What are we doing about the climate emergency? What are we not doing? What more could we be doing? What more should we be doing? These questions (and others) are addressed in A Citizens’ Assembly, a new play written by me, Andy Smith (part-time Lecturer in Theatre...
Category: Drama
Beautiful Care
Written by James Thompson Over the course of 2021-2022, Luke Tanner (dementia care therapist and consultant) conducted interviews with care workers asking them what they understood by the term 'beautiful care' and if they could give examples of beautiful care in their...

Let’s Talk Zindabad
Written by Amina BegIn December 2021, I went to Let’s Talk Rochdale which is a community-based organisation set up in 2019 working to empower women from South Asian backgrounds. They provide various activities to create awareness for the mental/physical health of the...
Social Responsibility Awards, Round 2 (2021-22): Project Abstracts
Written/compiled by Anke BernauWe are delighted to share abstracts (see below) for some of the projects that received Social Responsibility (SR) / Cultural Engagement Awards in the second round of applications for this year. We hope that this will give a good sense of...
Refugee Arts Networks: Extending the Frame
Written by Dr Szabolcs Musca In November 2021, a group of academics, artists and activists gathered to ask: What are the strategies and challenges faced by refugee artists today? How can networks foster systemic change? How can we develop new frameworks driven by...
Social Responsibility Awards, Round 1 (2021-22): Project Abstracts
Written/compiled by Anke BernauWe are delighted to share abstracts (see below) for some of the projects that received Social Responsibility (SR) / Cultural Engagement Awards in the first round of applications for this year. We hope that this will give a good sense of...

Sexuality Summer School 2021: Queering the Archive
Written by Jackie Stacey, Sabine Sharp, and Janelle Hixon In May 2021, the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC) held its 14th Sexuality Summer School (SSS), organised this year around the theme of ‘Queering the Archive’ and taking place online over...
Manchester Performance Archive: Towards an Equitable Practice of Archiving and Accessing Performance
Written by Kate Dorney The aim of the Manchester Digital Archive project is to make and hold space for work by performance artists of diverse heritage based in Greater Manchester. We want to create a digital collection for universities, schools and artists to use in...
Coletiva Ocupação Manchester Residency
coletivA had a weeklong residency between 5th-12th May in Manchester after spending the week with Transform Festival in Leeds. The group on their arrival was greeted by Pelin Basaran and accompanied by Olivia Lee (Agency project coordinator at Contact, 18 years old)...
DNAire pilot
The DNAire project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and run by the Aire Rivers Trust (ART) in collaboration with the Environment Agency (EA). It involves the construction of new fish passes on a series of former industrial weirs on the River Aire,...