Derbyshire Makes Our Future

I am a freelance Arts and Cultural Consultant, Producer and Practitioner who has been the project lead for the Derbyshire Makes Our Future ‘STEAM into ACTION’ pilot project, which ran throughout the spring of 2026, working alongside Circus Artist, Performer and Maker, Matt Pang and colleagues Hannah Barker and Steph Walsh from Arts Derbyshire and Derbyshire County Council respectively.

The pilot project involved working closely with five schools from across the county – two Junior, two secondary and one primary - to deliver a performance and workshop which enabled children and young people to actively engage in STEM learning through the lens of the arts & creativity, hence the project name STEAM into ACTION - the A standing for the Arts.

The creative inspiration came from a performance of Matt Pang’s show Thingamabob, which is a handmade chain reaction contraption in action, integrated with clowning and juggling. Each performance was carefully tailored to be accessible and engaging for the differing audiences in each school. And each performance was then followed by an interactive ‘Chain Reaction’ workshop, which Matt himself had designed and developed specifically for the pilot project. The workshop enabled participants to have a go at making their own ‘Thingamabob’ contraption out of hand-fashioned components and found objects in small groups.

There are a few statistics from the project which give an indication of its success. 309 children watched the performance of Thingamabob, and 230 children took part in the Chain Reaction workshop. Using the ‘show of hands’ method, 97% rated their enjoyment of the show as good or great, and 86% rated their enjoyment of the workshop as the same.

Throughout our time in the 5 schools, participants demonstrated curiosity, resilience, self-advocacy, problem solving and communication skills as well as insightful observations linked to science, technology, engineering, maths and the arts.

Please watch the film below, made by John Felix Films, which documents the pilot project. It was made with a second phase of the project in mind to inspire schools from across Derbyshire to take part in a STEAM into ACTION school’s challenge, which we will be releasing the details of soon, and plan to showcase the results during the spring of 2027 as part of the final Derbyshire Makes Festival season.

As part of the pilot project, I presented the project at the Derbyshire Makes Advanced Manufacturing Conference on the 16th of April at at Masson Mill. The historical and global significance of the venue was not lost on the speakers or delegates, who were mainly people who work in the advanced manufacturing sector. I found the whole event fascinating and inspiring and came away with lots of positive comments about the project as well as generous offers of support for phase 2.

As part of my presentation, I had the honour of interviewing four young people from Year 9 at Belper School and Sixth Form Centre who had taken part in the pilot project at the end of March. I asked them a few questions so that they could share their opinions on their experience of the project and their ambitions. One of them, said that they had found the performance and workshop ‘Mind blowing’ and another said that taking part in the project had confirmed their decision around doing an engineering apprenticeship. The courage and confidence of all four of them made a huge impact on those present and reminded everyone that investing in young people is essential for the future of our manufacturing and associated industries.

The pilot project tested out the methodology of approaching STEM learning through creativity and the arts. To a greater extent it was a successful trial, and we are in the process of taking the learning from this into the development of a county wide project as outlined above.

To do this we would very much like to link the second phase of the project with the manufacturing sector in Derbyshire, as this will provide real world experiences of and careers in STEM.  Also, we would like schools to get involved in phase 2 of the project (more information to follow in June). And if you are an artist or creative whose practice includes STEAM, you could be involved too.

And together we will STEAM into ACTION!

Clare Limb

Arts and Cultural Consultant, Producer and Practitioner

Clare Limb Creates

@clare_louise_limb

@clarelimb