Partners
Without Walls is a network of over 35 organisations that brings the best in outdoor arts to people in towns and cities across England.
Many of our partners work in areas of low arts engagement and pioneer new forms of creative engagement with and for their communities. From the East End of London, to the countryside of rural Cheshire – Without Walls’ work finds audiences far and wide. Below you can find out more about each of the organisations involved.
Arts by the Sea
Touring Network Partner
The Arts by the Sea festival is an annual celebration of culture, people and place, bringing an intriguing, exciting and carnivalesque mix of the arts to the beautiful outdoor spaces of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Arts by the Sea is managed and produced by BCP Council, and funded by BCP Council and Arts Council England. The festival is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and 2023 will be its 13th year.
The festival supports local talent development, celebrates our diverse communities, and promotes sustainability. BCP Council aims to increase opportunities for people for participate in the arts and enhance a sense of community while showcasing work which makes a real impact on the audience and on the area.
Andrea Francis - Cultural Development Manager / Festival Director
Barnsley Town Centre
Touring Network Partner
Barnsley town centre hosts an exciting programme of festivals and cultural activities throughout the year – delivered by two collaborative partners:
Barnsley Arts & Events team deliver a wide range of high-quality outdoor festivals. The team were crowned Best Local Authority Events Team at the National Outdoor Events Association Awards (NOEA) in 2022.
Barnsley Civic is the town’s flagship multi-purpose arts centre. They seek to bring wide-ranging, contemporary artforms to audiences from Barnsley and beyond.
Find out more about Barnsley Town Centre
Matthew Mitchell - Arts and Events Manager
Basingstoke Festival
Touring Network Partner
Basingstoke Festival is an annual arts festival designed to showcase the best of the arts locally, nationally and internationally. From music to dance, visual art to theatre, the festival aims to bring the very best arts to audiences and those wishing to take part, by presenting experiences in the most unusual places.
The aim of the festival is to encourage both residents of Basingstoke and visitors to the borough to be more curious about the arts, engaging those who would not normally think they were interested in cultural experiences. With the banner theme of ‘Art in Unusual Places’, they aim to surprise and delight with high-quality arts encounters and meaningful participatory events during the 3 weekends of the festival, each year in June and July.
The festival is produced by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.
Find out more about Basingstoke Festival
Birmingham Hippodrome
Touring Network Partner
Birmingham Hippodrome is one of the UK’s busiest and most vibrant theatres welcoming over 500,000 visitors every year to see world-class musicals, ballet, opera, contemporary dance, comedy and pantomime. They also engage many more through our ambitious programme of festivals, community work and transformational learning projects. In 2019, they celebrated their 120th year.
Find out more about Birmingham Hippodrome
Ben Pickering - Festivals Producer
Cheshire Dance
Touring Network Partner
Founded as a charity in 1976, Cheshire Dance creates opportunities for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to access dance and to use the artform to live healthier and happier lives. From delivering dance classes in the community, to providing professional development and training to emerging artists and hosting events and festivals, they seek to remove inequalities and co-create opportunities for people from all walks of life to experience the power of dance.
Cheshire Dance is also co-founder of Dance Consortia North West, a democratic partnership focused on artist, audience and market development involving 30 dance organisations, venues and promoters, Higher Education Institutions and a 100+ strong network of dance artists.
Cheshire Dance is a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England, delivers Service Level Agreements with Local Authorities and other public and voluntary sectors and works extensively in partnership across the dance, arts, public, voluntary, health and education sectors.
The Culture House
Touring Network Partner
Based in Grimsby, The Culture House are committed to increasing cultural opportunity for all and have been working to increase cultural provision in this underserved place through development and delivery of quality and imaginative events, festivals and projects.
They work in partnership with creative organisations, artists, community groups, businesses, education providers, local authority and more, to engage, excite and inspire residents and visitors to the area.
Charlotte Bowen - CEO and Artistic Director
Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts
Touring Network Partner
Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts (DOCA) is a registered Charity on a mission to bring high-quality arts to Devizes and the surrounding area. They present professional outdoor arts experiences, creating participatory opportunities working with local, national and international artists.
DOCA’s annual programme sees some of the best artists from a multitude of art forms coming to Devizes to present outdoor arts at their most thrilling and uplifting. From street theatre to contemporary dance, visual art to puppetry, pyrotechnics, street music and circus – they aim to create inspirational events that everyone can engage in.
Find out more about Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts
Encounter Festival
Touring Network Partner
Encounter Festival is a headline event in Preston’s cultural calendar bringing the finest outdoor arts and music to the city centre alongside our key commissions and iconic torchlight procession.
2023 will see 60,000 people visit Lancashire’s central city as audiences, participants and artists.
Find out more about Encounter Festival
First Art
Touring Network Partner
Put simply, First Art is about making good things happen through the arts.
Through a diverse arts programme, First Art works to bring inspirational cultural experiences within reach of everyone living in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North East Derbyshire, as well as helping local people to produce and shape their own cultural experiences and events.
