A new performance celebrating the art of protest with P5 & P6 pupils from St Teresa’s Primary School in North Glasgow.

Choreographer and facilitator Saffy Setohy, working with dance artist Joanna Young, has been running weekly creative workshops in the school as part of  Fly The Flag, a unique annual nationwide celebration of human rights. The workshops will culminate in a special performance for the local community on 17 June at the Cowlairs Labyrinth in North Glasgow.

Since 2020 Saffy Setohy with other artists, has been working with the children and parents of St Teresa’s Primary School exploring their rights to “safe clean routes to school”, originally as part of Sharing Cowlairs – a collaborative arts, ecology and community project supported by the Glasgow Life Artist in Residence programme. The school is sited next to a large area of land which has lain “derelict” for thirty years and which the children pass through every day. The children and many other local people care about the place, are occupying it in different ways and want to have a say in its future regeneration.

Through collaboration with the wider community and partner organisations, an old brick structure has been transformed into a labyrinth and garden. A place for rest, reflection, and play, by the community, for the community.

National Theatre of Scotland’s Fly The Flag project is a performance celebrating this creative work, as well as the children’s right to occupy the land and share it with other living species. It is a creative protest, a clarion call. Caring for our planet starts at home!

This presentation in Glasgow, as part of Fly The Flag’s UK wide engagement project brings young people together locally to celebrate and remember that human rights are for everyone, every day.

About Fly the Flag

A collaboration between arts organisations and human rights charities, Fly The Flag celebrates and reminds us of the human rights we all share, in particular, raising awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) amongst young people and shining a light where human rights are violated.

This year  Fly The Flag is highlighting Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the right to protest and has invited young people across the four nations of the UK to co-create work with leading theatre artists and associates around this theme.

Fly The Flag is co-produced by Fuel, the National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre Wales and The Mac. The lead artist for the UK-wide project is Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director of Graeae Theatre.