This year’s festival took place from 11 - 13th March 2026, delivered in partnership with Tate Modern.
Over the week, we explored the theme Journeys, showcasing diverse artistic voices and inclusive approaches to creative practice. We hosted over 300 Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent young people from a wide variety of London's education settings.
Experience I Am Festival 2026
Relive I Am Festival 2026 with this special audio-visual report from Parag Vajir.
Since starting as a Cultural Ambassador in 2023 and Cultural Ambassador assistant in 2024, Parag is back as our I Am Festival Reporter – sharing interviews and reflections over a typical day at the I Am Festival.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Parag, Zarah, Mae-Li and all the people that agreed to be interviewed as part of this recording.
As part of the festival, we commissioned two fantastic organisations; VOOT Collective and Touretteshero, who worked with three schools from our I Am Network to co-create exciting projects with their students.
We had many exciting events taking place during the festival week, including:
- Activity curated and delivered by our brilliant Cultural Ambassadors – a group of Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse young people facilitated by artist and facilitator Jo Paul. Over a year, our Cultural Ambassadors meet weekly to develop their creative skills, work with different artists, and design their own activities for the festival.
- Creative workshops and activities for Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent children and young people led by Shermaine Slocombe, The Complete Works and Beatrice Tate School.
- A sensory play space created by Heart n Soul’s Feel Good Designers, Rosie Ridgway and India Harvey. This was inspired by Tate Schools film ALL THE FEELINGS by India Harvey in collaboration with Ickburgh School.
- Workshops for professionals working in the cultural sector on how to make programmes more inclusive. An opportunity to hear directly from those working in the sector including The VOOT Collective and SLiDE.
Our annual I Am Festival is specially arranged for invited SEND schools. It isn’t open for public booking. If you are a teacher working in a SEND school and would like to learn more please contact iam@anewdirection.org.uk
