Zest Wins Best Product Design of the Year at We Are Creative Awards

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Zest Wins Best Product Design of the Year at We Are Creative Awards

Zest is celebrating a major win at the inaugural We Are Creative Awards. The company proudly won the prestigious Best Product Design of the Year award, marking a significant achievement for the Lincoln-based team and the young people they support. Zest Theatre was recognised for creating The Zone, a bold and inclusive pop-up space where young people can thrive. The Best Product Design of the Year award celebrated The Zone’s innovative approach, developed in collaboration with AirClad, whose modular structures transformed public spaces into vibrant, welcoming environments where young people can chill, create, and be themselves.

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Leading With Purpose: The Power of Young Voices in Leadership

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Leading With Purpose: The Power of Young Voices in Leadership

Young voices aren’t just shaping Zest’s work—they’re leading it. Over the past four years, Zest have reimagined what it means for young people to take the lead. In January 2025, we celebrated two significant milestones: appointing two young trustees to our board and creating a paid leadership role within our youth advisory group, Future Proof. These announcements sparked conversations and questions about how we’ve achieved this. If you’re curious about our approach, this blog is for you.

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Zest Celebrates Youth Leadership with Trustee Appointments and New Paid Role

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Zest Celebrates Youth Leadership with Trustee Appointments and New Paid Role

Zest is proud to announce a significant step in its mission to amplify youth voices: the appointment of two young trustees and a newly created paid leadership role within Future Proof, Zest’s youth advisory board. These appointments mark a significant milestone in Zest’s commitment to embedding youth voice at every level of the organisation. From creative projects to governance, Zest has spent years developing pathways for young people to lead confidently, shaping its work and contributing to a growing movement for youth leadership across the arts sector.

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Zest Wrapped 2024

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Zest Wrapped 2024

This year, Zest hit all the right notes: epic partnerships, bold new artworks, youth-led brilliance, strategy in action, and unforgettable moments on the road. We launched innovative pop-up youth arts spaces with The Zone, and made our mark in new locations and beyond to reach a massive 401,000 people! Ready to relive the highlights? Let’s dive into Zest Wrapped 2024.

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The year we went BIG

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The year we went BIG

What a year 2023 has been! As we lock up Zest HQ and head off on our well-deserved festive holiday, join us as we reflect on the last 12 months: an epic year of graft, changes, and growth. A year that saw Zest go BIG, reaching over 424,000 people with our work! Let’s look at our 2023 best bits…

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Announcing Camp Phoenix - Zest's first production in 4 years!

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Announcing Camp Phoenix - Zest's first production in 4 years!

For the first time since the pandemic began, Zest is back with a brand new show!

Written by Bush Theatre’s Young Company Director, Katie Greenall, with new songs by Loop Artist Koko Brown, Camp Phoenix is a show packed with adventure, new music, and vital life lessons, featuring a dynamic cast of professional performers and local young people who helped develop the show.

This new show has been commissioned by Lincoln Arts Centre, Barnsley Civic, and ARC Stockton and will be our first touring production since becoming an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

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A New Show for 2024

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A New Show for 2024

For the first time since the pandemic, Zest is making a brand-new production!!! Throughout January and February 2023, Zest will travel the country to Research and Develop (R&D) the yet-to-be-titled new show. Across the process, we’ll meet over 700 children and young people from Lincoln, Stockton, Canterbury, Barnsley, and Lewisham.

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Zest Theatre joins Arts Council England’s National Portfolio

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Zest Theatre joins Arts Council England’s National Portfolio

We are beyond excited to announce that Zest Theatre will join Arts Council England’s National Portfolio from April 2023! Earlier today, it was announced that Zest has been awarded £180,000 of public income every year for the next 3 years, amounting to over £540,000 of support. This investment will enable Zest to create increasingly transformative, high-quality theatre and cultural experiences for thousands of young people across the length of the country between 2023 - 2026.

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Exploring the Future of Lincoln

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Exploring the Future of Lincoln

Zest is spending the first 3 months of 2022 facilitating an ambitious new research project with over 1,000 young people across our home city!

Commissioned by city-wide partners in Lincoln, Zest will meet 1,250 young people between January and March 2022. Over 50 workshops will be delivered in schools, colleges, and community groups, making space for Lincoln’s children and young people to share their vision for the future of the city.

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The Year of the Unexpected Pivot

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The Year of the Unexpected Pivot

2021 has been another interesting one, right? For Zest, it’s been a year of big highs, big lows, and many unexpected pivots. We’re still here, we’re still open, and still thriving for the communities we serve. But it seems that unexpected pivots create unexpected results.

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Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Online Experience at Zest

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Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Online Experience at Zest

Last week Zest released the Refresh Lincoln Audio Experience as an additional point of access to the installation of the same name, currently visible in Lincoln city centre through 4 September. When landing on Zest’s website, those looking to engage with Refresh Lincoln via headphones, will also notice new accessibility tools, provided by Recite Me, in order to support the diverse range of people in our community.

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Announcing Refresh Lincoln

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Announcing Refresh Lincoln

Zest is taking over Lincoln! For 8 weeks this summer, Zest will unleash 80 vibrant artworks on posters, banners, and billboards around every corner of the City Centre. Today we’re announcing the full details!

Refresh Lincoln is set to reclaim the city centre for young people, placing their voices at the heart of Lincoln’s re-opening and recovery following a year of being in and out of lockdown.

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Zest Theatre awarded grant through Culture Recovery Fund Round 2

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Zest Theatre awarded grant through Culture Recovery Fund Round 2

Zest Theatre has been awarded £25,000 from the Culture Recovery Fund to ensure they continue to meet the needs of young people. Receiving this funding means that Zest will be able to survive the effects of the pandemic on our industry, and develop further to meet the increasing needs of young people and the changing cultural landscape. In addition to supporting our core costs, this funding will support the Research and Development of a new production and continue Zest’s financial and developmental commitment to antiracism and accessibility.

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New work for Spring / Summer 2021

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New work for Spring / Summer 2021

The last 12 months have taken their toll on Young People. They are facing a mental health crisis. Young people need culture and creativity more than ever before. Zest, therefore, has to respond with impactful work that can happen despite the pandemic, whilst serving the needs of Gen-Z. We’ve always worked outside the box, fearlessly pushing preconceptions of form and what a small-scale company can achieve. This new work for Spring / Summer 2021 is no different. This is the beginning of our response.

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Future proofing Zest's 12 Maxims

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Future proofing Zest's 12 Maxims

At Zest, our Maxims underpin everything we do. These short statements share our key values and shape the work of our trustees, staff, creatives and performers. In December 2020, we asked Future Proof what they thought our maxims might be. As participants, they had never seen our maxims document before. The thoughts they shared were solely based on their experience of working with us. We soon realised there were 4 reoccurring themes that we hadn’t recognised as being key components of the Zest experience. Together we set about re-writing Zest’s Maxims.

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Is it possible to be future proof?

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Is it possible to be future proof?

Future-proofing a product, system or organisation gives it the ability to continue having value into the distant future. It stops the item becoming obsolete. But in these unprecedented times of continuing change, is it possible to be future proof? The young people from Zest’s new Youth Advisory Board have been discussing that question in recent weeks - discussions that indicate where they may lead Zest, whilst also giving an insight into how young people feel about their own future.

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