Group Sessions.

As well as our 1-2-1 Advisory Sessions we also run larger group workshops & training sessions to take a deeper dive into some topics that come up frequently — see below for information & booking details on any upcoming sessions.

Scroll further down for a summary of previous Group Sessions, and watch YouTube recordings of March’s Considering Access in Your Work discussion (watch) and 2022’s in-depth looks at Arts Council England’s DYCP (watch) and NLPG (watch).

For specific queries about sessions, please email gmartisthub@gmail.com

Updated 25 April 2023

Next Session.

Considering the Environment in Your Work
Wednesday 26 April, 1pm-3pm

Online Zoom discussion and Q&A
Free, ticketed; please book due to limited capacity

With Hetty Hodgson (Pigfoot Theatre), Kooj Chuhan (Crossing Footprints), Robin Lyons (Ergon Theatre).

This online discussion will offer an introduction on how to consider the environment in your work — from planning to performance — and create action out of the overwhelm.

UPDATED 25 April at Noon: we aimed for this session to be BSL-interpreted but have been unable to source an interpreter; the session will have automated captions available.

Our panel of artists & creatives will share their experiences of not only telling stories about the climate & ecological crisis, but also how they have achieved this with the least carbon impact possible.

Our panel will also share thoughts on how to respond to Environmental Responsibility questions in Arts Council England NLPG applications, and why diversity & inclusivity is essential for climate progress.

Depending on your browser, information about our panellists is to the right or below.

This group session takes place on Zoom from 1pm on Wednesday 26 April and will last approximately 2 hours (originally advertised as 2½hrs).
It’s free and open to all, please book your place in advance on this page.
If you have any access requirements, please let us know through the booking form and we’ll do all we can to help.

This session generously supported by Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Panellists for Considering the Environment in Your Work.

Hetty Hodgson (Artistic Director, Pigfoot Theatre)
Multi-award winning Pigfoot Theatre tell stories about the climate & ecological crisis, with the least carbon impact possible. An associate company of English Touring Theatre (ETT), their work ‘practises what it preaches’ (The Sunday Times on Pigfoot), and protests within an industry which, in London alone, has a carbon footprint of 50,000 tonnes a year.

Pigfoot’s bike-powered family comedy How To Save A Rock toured with ETT to Northern Stage & Theatre By The Lake; with Battersea Arts Centre & Found in Music; and with support from Slung Low to the Albany, Camden People’s Theatre, Poplar Union, the Pound Arts Centre, and more.

Their energy-generating dance party HOT IN HERE (co-produced by Gate Theatre; commissioned & supported by Camden People's Theatre) toured across the UK in Autumn 2022 to venues including Theatre by the Lake, York Theatre Royal, MAST (Southampton), the North Wall Arts Centre, the egg (Bath), mac (Birmingham), ARC (Stockton), Nonsuch Studios, Contact.

Their new show Hostile Environments, supported by Boundless Theatre’s Accelerator programme, begins development in 2023.

They’ve also run workshops & engagement programmes and delivered sustainability consultancy for organisations including National Theatre, Southbank Centre, Rambert, HOME, Guildhall School of Speech & Drama.

Pigfoot began in Oxford, producing site-specific work by the River Thames & at the Oxford Playhouse. They became carbon-neutral in 2018 — find out more about their methods & what being an environmentally sustainable company means here.
pigfoottheatre.com/who-we-are

Kooj Chuhan (Director, Crossing Footprints)
Kooj is a digital artist, filmmaker, creative producer, activist; currently director of Crossing Footprints, and environmental projects consultant for Oldham Libraries; also member of Manchester Art Gallery's Climate Justice Group, of the national Climate Reframe network, and of the consultative group for Climate Emergency UK’s Local Council ‘Scorecards’ system. His work has been widely exhibited including Arnolfini (Bristol), ICA (London), and internationally including San Diego, Paris, Toronto. He taught on a degree in filmmaking for 8 years, has served on the board for FACT (Liverpool), and won an award for digital arts connecting refugees with climate change.

