Make Your Mark - Pay it Forward this Christmas

This Christmas time, we are asking you to donate to support Make Your Mark sessions in 2025. 

As a thank you we will put on a very special festive Make Your Mark session with mince pies, Christmas songs, special guest appearances (Santa?). Create special wrapping paper for your Christmas presents decorated together as a family. All creations will be displayed in the Stade Hall foyer as our Christmas decorations. 

2-4pm Sunday 8 December, The Stade Hall

This festive session will be the perfect opportunity to celebrate how much has been raised. 

Two years ago, a community of supporters and funders helped us realise our dream - establishing a creative venue for families on Hastings seafront. With a total budget of just £25,000, with 20% raised from donations, we were able to renovate a rental space on White Rock. 

Since 2022 we have:

• Opened the space with a sell-out show - The Christmas Spirits
• Run over 50 sensory play and creative sessions
• Welcomed 150 parents and children to our First and Second creative workshops
• Hosted performances by Filskit Theatre, Katie Dale Everett Dance, Tiny and Tall Productions, Out of the Bag Theatre and many more
• Hired the space to many amazing local organisations and artists including Helen Tozer, Pheebs Sing School, and Nightingale Music
• Hosted Breastmates and other support groups who make such a difference for those early years. 
• And learned so much about what families with very young children want. 

Early this year, we took on The Stade Hall, a larger more accessible community space owned by Hastings Borough Council. We agreed a management lease with the council with the shared aims of opening up The Stade Hall as often as possible to many different community groups in Hastings. 

Spun Glass Theatre went from strength to strength, thanks to our talented team and trustees, including Gaynor Wilson who worked incredibly hard to ensure Spun Glass Theatre achieved charitable status in February 2024.

Our local MP, Helena Dollimore, has commented that “It is great to see [Stade Hall] being used and the increased access to the arts it is providing.”  

While we worked out this new role we ran Make Your Mark sessions at Mini Playhouse. 

Make Your Mark

Beginning in May 2024, the sessions have been well attended, designed by Early Years Specialist Abi Horn. 

The free sessions run Monday - Friday 2pm-4pm. Hot drinks and healthy snacks are also available for free, alongside toys, books and lots of arts materials to get messy, creative and expressive with.

Parent feedback includes: 

“It’s lovely to have something that is free”

“It’s so lovely and relaxed”

“great to find an afternoon activity”

"My little boy, who’s been quite shy, came in today with real confidence as he felt comfortable and familiar."

"My children have attended on a Tuesday every week since mark making started and love every week!"

Creativity is essential for every childhood. Barnado’s charity Cost of Living report states more than 1 in 4 of all children in the UK now live in poverty. Living in poverty can mean a child is living in a cold home, going hungry, or without everyday essentials. Our resources and free drop in sessions will introduce caregivers to a range of techniques for encouraging mark making, boosting Early Years creative education, especially for families who cannot afford to access paid for child care places.

Make Your Mark has now moved to The Stade Hall thanks to generous funding from Sussex Community Foundation and The Chalk Cliff Trust. 

We need you to donate now to pay it forward for Make Your Mark in 2025. These sessions are very important to families in Hastings. Every donation means we can continue to offer this vital space for children to be creative. 

• £10 pays for free healthy snacks for one session
• £20 pays for free hot drinks for one session
• £50 pays for the resources we need for one week
• £100 pays for flyers to promote Make Your Mark in the local area
• £150 covers all costs for one Make Your Mark session
• £200 covers resources for one month
• £750 covers all costs for Make Your Mark for one week

Please pay it forward so we can keep Make Your Mark free to access in 2025.