Partners
Leeds City of Culture 2023
Artistic Directorate Partner
This year experience the city of Leeds like never before with an exciting programme of curated events designed to let culture loose. LEEDS 2023 is working with local, national and international artists and communities to create a celebration that’s for Leeds, with Leeds and inspired by Leeds.
Mira Kaushik
Creative Development Network Partner
Mira Kaushik has been creating, producing and directing work since 2000.
After stepping down from Akademi in 2023, she has decided to focus her attentions on developing South Asian creativity in the outdoor arts sector.
Mira noticed a lack of presence of the South Asian performing arts companies and individual artists programmed in outdoor festivals. This led to producing ANHAD, a day-long pilot festival that presented cross-arts specifically created for the outdoor sector.
Dartington Trust
Creative Development Network Partner
We are a charity delivering progressive learning programmes in the arts, ecology and social justice. Our beautiful 1,200-acre estate is a vibrant year-round visitor destination. Our Arts programme aspires to enable local, national and international audiences to engage with the arts in meaningful ways. Our programming encompasses music, performance, theatre, visual arts, short courses, exhibitions, screenings and symposia with a range of guest curators.
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
Amy Whittlesea - Cultural Development Manager
Creative Basildon
Touring Network Partner
Basildon Creative People and Places is a radical, new cultural programme for people living, working and socialising in Basildon borough.
Find out more about Creative Basildon
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
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
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
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
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
Inspirate
Creative Development Partner
Inspirate has produced a plethora of arts festivals, events and socially engaged projects, delivering culturally dynamic experiences to audiences from across the country.
As a social enterprise, we exist to connect people from all walks of life with inspiring creative experiences – ambitiously pioneering a new and inclusive approach to culture where the door is open to all. Inspirate produces the UK’s annual An Indian Summer programme and has recently been awarded NPO status. Our work explores a multitude of artforms; from contemporary South Asian culture to world-class graffiti and projection mapping spectacles – there’s something for everyone to get excited about!
Culture Warrington
Creative Development Partner
Culture Warrington (in partnership with Warrington Borough Council), formed in 2012 as Warrington’s lead cultural organisation, is responsible for the strategic delivery of arts, culture and heritage, managing the town’s largest and most prominent cultural venues: Pyramid Arts Centre, Parr Hall and Warrington Museum & Art Gallery.
Their programme is extensive and diverse, catering for Warrington’s entire community. Culture Warrington has an excellent track record – over more than a decade of delivering accessible, inclusive, diverse programmes of high-quality culture which engage and inspire audiences, and creates platforms for artists.
Since 2012 they have delivered Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival (WCAF), an annual combined arts festival attracting regular ACE funding and reflecting Culture Warrington’s mission and values.
Lynn Radcliffe - Cultural Partnership Development Manager
Dudley Council
Creative Development Network Partner
Dudley Council’s Vision for 2030 will be supported by local cultural events programming. The seven aspirations of the vision are:
Vibrant towns and neighbourhoods – improving the vibrancy in town centres and high streets access
A place to visit and enjoy that drives opportunity – continued promotion of Dudley as a tourist destination with improvements to the visitor experience
A place where everybody has the education and skills they need – proving employment and training support for local residents
Renowned as home to a host of innovative and prosperous business – dedicated support for businesses
A place of healthy, resilient and safe communities – supporting community capacity building and resilience
An affordable and attractive place to live with a green network of high quality parks, waterways and nature reserves – improvements to local green spaces and new open public spaces.
Creative Playground
Creative Development Partner
The Creative Playground is a new arts project in Crawley set up to engage more local people in arts & culture led by Manor Royal Business Improvement District and a consortium of local organisations: Creative Crawley, Crawley LGBT+, The Hawth, Diverse Crawley and Crawley Town Community Foundation. It is funded as part of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places Programme.
The vision for Creative Playground is to use the distinctive characteristics of their place to bring people together and build a democratic culture of arts and cultural appreciation and participation over the next ten years; with local residents at the heart of the programme, empowered to make decisions on and commission the art that takes place here.