The programme ranges from putting on outdoor arts festivals to supporting family art events in communities.
First Art is a CPP (Creative People and Places) project, part of the national programme funded by Arts Council England, working in areas where arts engagement is significantly below the national average.
Flux Rotherham
Touring Network Partner
Flux Rotherham is one of 39 programmes being developed across England as part of the Creative People and Places programme. Creative People and Places is an Arts Council programme which focuses on parts of the country where involvement in creativity and culture is significantly below the national average. Each project is completely unique to its area and communities, testing how to grow arts provision in ways that are relevant and lasting.
Their mission is for Rotherham to be established as a dynamic cultural democracy, ensuring that everyone has regular and frequent opportunities to experience high quality culture and to explore and express their own creative ambitions, heritage and identity.
Flux Rotherham co-create arts with communities. Enabling everyday creativity, generosity of ideas, transformation of experiences and places.
Festival of Thrift
Touring Network Partner
Festival of Thrift (FoT) is the UK national festival of sustainable living, positioning artists as inspirers to action and encouraging change through workshops, exhibitions and performances, giving families the confidence to create while having fun on a budget.
Reaching new audiences from all over the UK year on year, the focus has always been on how we as individuals can make those small changes, the shift to thrift, that will add up to a big difference for the future of our planet, and encouraging others to join in.
FoT having just celebrated 10 years, continues to grow from strength to strength both in numbers of visitors and position on the cultural calendar.
The climate crisis is growing and combined with a cost of living crisis there has never been a more relevant time for this message. Be part of the solution not part of the pollution!
Find out more about Festival of Thrift
Tanya Steinhauser & Dominic Somers - Co-Artistic Directors
Hampshire Cultural Trust
Touring Network Partner
Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) was established as an independent charity in 2014 to promote Hampshire as a county that offers outstanding cultural experiences to both its residents and visitors. They have recently been awarded National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status which will enable them over the next three years to:
•Increase the quality of provision in three of Arts Council England’s priority places in Hampshire: Gosport, Rushmoor and New Forest
•Coordinate greater partnership working in each of the priority places, bringing together partners from across sectors to increase provision and impact
•Support artists, groups and organisations to develop the skills needed to drive a thriving and sustainable arts and cultural sector
Find out more about Hampshire Cultural Trust
Lucy Ashton - Programme Coordinator
Oldham Council
Touring Network Partner
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people’s lives by connecting them to high-quality creative experiences.
Delivering a diverse range of participatory, co-produced, fun, creative and cultural experiences; reflecting the heritage and identity of our local area.
Make Oldham’s outdoor and indoor spaces and cultural facilities, events and exhibitions, gigs and performance opportunities more easily available to Oldham’s diverse, creative communities and visiting artists, businesses and organisations.
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Touring Network Partner
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council are a local authority which has, in recent years, made an additional commitment to its Culture and Tourism Service, and an aspiration cultural vision for the borough. Alongside the cultural vision, there has been an exponential increase in the service, with additional positions that strengthen the knowledge and ambition for events and festivals within the Borough.
Find out more about Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Lisa Storey - Cultural Development and Programmes Manager
Rochdale Feel Good Family Picnic
Touring Network Partner
Rochdale Borough Council delivers public services to over 220,000 residents in Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and the Pennines.
Rochdale’s new festival & events strategy reflects the borough’s dynamic and distinctive heritage and diverse population, with ambitious, innovative programming bringing together Rochdale’s own regional creative talent alongside international creatives. Children and young people will be key to the programme, with a focus on new skills and training, building a strong creative sector for Rochdale’s future.
Rochdale Feel Good Family Picnic design builds on the success of the family zone previously programmed as part of Rochdale Feel Good Festival, but creates space for the ambition to grow with a dedicated programme that features world-class touring work as well as co-created work with local groups and partners, embedded participation activity and collaboration with partners across the borough.
Find out more about Rochdale Feel Good Family Picnic
Lee Brennan - Events & Creative Programmes Producer
Super Culture
Touring Network Partner
Two North Somerset based arts flagships – award-winning Theatre Orchard and Culture Weston – have united under the new ‘Super Culture’ banner.
The merger heralds a period of exciting change as the two come together with the shared vision to grow an ambitious, playful and inclusive creative culture in North Somerset. This will be represented through world class festivals such as Whirligig, events and live performance, creative talent development and a year-round participation programme. The new name – Super Culture – recognises the organisation’s wider remit to promote and support all that is best in creativity and culture across North Somerset, while remaining rooted in Weston-super-Mare.
Vision Redbridge Culture & Leisure
Touring Network Partner
Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure is a Leisure Trust based in the London borough of Redbridge, a registered charity and non-profit organisation where any surplus made is reinvested for community benefit, to improve the quality of facilities and services offered to Redbridge residents. As a social enterprise, Vision RCL is committed to working in partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge to deliver a wide range of leisure and cultural services to the communities that they serve.
Sam Goodey - Culture & Library Development Manager