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FRONTLINE Arts Festival – “What’s All the FAF About? Event! (#FAF2025)

FRIDAY EVENT: Join us at the wonderful Potteries Museum & Arts Gallery (PMAG) in Stoke-on-Trent for an exciting day of performances, panel discussions, and connecting with international, national and regional disabled and neurodivergent artists.

Featured artists include: Kris Halpin (https://dyskinetic.net), Dave Steele (https://www.theblindpoet.net), Cat McGill (catmcgill.uk), Kayleigh Price, Amy Harrison.

🗓️ Date: Friday 28th February 2025

⏰ Time: Arrive for refreshments from 10am, with the event starting promptly at 10.30am. The event lasts until 4:30pm

📍 Location: The Potteries Museum & Arts Gallery. Bethesda St, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Staffordshire. ST1 3DW.

Cost: The festival is ‘pay as you can’, meaning you can select your chosen donation amount when booking. Suggested £2.50 – £50. CARERS are FREE please email hello@frontlinedance.co.uk with the name and number of FREE careers tickets that you require.

Lunch: A FREE vegan lunch will be provided. Please select at checkout if you would like it. In an effort to reduce our environmental impact, we’d like to ask all attendees to bring their own hot and cold drinks cup/bottle. Thank You.

Tickets can be booked at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/frontline-arts-festival-legacy-event-faf2025-tickets-1224711819019?aff=oddtdtcreator

Showcasing the talent of UK d/DEAF, disabled and neurodivergent artists, #FAF2025 event will include a range of performances, arts and sound installations, including spoken word, dance, music, poetry, film, sculptures, photographs, drawings and paintings. It will premiere two FRONTLINEdance commissions and one commission by Appetite.

There will also be the chance to connect with local d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent charities, hear from our featured artists, connect with others in a speed networking session, and engage in a panel discussion.

The whole programme including Saturday and Sunday activities, can be found below. It includes performances for disabled children and their families, DJ Soca Haze, and meet the commissioned artists on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, FAF exhibition will be in the Sculpture Court. You only need to book for Friday and Saturday’s Explorers in Training show.

Accessibility
👉  The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is fully wheelchair accessible, on the ground floor, and has disabled parking close by*
👉  BSL interpretation
👉  Audio description (please select as a ticket add-on when booking so we can ensure we have enough headsets)
👉  Chill out room
👉  Bean bags to sit or lie down
👉  Sighted Guiders
👉  Touch tours & visual tours (times and more information to follow)
👉  Easy Read Information and Visual Stories

*Parking ……. We’ll give you a number to call a little nearer to the time if you experience any issues parking on the day.

Entry to the PMAG can be made via the main doors on Bethesda Street or via a buzzer system next to the spitfire gallery which has glass windows near to the blue badge spaces. FRONTLINE Arts Volunteers will be on the door, to support and guide anyone who needs it.

Parking: *There are FREE blue badge spaces at the PMAG. You need to access them from Warners Street. As you enter the one way system on Warner Street, drive past the PMAG on your left, and then take your first left into the car park…drive straight then turn left until you reach the marked bays. Blue Badge parking can also be located on Warner Street, and Broad Street.

There are a number of car parks, close by. The ones on broad street are the closest and are reasonably priced. The museum is a short walk from Hanley Bus Station, or a 20-minute walk / 12 minute bus journey from Stoke Train Station. You can plan your train journey at Trainline.

If you require any further access information or support, please email hello@frontlinedance.co.uk so we can put it in place for you ahead of the festival.

#FAF2025 is open to all, and is set to be an exciting opportunity to experience new work and join in discussions about creativity and the arts. We look forward to seeing you there! We’d be grateful if you could share our event with anyone who you think might be interested. You can also share and tag us on social media using the handle @frontlinedance1

Volunteering at #FAF2025

We’re looking for volunteers to get involved!
Roles will include stewarding and event support, to help make sure the day is enjoyable and engaging for everyone. We’re also interested in hearing from volunteers who’d like to help creatively document the day, whether snapping photos, penning poetry, or filming the action.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please drop us an email at hello@frontlinedance.co.uk to have a chat about how you can get involved.

