, create and develop their practice. We recognise the multiple difficulties of freelance work and want to nurture artists and grow our community of practice through an ethics of care.Find out more