Big and Small

Big and Small was a Big Lottery Funded project, led by Tate Britain’s Early Years and Family team working in partnership with local centres and services in Westminster and Lambeth. The overarching aim of Big and Small was to support families who do not access cultural provision due to actual or perceived barriers, to develop the confidence and skills to access local arts organisations and engage in creative activities as a family.

The Big and Small project comprised sustained artist-led outreach projects in community settings, in-gallery events such as monthly First Fridays and large scale Family Day holiday events and resource projects; all of which were designed to support and engage target families. The programme was delivered by artists working in a range of disciplines, including visual arts, dance, sound and film.

Working with professionals in local settings and services enabled us to reach our target audiences. We worked with parents and carers with young children in Lambeth and Westminster who were considered disadvantaged or hard to reach due to socio-economic, cultural, intellectual and physical barriers.

Big and Small delivered five years of projects, events and resources for target groups, reaching 19,436 people including families who had experienced temporary housing, families who had low literacy levels or English as a second language, families with migrant or refugee status, foster families, and families with children experiencing speech and language difficulties and other special needs.

As a result of the learning from the Big and Small project, the Early Years and Families team continue to run a series of monthly First Friday events at Tate Britain for first time visitors. We continue to communicate to the network of Big and Small partners and families through a monthly e-bulletin and seasonal consultation group meetings. A series of monthly Third Thursday events for first time visitors commenced at Tate Modern in July 2014. 

The film above explores the different strands of the Big and Small project, including interviews and footage of tasters at Queen’s Park Children’s Centre, Churchill Gardens’ Children’s Centre, as well as Speech and Language and Foster Family projects held at Tate Britain. Thanks to all partners and families for their generous contribution to the making of the film.