FRONTLINEdance welcomes donations so we can continue commissioning d/DEAF, disabled and neurodivergent artists and putting on events like this. You can make a donation here: https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/wall/frontlinedance or you can select your chosen donation amount when booking.

FRONTLINEdance is appreciative to be working in partnership with Appetite, StokeCreates and Potteries Museum & Arts Gallery to make FRONTLINE Arts Festival – “What’s all the FAF about?” happen again this year. FRONTLINEdance is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, funding thanks to taxpayers plays a huge part in supporting our work.

FRONTLINEdance would like to invite you to experience ‘Holding On’; a contemporary dance performance co-created with those who have experienced grief, mainly by the loss of a loved one to pancreatic cancer. 

When: Monday 3rd February 2025, 7:00pm with LIVE MUSIC by composer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Hall. Doors open at 6:30pm for drinks.
Where: NSCG College. PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE. Knutton Lane, Newcastle-under-Lyme. 
ST5 2GB
Parking: FREE – please use Student Car Park which can be accessed from Ashfileds New Road. Cost: Pay What You Can

Book Tickets Here: https://forms.office.com/e/LgkVR5JZ21
Or email: hello@frontlinedance.co.uk | Call/text: 07356 072991

Please feel free to bring a special object or/and a photograph of a loved one that you have lost. You’ll be invited to position them in the performance area on arrival. On leaving, you will be given the opportunity, to share your loved one’s name with us, and write a message for them, if you wish. 

You’ll also be invited to stay and talk about ‘Holding On’. You may like to share what you thought of the work, ask questions, or talk about any themes that the work explores. Please be aware, that there will not be a bereavement or trained councillor present for this conversation, but friendly faces and listening ears. You do not have to stay to be part of the conversation. 

We look forward to sharing Holding On with you. If you have any questions, please email or call us, and please share. If you require audio description or a BSL interpreter, please contact us in advance.

Audiences have described ‘Holding On’ as: 

Powerful | Emotive | Breathtaking | Beautiful | Skilful | Emotional 

 “Holding On is an excellent experience of contemporary dance for someone like me who knows little about dance, but thoroughly enjoys watching performances. It is extremely thought provoking”. Audience Member.

“Holding On shows the importance and need for support during the devastation cancer causes”. Audience Member. 

We look forward to welcoming you and would like to thank you in advance for supporting us.

  Photography by Jenny Harper

Article by Caroline Butterwick…

“I was a bit nervous about coming along today, but everyone seems really friendly,” a fellow festival attendee says as we sit and chat over coffee in the Main Hall of the Catalyst Building at Staffordshire University. We’re here for the Frontline Arts Festival, a celebration of disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent artists, taking place for the day on 28^th March. Led by FRONTLINEdance, the event is filled with performances, panels and networking.

As a disabled writer – I’m visually impaired and have experienced mental ill health – I’m curious to discover what today brings. One of the things I’m particularly interested in is the accessibility of a big event like this, as I know that access and inclusion is an important part of FRONTLINEdance’s approach. As much as I enjoy arts events, I often face barriers, from not being able to see what’s happening on stage to feeling anxious in crowded spaces. Like the participant I spoke to earlier, I admit to being a little nervous too, as much as I’m looking forward to the day.

And like my fellow festival attendee, I’m already reassured. There are lots of volunteers, sporting FRONTLINEdance t-shirts, who make sure to welcome people as they arrive, and who explain how the day will work. Being given a printed out schedule on arrival has been helpful too, as I’m someone who likes certainty and structure. 

And soon, I’m speaking with Tim Calvert, a professional audio describer, who sets me up with a headset so I’ll be able to hear his live audio commentary of the day. I often use audio description when going to the theatre, and am pleasantly surprised that the headset Tim hands me is comfier than ones I’ve used previously. It had one earpiece, which rests gently over my right ear, and a couple of cables connecting it to a small control so I can change the volume and turn it on and off. 

