A report commissioned by the co-organisers of The Turtle Opera Project, Royal Opera House Education and Turtle Key Arts.

At present, high quality creative provision for young people with autism and Asperger syndrome in London is extremely limited. Royal Opera House Education and Turtle Key Arts have forged a partnership to address this imbalance of opportunity.

The Turtle Opera Project has been running since 2001. The first year saw a pilot project that was so successful that it led to both organisations committing to making it a core, ongoing element of their work. Over the past three years of the project we have observed, and heard from parents, of the positive effects that taking part in the project has had on the participants involved. Just as the young people involved are unique, so too has been the effect on each of them. In addition to individual responses, we have noticed that there have been universal benefits that have affected all the young people in The Turtle Opera Project Project.

As the two co-organisers who are understandably close to the project, we wanted a more detailed and objective view to affirm, dismiss or merely explain our own 'gut feelings'. To do this properly, we felt we had to work alongside 'science' to help us explain what, perhaps because we are artists, we know and can articulate, but cannot always quantify.'

We would like to thank Professor Patricia Howlin and Jennifer Alcock from St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London for carrying out this report. We would also like to thank all the young people and their parents who have given so much of their time to this research. Like us, they believe in the importance of raising the profile of Autism and Asperger syndrome. We also hope that by having commissioned this report, we can encourage other arts organisations to embrace work in this field.

Written by Catherine Davis, Opera Education Manager, Royal Opera House and Charlotte Cunningham, Director, Turtle Key Arts

Report reproduced on the website by kind permission of Turtle Key Arts.

Documents to download

  • The Turtle Opera Project (PDF)
    A pilot evaluation of a specialised multidisciplinary arts project for children with autism and Asperger syndrome: The Turtle Opera Project by Jennifer Alcock and Patricia Howlin, St George's Hospital Medical School, October 2003.