On 16^th March 2020, I was en-route to Joker Anna, a Mind the Gap forum theatre production and workshop exploring pregnancy and parenthood in people with Learning Disabilities, for an audience of trainee social workers at Huddersfield University. That morning, as I arrived at Manchester Victoria, I received a phone call. We needed to postpone the show due to COVID-19.

That was the first show postponed for me personally: it foretold the challenging times that were to come, but none of us could have guessed how long our entire worlds as we knew them would grind to a halt for, or the myriad challenges we’d face in our industry. The adaptability, drive and commitment to ensuring theatre still reached audiences and people who may not typically be able to access the arts from arts organisations and freelancers has been commendable.

I’m proud to be Associate Artist at Mind the Gap and looked on with admiration as the company shifted rapidly, ensuring Academy students were still able to access provision digitally, developing Creative Doodle Book and adapting work to be engaged with digitally.

As the pandemic continued and it seemed we were in for the long haul, many of us began to think creatively about how theatre can still reach audiences. For those of us specialising in Theatre of The Oppressed, about how Theatre can still be used to create meaningful dialogues. Theatre as a rehearsal for action.

That’s the Purpose of Anna. Part of a series of work, Daughters of Fortune, exploring pregnancy and parenthood in people with Learning Disabilities, and grounded in five year’s research, the play was written and produced to tour to a range of non-theatre venues. Pre-pandemic, Anna toured country-wide, everywhere from universities to local authorities, to explore with professional and trainee midwives, social workers and others, as well as with audiences with Learning Disabilities, how we can overcome the complex barriers many parents with Learning Disabilities face.

How would we make sure this important work still reached audiences and acted as a vehicle for important dialogues and positive change to take place, in the midst of a pandemic that wasn’t showing any signs of defeat?

We would need to adapt. To find new and exciting means of engaging with audiences.

In August 2020 I received a call from Joyce, Mind the Gap’s Resident Director, explaining that Mind the Gap would like to turn the Anna anti-model into a film and digital Forum Theatre workshop. Joyce’s initial vision excited me. I’d been thinking deeply about film and theatre, having just made and produced a film in lockdown which was grounded in theatre practice. This wasn’t to be theatre filmed, from two or three static camera angles; this was to be theatre brought alive through film – there’s a difference.

As the Joker/Facilitator and on-tour director for Anna, could I direct this film/theatre hybrid? At the point I was asked, I had no idea quite how we’d make it happen, but I believed we could and would. I jumped at the chance.

Fast forward to January 2021 and we have an incredible team on board.  Designer, Caitlin Mawhinney has brought Anna’s world to life in three dimensions in our studio theatre, but geared for that world being experienced by our audience through the lens of a camera. Film Maker Brett Chapman and I have been working to plan how we bring this story to life through film: storyboards have been completed. Deborah Dickinson, Senior Producer, is working hard to ensure shooting can take place, to ensure it’s a COVID-safe environment for all. Production Manager Ben Pugh has made our vision a technical reality. Charli Ward, Anna’s creator and Academy Director has been overseeing the work, supporting myself and the cast. Stage Manger Luke James is on board, taking on a dual SM/Script Supervising role to ensure everything runs like clockwork. Myself and our brilliant cast, Zara, Daniel and Alan, supported by the wonderful Leah, have re-blocked and adapted the play for film, socially distanced, but set in a non-Covid world (mind blown!)…and then…we’re postponed again!

Fast forward once more to March 2021 and we’re rehearsing again. There’s a palpable sense of willing this shoot to go ahead. Shoot Day 1 arrives: PCR and lateral flow testing is complete. We’re ready to Roll! Standby….action.

Four days later, after a stellar effort from the entire team (including our Designer re-training to do the Clapperboard), we wrap Anna.

For many of us, this has been the first time we’ve worked in a room with other people, doing our jobs in a shared space, for a very long time.

There have been countless challenges to overcome, not least shooting and blocking socially distanced. Perhaps the most bizarre overcoming-Covid-challenge moment was a spontaneous idea to ask the cast to use a stick (a bamboo cane measuring exactly 2 metres, which we re-purposed for socially distanced blocking) to poke Brett with, all in the name of art (sorry Brett). We were shooting Point of View takes, meaning the camera had to ‘become’ the eyes of a character,  so I asked the cast to poke Brett with the stick on the corresponding shoulder when they felt their character would look in another direction… thankfully Brett rolled with the idea in good faith, despite the wackiness of it all.