Louise Blackwell - Creative Director, Creative Crawley
Marketplace Creative People & Places
Creative Development Partner
MarketPlace embraces the unusual and unique rural landscapes of Fenland region of Cambridgeshire and the Forest Heath area of West Suffolk.
Their aim is always to work WITH communities giving them an equal role at the heart of decision making about the type of arts events they want to see in the places where they live. As an ‘action research’ project, everything we do is about questioning, reflecting and analysing how the arts are being used, experienced and what effect they have in our region.
And planting ideas like seeds in the ground…
Susie Batchelor - Programme Director
FeastFest
Creative Development Partner
Performance Infinity is a social enterprise founded in 2012 and developed a community interest branch in 2022. We produced FeastFest (arts and food) as a performing arts festival in 2019, and it has transformed into a community-led, multidisciplinary arts festival in 2022 supported by Royal Docks Create Your Docks Grant to serve the community in Newham.
Timber Festival
Artistic Directorate Partner
Timber Festival is an immersive and revitalising weekend festival in the heart of the National Forest celebrating our relationship with trees and forests through music, art and ideas.
For three days in July, new thinkers, activists, makers, artists, musicians and writers gather to play, provoke and inspire as we explore our complex and rewarding relationship with the natural world. A joyous, reflective festival, Timber gives you the chance to recharge and reconnect with your family, friends, nature and, most importantly, yourself.
Timber is produced by Wild Rumpus in partnership with the National Forest Company. The festival takes place at Feanedock, on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border in the National Forest with artists from the local area and the Midlands and UK as well as international artists.
Certain Blacks
Artistic Directorate Partner
Certain Blacks presents performance, live art, music and theatre and the creative voice of our diverse society. Our philosophy is to provide performance opportunities for new, emerging and established artists of the highest quality. The organisation aims to challenge the norms of performance and what is seen as diverse. Certain Blacks presents art from the margins into the mainstream.
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.
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.
Find out more about Redbridge Outdoor Arts
Sam Goodey - Culture Team Leader
Theatre Orchard
Touring Network Partner
Theatre Orchard’s flagship festival, Whirligig in Weston-super-Mare, is a vibrant, one-day event in the heart of the town that presents a mix of local, national and international outdoor arts. Theatre Orchard also involves local organisations such as XR, Weston Pride and Weston College in associated creative activity on the Festival site in order to embed Whirligig firmly in the heart of the community.
The festival is playful and family-friendly, and Theatre Orchard look for content that challenges, surprises, inspires and entertains. They proactively programme work that encourages people to think about social issues experienced through a creative lens. They also proactively programme work that demonstrates cultural diversity.
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
Darren Grice - Deputy Chief Executive
Lancashire Encounter
Touring Network Partner
Lancashire Encounter 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.
First Art
Touring Network Partner
First Art will inspire more people from Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North East Derbyshire to shape and experience great art.
First Art is the Creative People and Places programme for in this area and is supported through funding from Arts Council England.
First Art is a consortium programme led by Creswell Heritage Trust in partnership with City Arts, Junction Arts, Prince’s Trust and Ault Hucknall Environment Action Group. First Art puts people first in everything we do, providing first-hand quality experiences which allow local people to recognise the value of the arts and the role the arts can play in their own lives.
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.
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
The Culture House
Touring Network Partner
Based in Grimsby, The Culture House aim to engage, excite and inspire by bringing more culture to more people. It develops and produces a full range of exciting and inspiring cultural projects, in partnership with artists, local communities and other stakeholders.
It contributes to increasing engagement and participation in culture and aims to positively impact on everyday life by presenting work in a wide range of indoor and outdoor local spaces.
Our Future Starts Here is a brand new project being in hosted in Grimsby in 2022, exploring pressing issues of our time through an innovative arts and culture programme. Edition One takes place at the end of May and Edition Two will take place in November.
Charlotte Bowen - Director & Festival 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.
Cheshire Dance produces Now Northwich, a new outdoor international dance and street art festival each October. It runs an extensive programme of dance across Cheshire, including professional development that attracts dance artists from across the country and inclusive dance engagement deeply embedded in community, health and education networks locally.
