Preparations are under way for CAST-Off to return to the walled garden at National Trust Penrose this summer, and we are appealing for your help to sustain this exceptional programme.

Since CAST-Off first started, the number of participants has grown year on year, with upwards of 300 children participating in each daily session. Despite its popularity, sessions feel relaxed and the calm environment of the walled garden casts a quiet spell. In the words of one parent, ‘We feel like we’ve just walked into a little pocket of Eden!’

This sense of calm is also in no small part due to the talented team of trained artists and learning specialists who plan and facilitate the wide range of activities on offer. They ensure that tools and materials are carefully chosen and are there to support children in their making, while giving them freedom to pursue their own creative ideas.

As you will know if you’ve ever joined a CAST-Off session, we collect feedback extensively and from this we know how important it is to local families that the programme stays free at the point of delivery.

CAST-Off is not financially supported by the National Trust, and aside from £10,000 per year from Cornwall Council CAST has no regular ongoing funding, so each year we face the challenge of finding funds to sustain this programme and to support those other activities that rely most on subsidy – our innovative Art Lab workshops for primary schools, our Saturday Art Club for 11- to 16-year-olds, our free holiday workshops for children throughout the year, and many other projects with young people.

This spring we are launching a campaign to raise funds towards CAST-Off and other creative learning activities. News of this campaign will be published here and in our regular monthly newsletter. In the meanwhile, if you or your organisation would like make a contribution please, please contact our programme coordinator Cat Bagg  [email protected] or visit our page on the Charities Aid Foundation website where one-off or regular donations can be made.

A little history

CAST (Cornubian Arts & Science Trust) is an educational charity and has been running activities for children and young people since it started in 2012. CAST-Off and other free holiday workshops during the school holidays and at half term are the most visible part of this learning programme, which also includes opportunities for young people to engage directly with artists through talks, screenings, workshops and studio visits, Art Lab sessions for primary schools, and a regular Saturday Art Club for young people aged eleven to sixteen.

Until 2020 all CAST’s learning activities took place in our own building, a former school on Penrose Road, and our learning studio and ‘black box’ AV space continue to be the base for most of our programmes. The CAST building hosts regular learning workshops for visiting primary schools and a wide range of holiday workshops throughout the year.

However, in 2020 the pandemic made it impossible for us to run events and activities indoors. At this point, Lucy Grant, who leads CAST’s creative learning for children, devised CAST-Off as an off-site initiative to take creative activities out of doors. The programme started as a trail, with things happening at different locations along the Cober valley and then, in 2021, we were able to bring all these activities together in the beautiful calm space of the walled garden at National Trust Penrose. CAST-Off has taken place in the walled garden every summer since that time.

In 2023 Lucy developed CAST-Off for Schools, a programme of outdoor learning for local primary schools, which explores many locations on the Penrose estate and again involves activities in the walled garden. This addition to the programme is highly valued by teachers as an opportunity for children to draw, discover and explore the extraordinary natural world on our doorstep.

As concerns grow about AI and the addictive nature of screen time, all of these activities feel increasingly necessary to children’s learning, mental health and wellbeing. CAST-Off provides outdoor learning, opportunities to observe the natural world, and activities that encourage curiosity, hands-on experimentation and play. We believe that these are all essential aspects of children’s current and future learning, and of their active engagement with the world around them.