I filter into the Gallery room, an impressive space with a stage at the front and then rows of chairs that are already filling up. I take a seat near the front, and listen as musician Katy Rose Bennett strums her guitar and sings her ethereal folk songs. Tim is sitting at the back of the room, and I hear him through my earpiece as he fills in the visual details, everything from Katy’s blue Gibson to the layout of the room. I can still hear Katy’s music clearly over the audio description. Tim points out that there are two British Sign Language interpreters working today, one of whom is currently at the front of the room giving a BSL interpretation of Katy’s lyrics. 

Rachael Lines, who’s the Artistic Director of FRONTLINEdance, takes to the stage. She gives an audio description of herself, and introduces the event. “The whole point of today is that you meet someone new,” she says, and I realise I’ve already met one new person, and it’s not even 10.30am. She explains how the Frontline Arts Festival aims to get more disabled artists work, and the plan for there to be more performances throughout the year.

The day brings a mix of talented people to the accessible stage. We enjoy poetry from Shaun Fallows that weaves together humour and emotion; and confessional, poignant poems from Louise Fazackerley and Natasha Tingle exploring mental health. 

There is an engaging panel discussion, chaired by Kelsie Acton, who is a neurodivergent access consultant, and researcher, where artists discuss the reality of working as disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent creatives. The audience makes the most of asking questions to the panel on topics such as what best practice looks like in supporting disabled artists, and I find myself nodding my head at so much of what they say – everything from the issues of tokenism in the arts to what makes an event truly accessible. 

Tim’s audio description is helpful throughout, but for me, it’s most valuable when it comes to the premiere of the screen dance film, What? Me, Worry?, shown on a large screen at the front of the room. The film is by FRONTLINEdance associate artist Kayleigh Price and filmmaker Jay Gearing, two neurodivergent artists who have collaborated to create a screen dance film exploring Kayleigh’s lived experience of anxiety. 

As the film plays, Tim describes the action on the screen: the scene at the start, and then Kayleigh’s dance – how her body arches, convulses, how she reaches for the sky. It isn’t just a literal description of her movement – there is a level of insight and depth that helps me fill in the emotion. I learn of how she is “moving her body like she has no control over it”, how she’s “struggling with what she’s experiencing”, how “her face is totally still, showing no emotion like frozen in time”.

Ordinarily, a film like this – especially one without dialogue – would leave me feeling left out. But with this audio description, I feel part of the shared experience. 

So, what does make an event truly accessible? I wonder this as we filter back into the Main Hall for lunch – provided in individual carry bags, so none of my awkward trying to figure out what’s in a buffet. This is also a helpful approach for those with smell sensitivity.  

I ask Gay Hoban, who is an active part of the North Staffs Pensioners’ Convention, about how she has found today’s experience so far. “It’s very inclusive and welcoming,” she says as we chat over lunch. She tells me how the North Staffs Pensioners’ Convention want to run an event around disability, and that her experience at the Frontline Arts Festival has shown the ways an event can be accessible and inclusive. “Today has inspired me,” she says. “And I feel I have contacts now to help make that happen.”

After lunch there is a fascinating presentation with James Lake, a sculptor who works with cardboard, and dancers Welly O’Brien and Victoria Fox-Markiewicz, where they discuss their joint FRONTLINEdance commission which gave the three of them the time to explore new creative ideas through a residency together. Again, Tim gives audio description throughout, describing the images displayed on the screen, like James’s impressive sculptures of people and buildings, crafted entirely from cardboard.  This audio description helps me feel included.

