An installation sharing the wisdom of local young people

As Medway regenerates, young people's words have been unleashed to inspire a better tomorrow.

Phase 1

Summer 2023 - Chatham
In May 2023, commissioned by Medway Cultural Education Partnership, Zest Theatre ran workshops with over 100 young people aged 8-18 across Medway. Our aim? To create space for young people to reflect on their experience of the last few years and release the voice of a generation. Co-led with local young people, these workshops enabled the next generation to share their thoughts and feelings about anything and everything – from daily life to big thoughts about perfectionism, love, and happiness. Then, in July 2023, their words were turned into vibrant artworks on building site hoardings and shop windows across Chatham Town Centre!

Phase 2

Spring 2024 - Gillingham and Strood
Following the success of the Chatham project, Zest ran workshops with 200 young people aged 7-16 across Gillingham and Strood! This time Zest created space for young people to gather their thoughts and feelings on climate change, cultivating hundreds of quotes that inspire hope for the local area, the planet, and our future. Those wise words can now be seen around Strood Town Centre and Pier Road in Gillingham!

click for Environmental informatioN & Advice

Refresh Medway places the voices of young people at the heart of their changing community, bringing colour and conversation to the place they call home!

#RefreshMedway

Gillingham Location

A long, colourful artwork runs along a huge wall next to a highway. Blocks of green, yellow, orange, and blue. There are words of young people, but they are too far away to read.

Pier Road

Staring local, going global

Medway is a wonderful place! Drive along Pier Road, and you’ll discover how changing the world starts with pride in the place you live.

Strood Locations

Community Hub Strood - thin, vertical artworks hang in strips on the windows. Each a bold colour. The words of children they share can't be seen from this distance.

Community Hub - High Street

Working together

Outside the Community Hub, practical suggestions to help the planet meet empowering calls for us all to work together.

Large colourful artworks hang on a large wall. The words they share are too far away to read.

Angel Corner

Save the World

At the heart of Strood, simple words on a huge wall make even bigger statements about the world's future.

Large festival flags line a narrow street. The flag nearest to us carries the quote 'We can make the world better'.

Strood Community Hub & Medway Archives Centre

Words for a better tomorrow

Look out for these colourful festival flags popping up in surprise locations all around Strood over the coming months. Discover inspirational words to shape a better tomorrow.

Community Shop - High Street

Voice

Massive shop windows share huge words encouraging us to use our voices to make a big difference!

Chatham Locations

An elderly person walks past our artworks on a street. They have their back to us, wearing a long trench coat and uses a walking stick. The artworks are slightly out of focus. We can see a series of quotes, colourful shapes, and an orange background.

Chatham High Street

Labels / Voice / Future

The future often feels uncertain, but can we change what happens next? Visit the site of Chatham’s former Debenhams Store to discover how using your voice, and ditching the labels, can make the world a better place for everyone.

Bright blue artworks are wrapped on an empty shop. Colourful shapes frame quotes of young people. A young person sits on the street in the sun next to the artwork.

Military Road

Love

NOW CLOSED
We covered windows along Military Road with colour, shapes, and thoughts about love. Do you love love?

Light blue artworks wrap empty shop windows at the centre of Pentagon Shopping Centre. Colourful shapes frame 4 quotes from young people.

Pentagon - Ground Floor

Happiness

NOW CLOSED
At the heart of Pentagon Shopping Centre, colorful artworks shared quotes about happiness and the importance of doing things your own way.

Bright red artworks wrap an empty shop on the first floor of Pentagon Shopping Centre. Young people sit on the floor in front of the artworks. Colourful shapes frame four quotes from young people.

Pentagon - 1st Floor

Teenage Truths

Head up the Pentagon escalators to explore why its important for teenagers to be seen, heard, and accepted.

Map

Quotes from Medway’s Children and Young People are unleashed across the district!

Use this map to discover artworks on display and their experience, wisdom, and hopes for the place they call home and the planet!

Gillingham & Strood Gallery

Chatham Gallery

A group of children excitedly pose in front of a huge colourful artwork. Their arts block the words on display.

A busy high street. People pass by in a blur. Behind the rush, colourful artworks are displayed.

A child smiles, covering their mouth in joy. Behind them, colourful artworks are out of focus.

Blue artworks filled with quotes and colourful shapes wrap an empty shop window on a sunny day. People talk on the street, discussing the words.

A row of light blue artworks wrapping empty shops in a shopping centre. Each feature a quote from a young person.