Kooj founded the artist collective Virtual Migrants in 1998 delivering visual, performance, digital & mixed media projects connecting race & migration, and more recently climate change, across the UK & internationally. This has included the award-winning Climate Justice, Science and Refugees project, and a trans-media performance Continent Chop Chop. He created the Buy This video installation which toured widely, the highly interactive climate justice piece Chamada From Chico Mendes, and the Footprint Modulation exhibition across Durham.

Crossing Footprints have been running Climate Connections in Oldham for diverse, migrant & working class local people to have an environmental voice. They also facilitate the development & integration of creative climate activism within the work of diverse arts groups such as the Bangladeshi theatre group Ayna which has resulted in Ghoorni a new climate play, and musical climate expressions by the African arts group Amani Creatives. These diverse representations were presented at the Manchester Histories Festival 2022, themed on the history of climate change.
crossingfootprints.com/about

Robin Lyons (Artistic Director, Ergon Theatre)
Ergon Theatre are one of the UK’s leading Climate Theatre companies, making performance-based work about the climate crisis & futures. They believe in using art as a communicating bridge between the scientific & academic community and the public.

Their motto is ‘entertain, educate, empower’ — whether performing in a theatre or delivering a workshop, those three words are core to what they deliver. They currently provide climate and creative workshops, exhibitions, consultancy, training, public speaking and of course, performances!

Ergon’s flagship show about climate justice, The Wicked Problem was commissioned by Julie’s Bicycle & Contact, and was nominated for best in ‘Promotion of Environmental Responsibility’ at the Manchester Culture Awards 2022.

Robin is the founder of Climate Leadership Training and Artistic Director of Ergon Theatre. Alongside being a climate artist & speaker, Robin delivers workshops, training, and consultancy for businesses & organisations on sustainability, climate change, climate leadership, carbon literacy, environmental responsibility. Robin is one of Manchester’s Leading Scholars as an ambassador for One Young World, the largest global community for young leaders; also an Aspen Rising Leaders fellow; and is close to completing his Masters in Environmental Governance at the University of Manchester.

Some of those Robin & Ergon have previously worked with include: Box of Tricks Theatre, Carbon Literacy Project, Lancaster Arts, Manchester International Festival, WOW Foundation, Contact, HOME, Walk The Plank, RFK Human Rights, ARC Stockton, Manchester City Council, M6 Theatre, The Lowry, Zero Carbon Cities, Julie’s Bicycle, Arts Admin, MMU, Manchester Fashion Institute, Manchester Fashion Movement, XTRAX & Without Walls.
ergontheatre.co.uk
climateleadershiptraining.co.uk/courses

UPDATED 25 April at Noon: Jonathan McGrath (Producer, FutureEverything) is no longer able to chair.
The session will now be co-chaired by GMAH members Antonia Beck (Senior Producer: Artist Development, The Lowry) and Zoe Pickering (Head of Programming & Big Imaginations Manager, Z-arts).

Previous Sessions.

29 March 2023
Considering Access in Your Work.
A discussion with Alice Christina-Corrigan, Sarah Emmott (Art With Heart), Vijay Patel, chaired by Kate Fox (Factory International).
Offering an introduction to creating accessible & disability-led performance work, our panel shared their experiences of integrating access in their work, and how they consider different access options in terms of their creative process and the audience experience.
Watch a recording on YouTube.
This session generously supported by Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

14 February 2023
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants.
An interactive group session on NLPG with ACE Relationship Managers Holly Clarke & Nikki Harrison-Davies (Combined Arts - North), chaired by Tamsin Drury (hÅb).
Download the sheet referred to in the session here; also see our NLPG guidance page.
NB ACE host regular information webinars for DYCP & NLPG applicants — find dates & book on the ACE North eventbrite page.
This session generously supported by Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

