Family/Ikon Youth Programme 05.09.2026 / 11.00am–3.00pm
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Family Saturday
With Ikon Youth Programme (IYP)
Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) is a creative development programme for emerging artists, architects, photographers and designers aged 16–21.
IYP ON SLOW BOAT
With support from Freelands Foundation, IYP on Slow Boat is a six-year programme (2021–27) delivered aboard Slow Boat, a heritage canal boat.
Through workshops, exhibitions and live events, the programme creates opportunities for young people, artists and communities to connect, learn and experiment together across the region’s waterways.
Each year, Slow Boat travels more than 150 miles of the canal network, exploring the rich art school heritage of Birmingham and the West Midlands. Regular stop-offs include Walsall, Wolverhampton, Tipton, Stourbridge, Smethwick and Coventry.
Throughout 2026, IYP continues to programme public events, including artist talks, exhibitions and workshops, bringing young people’s voices and emerging artistic practices into Slow Boat‘s wider programme.
Aboard Slow Boat, IYP members host and collaborate with other youth initiatives, including Malthouse Youth Group, Rowley Regis Youth Club and The Gap Arts (Culture Collective). The programme also connects with further education colleges, including Riverside House, Glasshouse College and Halesowen College, while continuing to offer an experimental space for students from art schools across Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry.
IKON YOUTH PROGRAMME
In 2026, IYP embarks on new projects with Modern Clay, Freehaus Studios, Corridor8 and artists Sahjan Kooner, Hannah Lim, Anna Barham, Mathew Leung, Harriet Bowman and Alice Theobald. The programme is supported by Lucy Grubb (Ikon Youth Programme Coordinator), Dharmendra Parmar (Slow Boat Coordinator) and the Slow Boat crew.
A core part of IYP’s programming is the artist-led approach to ‘practising the practice’ of alternative education. This is where studio practice is embedded in workshops rather than detached from them. Workshops become spaces for collective experimentation, process-led inquiry and situated forms of knowledge exchange.
Every year, IYP produces an annual publication and co-programme a review event, in collaboration with Slow Boat’s evaluator Cathy Wade.
WANT TO JOIN IYP?
IYP is for 16–21-year-olds interested in contemporary art. Through weekly sessions and off-site trips, IYP work with artists, develop ideas, skills, resources and build connections through collective learning and experimentation.
If you’re regularly studying outside the West Midlands and wouldn’t be able to take part in sessions across the year, or aged over 21, IYP won’t be the right fit for you, but there are other ways to stay connected. We host free public programme events aimed at 16–25-year-olds, including talks, workshops and other opportunities, with some events ticketed via the Ikon website.
Check out our support structures document which lists programmes, events, and memberships to help stay connected to the West Midlands arts ecosystem.
HISTORY OF SLOW BOAT
For over ten years IYP has navigated Slow Boat around the waterways of the West Midlands and beyond. Learn about the history of the boat and the artists who’ve worked on it.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Ikon Youth Programme/Showcase 05.09.2026–06.09.2026
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RETIRED YOUTH: The Show
by Ikon Youth Programme and Alice Theobald
Ikon Youth Programme/Off-site 21.09.2026 / 12.00pm–4.00pm
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FLOAT
Coventry University x Slow Boat
LATEST NEWS
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Ikon Youth Programme 14.08.2026
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Slow Notes 03
Stourbridge and Halesowen: June 2026
We began our mooring in Stourbridge with a visit from Glasshouse College students. Here, we worked with Dale Hipkiss to ask: ‘Does the current architecture of the Black Country reference natural forms and the limestone landscape?’
This workshop was influenced by the ancient Silurian landscape, exploring the region’s prehistoric marine life and the patterns formed by its limestone.
Ikon Youth Programme 26.06.2026
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Slow Notes 02
Tipton: May 2026
IYP continued our Slow Boat journey in Tipton. Ikon Youth Programme and Rowley Regis Youth Club got together for a Slow Boat Social, where we got to know each other over snacks, covered the windows with our words and drawings, shared stories and music and made new connections!
Slow Boat 01.06.2026
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Slow Notes 01
Wolverhampton: April 2026
Between March–September 2026, we will be sharing Slow Notes, a reflective series of posts following our journeys on Slow Boat.
This year we started our Slow Boat journey in Wolverhampton. We met up with More Art Inc at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Museum (programmed by Dinosaur Kilby and Simon Suphandagli) for their “Legacy Gathering”.
Ikon Youth Programme 03.03.2026
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RETIRED YOUTH × IYP
Call Out for Young Creatives (aged 16–21)
Join artist Alice Theobald to create a brand‑new magazine‑style community TV show!
Are you aged 16-21, curious and creative? Come and help shape RETIRED YOUTH, a fresh online artist-led TV programme made with young people, for young people.
Slow Boat 14.05.2025
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Slow Boat continues its journey
By Nicola Shipley, Director, GRAIN Projects
Over the last few weeks, we have continued journeying north on the canal, through Stoke-on-Trent, delivering artist-led workshops with groups from across Stoke-on-Trent.
Slow Boat 28.04.2025
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Ikon Slow Boat journeys along the Trent & Mersey Canal, Stoke-on-Trent
By Nicola Shipley, Director, GRAIN Projects
This Spring, Ikon’s Slow Boat is programmed and produced in collaboration with GRAIN Projects, an arts organisation that specialises in contemporary photography and the delivery of socially engaged photography projects, exhibitions and publications regionally and nationally.