Youth Panel

About this event

Our Youth Panel, for young people aged 14 – 18, offers collective work experience opportunities across The MERL and Reading Museum as part of Museums Partnership Reading’s youth programme. We meet monthly to work on a variety of exciting projects which are great for developing a range of transferable skills. Our panel members influence current projects and programming and are change-makers within Reading’s culture and heritage sector.

Current Project: Pressing Matters

If you are creative-minded with a passion for writing, then this project is for you. Over 4 hands-on creative writing and book design workshops, you will try out different techniques for writing about a range of topics including identities, mental health and social justice. Inspired by the MERL’s holdings of material by Virginia Woolf and her circle, together we will produce a book of our writing and artwork. No prior experience is needed; each member will receive a copy of the book. 

These workshops will be led by writer and researcher Sarah Barnsley, whose books include a poetry collection about invisible disability, The Thoughts (2022), as well as 20th-century literary criticism.  

Upcoming dates

• 15 Oct
• 19 Nov
• 17 Dec

For more information on how to join, please contact merlevents@reading.ac.uk.