3 August 2022
Arts Council DYCP in-depth: The journey to developing your creative practice.
An in-depth small group session with Tamsin Drury of hÅb exploring an approach to DYCP (Developing Your Creative Practice); the journey you need to show you will be taking; and the differences between ACE’s DYCP & NLPG (National Lottery Project Grants).
She was joined by guest artists Kelly Munro-Fawcett, Megan Marie Griffith & Tania Camara, who’ve each successfully applied to DYCP, to talk about their approach.
Watch a recording on You Tube; download the word documents referred to in the recording (just questions, questions + notes); also see our DYCP guidance page.

27 April 2022
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants in-depth: Think not what Arts Council England can do you for you, but what you can do for Let’s Create.
An in-depth small group session for those with some knowledge of both the old system and some understanding of the new NLPG system, with Tamsin Drury (hÅb) and guests Lauren-Nicole Mayes & Jodie Ratcliffe.
Watch a recording on You Tube; download the sheet referred to in the recording here; also see our NLPG guidance page.

16 Dec 2021
Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants (from Nov 2021)
An interactive group session explaining the latest changes (22 November 2021 onwards) made to Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants, its open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects, with ACE Relationship Managers Nikki Harrison-Davies (Combined Arts), Karen Cody (Theatre), Carys Williams (Music), Holly Clarke (Combined Arts).

24 Aug 2021
Navigating ACE Funds
An interactive group session explaining both ACE Funds: Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) and National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG), and the changes that were made, with ACE Relationship Managers Nikki Harrison-Davies (Combined Arts), Karen Cody (Theatre) and Clarissa Corfe (Visual Arts).

16 Apr 2021
Greater Manchester Independent Artist Initiative 21 Q&A for Artists
Over the past few months, a range of Greater Manchester's Arts & Cultural Organisations have been exploring ways that they can support independent artists and companies in our city region to develop and share their work in 2021 as the sector, hopefully, starts to emerge from the current COVID-19 restrictions.
One of those ways is by supporting projects that need resources: money, mentorship, technical support, marketing, space and much more...
Find out more information about the opportunity here.

28 Oct 2020
ACE Developing Your Creative Practice
Developing your Creative Practice (DYCP) is back open for new applications from Thursday 15 October.
The fund is for individuals who are cultural and creative practitioners and want to take time to focus on their creative development.
If you’re thinking of taking your practice to the next stage, DYCP can help by supporting research, time to create new work, travel, training, developing ideas, networking or mentoring.
Join ACE Relationship Managers Nikki Harrison & Vicky Merriman for an interactive group session.

14 Oct 2020
Summer 21 Consultation
How can Greater Manchester’s arts organisations help independent artists?
Greater Manchester Artist Hub has recently been working with the Manchester Cultural Leaders Group and others on plans for the city to celebrate the new work being made by Greater Manchester artists at a series of special events in summer 2021.
Join John McGrath, the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Manchester International Festival and (MIF) and Tamsin Drury, Director of hÅb and Word of Warning, to talk about how you can showcase your work and ensure that artists are involved at all stages – from shaping the plans to delivering the event next summer.

31 July 2020
ACE National Lottery Project Grants — a refresher
ACE Projects Grants reopened on Wed 22 July with some changes and amendments for applications between July 2020 and April 2021.
GM Artist Hub invites you to an online group session for a general look at the programme and a deeper exploration of the recent changes and what this might mean for your project.

19 June 2020
Where Do We Go From Here? — An Open Conversation
Join leading figures from arts venues & organisations from across Greater Manchester to take stock and tackle the questions & challenges currently facing our industry.
A chance to hear what arts organisations are facing and thinking about as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
We can’t promise all the answers but we’re here to talk and give you an insight into what we’re thinking about.

14 & 23 Apr 2020
ACE Emergency Fund: What do we know?

9 Apr 2020
ACE Emergency Fund: First thoughts + Grantium 101