In spite of the challenges we faced, both inside and outside of the Studio, this production has been a joy to make: from the entire cast and crew bellowing “Egg! Egg! Egg!” together in unison during warm – ups (don’t even ask), to the warm and focused environment every person in the team helped create for us to work in, to Caitlin’s tiny model of our clapperboard for the 100 slate moment. I’ve felt privileged to creatively lead such an incredible team, and beyond proud of the work we’ve created in the face of challenges we’d never before encountered. Above all, I’m delighted that this first venture back into creating work together in shared spaces has been such a joy, from start to finish. We have every single amazing person who helped make Anna online happen to thank for that.

As I write, we are nearing completion of the edit for the film, and plans are being made to launch the work online, with a digital workshop with students at Royal Holloway. We can’t wait to share it with you, and to celebrate Mind the Gap’s important work with Daughters of Fortune still being able to reach audiences, spark important conversations, and hopefully impact the lives of parents with Learning Disabilities for the better.

Keep an eye for more details from us about Anna Online coming soon!

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I’m very pleased to announce some exciting news and I wanted you to be the first to hear about it!

Over the past two years we have been working very hard behind the scenes to develop a new Level 4 training programme, as part of Mind the Gap’s Academy offer. Despite the challenges that the pandemic has brought over the last 12 months, we’re thrilled to be able to offer this new programme from September 2021.

Mind the Gap Academy has been on such a journey over the past ten years. What started out as just a single theatre course all those years ago, the Academy is now the biggest arts training centre for people with learning disabilities and/or autism in the country. Boasting four one day courses in subjects including theatre, dance and music, a four-day performing arts programme and a Youth Academy, our courses provide training opportunities for more than 80 people every week.

There are very few opportunities for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to develop their performance skills at a high level. Mind the Gap Academy is proud to be able to offer this level of training with programmes specifically designed for students wishing to pursue a career in the arts.

The new Level 4 programme will replace the current four-day per week Performance Academy course with a more structured and rounded package, which better reflects the needs of our students and the training on offer.

Our ambition has always been to support people with learning disabilities and/or autism to gain employment in the arts, so we are really excited that this new training programme will provide the level of training required to meet this goal. Not only will it provide the necessary skills needed to work in the arts, it will also raise awareness among industry professionals and other performance makers about the talent that exists among people with learning disabilities and/or autism.

We will begin recruiting for this year’s intake of students in May 2021. To find out more about the course or register your interest, contact our Learning and Participation Coordinator, Melissa Conyers: melissa@mind-the-gap.org.uk / 01274 487390.

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More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country including Mind the Gap in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced today.

Mind the Gap is one of Europe’s leading companies that creates live performance experiences with learning-disabled artists taking centre stage. This DCMS grant funding will ensure the company can work towards reopening safely, create work together and reach live audiences once again.

Over £800 million in grants and loans has already been awarded to support almost 3,800 cinemas, performance venues, museums, heritage sites and other cultural organisations dealing with the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second round of awards made today will help organisations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said: “Our record breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they’ve ever faced.

Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors – helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead.”

Julia Skelton, Mind the Gap’s Executive Director said: “Mind the Gap is delighted to be awarded £33,915 in this second round of the DCMS Culture Recovery Fund awards. It will make a huge difference in ensuring the safety of our team as the lockdown restrictions ease, and we work towards reaching live audiences and participants once again. These funds will be invested in additional Covid-19 testing, PPE and freelance staff costs so we can get back to making work for performance and touring. This last year has been really tough for the whole arts sector, especially freelancers and small organisations, so we are excited to be doing our bit towards the cultural sector’s recovery back to full strength.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said: “Investing in a thriving cultural sector at the heart of communities is a vital part of helping the whole country to recover from the pandemic. These grants will help to re-open theatres, concert halls, and museums and will give artists and companies the opportunity to begin making new work. 

We are grateful to the Government for this support and for recognising the paramount importance of culture to our sense of belonging and identity as individuals and as a society.”

The funding awarded today is from a £400 million pot which was held back last year to ensure the Culture Recovery Fund could continue to help organisations in need as the public health picture changed. The funding has been awarded by Arts Council England, as well as Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

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People with learning disabilities have been among the most socially disconnected during the pandemic but Mind the Gap has continued to engage with our students and Artists over the past year through regular online programmes. The funding for Mind the Gap Social Club will enable us to reach out to more people with learning disabilities who haven’t had the same opportunities.

Running over the summer for 10 weeks, this new online programme will provide creative activities for 20 people with learning disabilities from the Bradford district. The Social Club will also provide a fun and safe environment for new social connections to be made, with the aim of improving wellbeing.

Attendees will have a go at gardening, cooking and creative activities, and will receive everything they need to take part through the post. We’re also offering support to enable internet connection or offline alternatives so that digital access isn’t a barrier.

