Devising with Curiosity

Young People and Heritage

 

This wasn’t about teaching history. Instead, heritage became a lens - a way to ask questions, make connections, and explore how the past lives on in the present.

 

Rather than deliver information, we created space to explore. Through oral histories, improvisation, and site-specific prompts, the group developed their own material. What mattered most wasn’t what they knew about heritage, but how they related to it.

​

We kept coming back to four key ideas:

• Questioning

• Relevance

• Artistic decision-making

• Skills development

 

Here’s how each one played out in the room, and how you might try them with your own group.

​

 

1. Questioning as a Starting Point

 

We began with open-ended questions. Not to extract answers, but to dig a little deeper. What do you care about here? What’s worth preserving? What feels like it's slipping away?

​

One improvisation explored the closure of a local shop. At first, the response was indifferent. But the more we talked, the more questions surfaced: What do we really lose when a space disappears? Why do certain places matter?

 

One participant said, “My clothes come from Primark. They don’t have heritage.” That comment opened up a whole discussion on fast fashion, cultural value, and who decides what heritage is.

 

Try this: Questioning the Past, Present & Future

​

Give small groups a heritage theme (like tailoring, food markets, or festivals). Ask:

• Why did this matter to people in the past?

• Who was involved in it?

• How does it show up—or not—in our lives today?

Invite them to create short scenes reimagining that heritage now: a family debating what to do with a grandparent’s old sewing machine, or a teenager scrolling fast fashion while thinking about a tailor in their family tree.

​

 

2. Making It Relevant

 

Some young people found it hard to connect with tailoring at first. But once we looked at why it mattered - body image, self-expression, identity - it started to resonate.

​

Tailoring led to questions about standard sizing, self-esteem, and how we present ourselves. Suddenly, heritage wasn’t just about history. It was about now.

 

“I think the project gave them space to put things like social media, body shaming, and body positivity into some kind of order in their minds.”

 

Try this: “Heritage vs. Fast Fashion” Debate

 

Split the group for a playful debate. One side champions traditional craftsmanship, the other argues for the benefits of fast fashion.

 

Ask:

• Does fast fashion make style more accessible, or exploit workers?

• Is tailoring old-fashioned—or something we’re missing?

• How does social media shape what we value in clothes?

​

Follow it up with visual storytelling: create a fashion timeline or a “heritage-inspired” runway show. Reflect on what’s gained, and what’s lost.

​

 

3. Using Heritage as a Creative Tool

 

Unlike other projects where history offered a clear storyline (like WWII or the NHS), this one was more abstract.

 

That gave us freedom.

 

Some participants built characters inspired by market traders. Others imagined new identities through fabric, texture, and style. The result felt like a collage, not a single story, but a shared space for questions, memories, and aesthetics.

​

“We’ve probably found that Tooting is a diverse community—but through the lens of what we wear, maybe we’ve also seen how people are tribal, generationally and culturally.”

​

Try this: Heritage-Inspired Character Building

​

Invite students to invent a character who might have lived through a moment in local history.

Ask:

• What do they wear?

• How do they speak and move?

• What do they care about?

 

Then, have them embody that character physically. How does their clothing affect their posture, presence, energy? Let imagination and research blend.

​

 

4. Building Skills Alongside Stories

 

Throughout the process, participants weren’t just learning about heritage. They were building confidence, critical thinking, and collaborative skills. They learned how to reflect, shape ideas, and own their perspectives.

“We actually wanted to help them ask better questions—curate their own ideas, develop their opinions. That’s where the learning really happened.”

 

What began as a heritage project turned into a space for self-expression and growth.

 

Try this: Improvisation from Personal Heritage

​

Ask each participant to bring or describe an object, tradition, or memory from their family or cultural background. Use it as the starting point for a short improvisation.

 

What story does it hold? What does it say about who they are now?

 

Weave the stories into an ensemble piece: perhaps set in a fictional market, home, or tailor’s workshop, with each item bringing a thread of meaning.

​

 

5. Finding Themselves in the Story

 

Not every participant said they’d learned more about their heritage. But through the work, powerful stories surfaced, often unexpectedly.

​

A boy shared how his grandmother worked in a sewing machine factory in the Czech Republic. A girl connected with her Italian roots after learning about fashion designer Priya Ahluwalia. These weren’t facts handed down - they were discoveries made in the doing.

​

“The boy who never usually engages suddenly had this whole story about his grandmother sewing… he hadn’t connected it to the project until then.”

 

Try this: Ensemble Heritage Mapping

​

On a large map or shared paper, invite young people to draw or note down where their family’s from, and any traditions they know.

Then, devise a performance where those heritages intersect—on a bus, at a festival, in a tailor’s shop.

Reflect together:

• What surprised you about your story—or someone else’s?

• How do different heritages blend, collide, or connect?

​

 

Final Thoughts: Heritage as a Way of Noticing

 

What surprised us most was how heritage became a way of seeing, not just something to learn about, but something to look through.

​

Participants started noticing things differently. Fabric shops became symbols of home. Instagram filters led to questions about identity. And fast fashion sparked debates about value, memory, and change.

​

“The world isn’t going back to small independent shops or tailored clothes. So you have to ask: what do I want to hold on to?”

 

For anyone working with young people, our biggest takeaway is this: heritage doesn’t need to feel like a history lesson. It can be open, curious, surprising, and deeply personal.

​

Let young people lead the way. Give them space to ask the questions, make the connections, and tell the stories that matter to them.

 

That’s where the real heritage lives.