The last main event of the day is a ‘Pitch and Mix’ speed networking event, which is a structured form of networking. It feels more accessible: I’d usually find myself loitering by the drinks table at a standard networking event, nervously scanning the room for someone to speak to and hoping no one notices I’m glugging my fourth cup of coffee. Half of the participants are seated at tables, and the rest of us go between them, with five minutes per table before being asked to switch. This makes it much easier to start conversations as you don’t have to try to find someone to speak to, and is also a great way of meeting a range of people. I have interesting conversations with new people, as well as reconnecting with existing contacts. There are people working across a range of creative disciplines: I speak with dancers, poets, and ceramicists, and leave with new connections made.  

The day ends with more poetry from Shaun and folk music from Katy Rose, and a real sense that this is an event that has impacted so many people positively. Access has been very much woven through the day, which has included BSL interpretation, a chill out room, and lots of staff and volunteers on hand. And, for me, it’s having audio description that allows me to feel an equal part of this experience.    

The day has been brilliant: warm, welcoming, engaging, thought-provoking, fun. I have felt included. I have lots to think about as a disabled artist, and I feel a sense of belonging to this wonderful creative community.    

Caroline Butterwick

September 2023

View our newsletter here – Opportunities, auditions, networking and much more!

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Today is Brian’s first day as our Company Development Manager and coincidently it falls on Deaf Awareness Week.

We asked Brian some questions:

1. Tell us about yourself.

Answer: Hi, I am Brian Kokoruwe, former Great Britain international athlete, Manager of GB and Assistant European Deaf Sports Athletics Technical Director.  I still enjoy sports and fitness training.  I have a wide range of work experience in the private, public and self-employment fields.  I am excited to be part of FRONTLINEdance company, and I am looking forward to being part of the team that brings fascinating and accessible performances to the local communities. I have written 3 books about the barriers I faced from birth, becoming deafened through meningitis and through the early part of my education. 

2. What are you most looking forward to whilst working with us?

Answer:  I am excited to start my new employment venture with FRONTLINEdance as Company Development Manager.  I am looking forward to working with my FRONTLINEdance colleagues and seeing FRONTLINEdance company getting more exposures across the country, putting out more performances and demonstrating that there should be no barriers for Deaf/Disabled/Neurodivergent people from taking part in theatre performances and therefore showcasing examples of inclusivity at various fields and life spectrums.

3. Deaf Awareness Week 2023 will take place from the 2nd to the 8th of May, and this year the theme is deaf inclusion. This year’s theme highlights how hearing loss impacts daily life and how others can help support deaf people. Why is deaf inclusion important? What can others do to support deaf people?

Answer:  I am always keen to participate or promote deaf awareness during Deaf Awareness Week because deafness is an invisible disability and so many people/organisations tend to forget the needs of deaf people or simply make wrong assumptions that all deaf people have the same requirements.  This is completely WRONG.  Deaf people have various support requirements. The key thing is to communicate with the individual deaf person what their requirements are and then one can make reasonable adjustment to provide for the needs of individual deaf person rather than make incorrect assumptions and therefore provide wrong support.   Deaf inclusion is very important because no one should be excluded on the ground of deafness.  For Deaf Awareness Week, I would like organisations and individuals to please learn more about deafness through Deaf Awareness Courses, learn basic British Sign Language and make more of an effort to communicate with deaf people.  Do you know the differences between deaf and Deaf?  Learn about this during Deaf Awareness Week through having a go at our quizzes.

4. Anything else that you would like to add?

Answer: As part of Deaf Awareness Week 2023, we are going to run daily quizzes via FRONTLINEdance’s social media – FRONTLINEdance1 Answers will be shared the following day.

We welcome you to share your answers each day from 2nd May!

JOIN US – Welcoming New Members!

View our weekly Breakthrou’dance sessions below:

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A successful application means that we have been awarded a grant to tour the ‘Explorers’ to Stoke-on-Trent venues; museums, libraries, special schools, children’s centres, hospital children’s wards/departments and community groups. It will also provide the touring places as well as local arts and culture organisations workshops, in access and inclusion.

If you are interested in us coming to you?
Please contact Rachael: 07484 874335 as soon as possible. You must be within Stoke-on-Trent for this opportunity. Thank You!