A small child stands in front of an artwork featuring their quote. The quote is bigger than they are. Powerful words from a small human.

A child stand proudly next to an artwork featuring their quote. 'Perfection is when I do things my own way'.

A small child stands in front of an artwork featuring their quote. The quote is bigger than they are. Powerful words from a small human. 'Be who you think you are'.

Teenagers hang out on the street happily. Smiling in front of a huge artwork featuring the quote of a fellow young person.

A group of kids sit on a shopping centre floor. Behind them colourful artworks with quotes from children loom large.

A teenager looks into the distance. Behind them red artworks share the quotes of young people on an empty shop window.

A child smiles to the camera wearing their school uniform. Behind them a colourful artwork wraps an empty shop window.

A young person dressed in black leans against a colourful artwork wrapped on an empty shop. A quote is displayed against bright blue background is framed by colourful geometric shapes.

Teenagers hang out on the floor of a shopping centre. They sit in front of a huge artwork featuring the quote of a fellow young person.

A zest member of staff wears a refresh t-shirt. The back reads ' Find Out More zesttheatre.com/refresh

Credits

Creative & Production

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR / LEAD FACILITATOR
Toby Ealden

DESIGN
Fabric.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Adam Pownall (Gillingham & Strood)

PARTICIPATION COORDINATOR
Georgina Weller (Gillingham & Strood)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Nathan Eaton-Baudains
Michi Masumi (Gillingham)

Research & Development

SUPPORTING FACILITATOR & ARCHIVIST
Dan Morgan (Chatham)

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR
Kez Harris
Katie Grant (Strood & Gillingham)

Chatham - Participating Groups

BeYou Project
City of Rochester School
Icon Youth Theatre Young Company
Medway Youth Service - WREC Room
New Horizons Children’s Academy
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Gillingham

Gillingham & Strood - Participating Groups

English Martyrs RC Primary School, Strood
Gordan Children’s Academy, Strood
Saxon Way Primary School, Gillingham
Square Pegs, Gillingham
St Nicholas CRVC Primary School, Strood
Strood Youth Centre
Woodlands Youth Centre, Gillingham

Help & Advice

Click these links for more help and advice on the topics covered in Phase 2 of Refresh Medway:

Kooth
Mental Health Support for Young People

NHS Kent and Medway
Mental Health Info Hub for Children & Young People

Medway Child Health
Climate Anxiety Webinar

Medway Council Climate Change

Child-Friendly Medway

Environmental Responsibility

Young people are incredibly concerned about the environment and urgently want the world to prioritise this issue. However, touring, theatre, and public art can be extremely wasteful and have a negative impact on the planet. Zest is therefore working to reduce our work's environmental impact. We want to keep learning and adapting our practice and processes - we’ll therefore be updating the sections below to be transparent about our choices, share our learning, and be accountable for the elements that negatively impact the environment.

The artworks on Chatham High Street, Gillingham Pier Road, and Strood Angel Corner are printed on recycled aluminium composite - a 100% recyclable material. We are working with our partners to ensure these get properly recycled after use.
With the support of Julie’s Bicycle, we are tracking the full scope of our Carbon Footprint, not just for this project but for our whole organisation. This includes our travel, hotel stays, materials (including those listed here), office energy use, digital activity, and anything else we discover has an impact. We’ll use this data to help us reduce our emissions next year whilst planting wildflower meadows to offset our impact.
Flag bases are made from Polyethylene. Flag poles from aluminium. The flag fabric is Polyester. All of these materials can be recycled when they come to the end of their life.
These parts are all made with virgin materials. We will log this when tracking our carbon emissions to track this higher impact - evaluating and offsetting accordingly to improve future delivery and reduce the impact of this project.
These A3 Corex Boards are made from twin-walled corrugated polypropylene and are 100% recyclable. We are working with our partners to ensure these are cycled after use.
Chatham
Due to various project constraints, the window wraps in Chatham used PVC. This isn’t our preferred choice of vinyl for Refresh projects.

In light of this, Zest added the kgCO2e of PVC to our Carbon Footprint calculators to offset some of the impacts through planting wildflower meadows. Our print suppliers have also agreed to contribute to a reforestation programme.

Strood
All window wraps in Strood are installed using PVC-free vinyl films. These are made from plastics and polymers that are recyclable and have a smaller carbon footprint than PVC.
Zest tracks the emissions created from our mileage and hotel stays and then offsets this through the wild flowering of protected meadows.

Refresh Medway