Stockton International Riverside Festival
Artistic Directorate Partner
Stockton International Riverside Festival (SIRF) is an annual free outdoor arts and street theatre festival in Stockton-on-Tees.
Taking place over in early August, it attracts international artists performing to thousands of spectators each year. It showcases outstanding international street theatre, dance, circus and music acts with a packed programme of shows for all the family.
SIRF is supported by Arts Council England and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.
Just So Festival
Artistic Directorate Partner
An annual weekend-long camping festival for children and their families. The festival provides a magical experience where art, music and literature entwined with a beautiful and wondrous landscape. We offer a broad range of musical, theatrical, and visual performances, workshops and installations within a safe, natural and magical setting.
Every clearing and glade holds a new way to unleash creativity. Families discover and delight in the spectacular within the woodland environment during this weekend camping event.
Find out more about Just So Festival
Rowan Cannon & Ellie Nichols - Programme Manager
Hat Fair
Artistic Directorate Partner
Hat Fair is Britain’s longest running festival of street theatre and outdoor arts – taking place in Winchester in July every year.
Hat Fair, named after the tradition of throwing donations into performance hats, first burst onto the Winchester scene in 1974 as a busker’s festival.
It has developed a strong reputation and following, providing a weekend filled with hundreds of colourful and exciting performances.
FESTIVAL.ORG (Greenwich + Docklands International Festival)
Artistic Directorate Partner
FESTIVAL.ORG is one of the UK’s leading outdoor arts producing organisations. Collaborating with artists and arts organisations around the world to create extraordinary productions, they commission, re-imagine, produce and showcase a growing repertory of work that brings public spaces to life and is engaging and inspiring large, diverse audiences.
FESTIVAL.ORG’s flagship event is the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF), London’s leading festival of free outdoor performing arts (theatre, dance, and street arts), an annual 10-day celebration of extraordinary outdoor events that transform people’s lives. The Festival commits to breaking new ground in outdoor performance and raising the ambition, quality, and diversity of outdoor work produced, focusing on the commissioning and developing outdoor work led by Deaf and disabled artists and artists from diverse backgrounds. FESTIVAL.ORG also plays a distinctive, strategic role within the wider outdoor arts sector by devising and producing large-scale work (including ceremony-scale spectacle).
Norfolk & Norwich Festival
Artistic Directorate Partner
Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a flagship arts organisation for the East of England with a reputation for innovative, inspirational programming and commissioning.
As well as staging one of the most significant arts festivals in the UK each May, Norfolk & Norwich Festival collaborates throughout the year with local, national and international partners to produce work for a huge and diverse range of audiences, participants and communities.
101 Outdoor Arts
Artistic Directorate Partner
101 Outdoor Arts – National Centre for Arts in Public Space is a hub of creativity and the UK’s major centre for the development of outdoor work. As a physical resource for artists, the centre offers space to develop outdoor and site-specific work with specialised facilities ready to welcome and host creatives.
Based on a former missile base and supported by Greenham Trust, the 20,000 sq ft warehouse site of 101 in Newbury is rooted in local history, once being the location of a long-running women’s peace camp and international protest against nuclear weapons.
Oldham Council
Touring Network Partner
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England.
Have a closer look at Oldham Council.
Brighton Festival
Artistic Directorate Partner
Brighton Festival, now the largest arts festival in England, is one of the major milestones in the international cultural calendar. Over a three-week period, Brighton Festival explores a wide-ranging programme of music, theatre, dance, film, and literature. It has a long tradition of attracting the most exciting performers from across the globe and promoting local artists, and bringing fresh, challenging new work to Brighton.
Company Chameleon
Creative Development Network Partner
Company Chameleon will continue to tour existing repertoire nationally and internationally with a significant focus on our outdoor works.
Responding to the environmental impact of touring, they are working towards a sustainable touring model, which includes the introduction of an electric touring vehicle in 2023.
Additionally, Chameleon’s ambition is to curate and produce a dance festival in the next three years, which provides the opportunity for artists to showcase dance performance work, as well as develop their practice, knowledge and networks. This will begin on a small-scale from their studio and will grow to include commissioned work, community collaborations and an international element.
Anthony Missen & Edward Turner - Co Artistic Directors