For over a decade, I have developed programmes that connect young people and underrepresented communities with the performing arts. My work focuses on removing barriers to participation, nurturing creative communities, and building pathways that enable young people to move from first engagement into long-term cultural participation. Through projects in theatres, festivals and industry initiatives, I explore how organisations can better collaborate to support sustainable audience development and future cultural participation.

This page highlights selected projects that demonstrate my approach to audience engagement, creative community building and industry advocacy.

Featured Projects

Young Barbican: The Takeover (2022)

Overview

Young Barbican: The Takeover was a centre-wide festival celebrating the creative community of Young Barbican members. The event invited artists from the Young Barbican network to curate and lead the programme, transforming the Barbican into a platform for emerging creative voices.

Background

During my time leading the development of the Young Barbican membership scheme at the Barbican Centre, I noticed that many members were artists, producers and facilitators with their own creative practices.

During the pandemic, while the Barbican was closed, I created Young Barbican Spotlight, a free digital series across the programme’s channels that promoted members’ creative practices, including exhibitions, scratch performances, events and workshops. The initiative helped sustain the Young Barbican community during lockdown while showcasing the breadth of talent within the network.

When the building reopened, I began to see how many Young Barbican members had connected with each other through this platform. This sparked the idea of creating a community-led festival that brought the network together in person.

UK Theatre / SOLT Conference & Awards 2025

Photos by (c) David Monteith-Hodge

TheatreCraft & The Callboard Network

Impact

The event was widely attended and generated strong engagement across the Barbican community. It was also featured in Time Out London, highlighting its role in supporting emerging creatives.

Following its success, Young Barbican: The Takeover has continued as an annual event at the Barbican, forming part of the programme’s long-term legacy.

Video by Bliss

The Idea

Young Barbican: The Takeover was conceived as a weekend-long festival entirely programmed by the Young Barbican community.

The programme included:

• Workshops

• Performances

• Creative talks

• Exhibitions

• Participatory events

Branding for the festival was created by a Young Barbican artist, and the programme was curated entirely from within the membership network.

Overview

I was invited onto the Audience Development panel at the UK Theatre 2025 conference, chaired by Natalie Ibu (Artistic Director & CEO, Northern Stage). The panel’s central question: How can we identify and reach young and diverse audiences?

UK Theatre Awards

Following the conference, I was invited to join the judging panel for “The Most Welcoming Theatre” at the UK Theatre Awards. As part of the process, I visited 3 regional venues; Shakespeare North Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, and Royal & Derngate Theatre, who were ultimately awarded the prize.

These visits offered valuable insight into how regional theatres embed accessibility and community engagement into their everyday practice. In particular, Royal & Derngate stood out for the strength of its creative learning and youth programmes, and how they create sustained pathways for young people to engage with theatre.

The experience reinforced how regional venues often lead the way in building meaningful relationships with their local communities and creating long-term opportunities for young people to participate in the arts.

Contribution

During the panel, I spoke about the need for the theatre industry to broaden its understanding of the barriers that prevent young people from engaging with theatre. While ticket pricing is often cited as the primary obstacle, my experience working in audience development suggests the challenges are more complex. These include the cultural relevance of programming, limited sharing of audience data across organisations, and a lack of clear pathways that allow young audiences to move between different cultural institutions as they develop their interests. I also highlighted the absence of coordinated audience development strategies across the sector, which can make it difficult to build long-term relationships with young people. The discussion emphasised the importance of greater collaboration across the industry in order to better understand audience behaviour and to develop more sustainable models for engaging future theatre audiences.

Overview

TheatreCraft is the industry’s premier hub for young people exploring off-stage careers in theatre. Over three years representing Jamie Wilson Productions at the annual event, I’ve hosted backstage tours, run speed-networking sessions, and given direct insight into what early-career routes into producing actually look like.