We hope that this online pilot will lay the foundations for the Social Club to continue when we are able to be in the same room together. Until then, this new programme will enable us to understand activities people enjoy and establish relationships with local people.

Keep an eye out for more information coming soon!

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Since September 2019, Mind the Gap has been running Supported Work Placements for six Artists with learning disabilities. These placements enable the Artists involved to work alongside experienced tutors at the company with the long-term aim that all of our courses can be co-facilitated by a learning disabled and non-disabled practitioner.

While the programme has only been running for around 18 months, the idea has been brewing for a long time. Mind the Gap Artists were already well experienced in co-facilitating workshops and training sessions outside of the building, but the Staging Change programme has allowed us to embed this model within the Academy. These Artists have a huge wealth of lived experience as performers with learning disabilities and/or autism, which is invaluable to students at Mind the Gap Academy. Furthermore, working alongside Artists with learning disabilities helps build aspiration and understanding for our students about what is possible in terms of future career opportunities.

Tutors have been working with the Artists involved to pick and plan what they are going to run each week. This may be a warm up, a game, an activity or even a full session. The amount of facilitation by each Artist grows and develops weekly over a full academic year to build confidence, skills in leading a wide variety of sessions and to help them understand how to develop the students’ skills over a long period of time.

One of the Supported Work Placements, Emily Kent, says: “I have really enjoyed teaching workshops so far. The opportunity has really allowed me to develop my skills, both as a teacher and as a dancer. It has been strange over the past year teaching online but I think this has challenged us even more. I can’t wait to get back into the studio to try out some of the skills I have developed in live sessions.”

Hopefully, one of the outcomes of the Supported Work Placements will be a pool of new tutors who will be able to lead sessions both inside and outside of our building with support. The most exciting part of it for us as a company though is the ability to up-skill people with learning disabilities and/or autism in order to further their career within the arts.

Mind the Gap’s Staging Change programme is funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

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The Creative Doodle Book is like one of those little stars that comes along and shines brightly just when we need it.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our lives, particularly our mental health, our ability to communicate and our human need for social contact. Lots of us have been feeling cut off and isolated but using the Doodle Book has helped to connect people and provide some distraction and sparkle.

The Creative Doodle Book enables people to express themselves creatively, separately and together, regardless of their ability or skill. People who have been involved in the project have told us that it generates a positive effect on mood and general wellbeing.

“Sometimes being a little bit silly does the world of good. This kind of creativity just has a massive positive impact on your wellbeing and your mindfulness.”

We have been amazed by the interest in the Doodle Book and enquiries have come from all over the world including from Denmark, Australia and the USA. In these lockdown times, there seems to be a need for a physical creative resource, which is playful and active.

We have worked with 11 different community groups to date and found some interesting ways to use the activities in the Book. Indepen-dance in Glasgow, a dance company for people with learning disabilities, had four facilitated online sessions with the Doodle Book.  And now they’re distributing 250 Books to people in the community who do not have access to the internet.

200 Books have been despatched to the Culture Box project which provides creative activities in a box for staff and people living with dementia in care homes across the UK. In the next few weeks we are working with a refugee group in Manchester and young people in Edinburgh.

We are keen to share the Creative Doodle Book far and wide so we’ve done another print run while this star is in the ascendance.

For more information about the Creative Doodle Book, email deborah@mind-the-gap.org.uk

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As with most organisations around the world, the pandemic has raised a lot of challenges for Mind the Gap but it has also offered us some exciting opportunities. In March 2020, as work moved online and our usual rehearsal and touring schedule was put on hold, we realised that the situation allowed us some time to reflect, and act on, some of the fundamentals of Mind the Gap as an organisation.

In my role as Audience Development Officer, this meant reflecting on how the company has changed since I landed a temporary contract with Mind the Gap back in 2012 … and never left!

During that time, I have been privileged to watch, and be involved in, the company’s growth. From a relatively small touring theatre company with a training course for around 30 people with learning disabilities and autism in 2012 to a more diverse company; a company that showcases and champions the work, and stories, of learning-disabled individuals and artists across many different artistic outputs.

Mind the Gap’s performances have shifted their focus from the retelling of classic texts to new, devised work with relevance and lived experience of people with learning disabilities and autism. The training programme that existed in 2012 has tripled in size to become our Academy – one of the country’s largest centres of performance training, and skills development for people with learning disabilities and autism. The company has also become widely recognised for its role in sector leadership and development; through programmes such as Staging Change, Engage and Future Me, Mind the Gap continues to demonstrate its knowledge and expertise in access to the arts sector for people with learning disabilities and autism – as audiences, performers and artists.

Taking these shifts in the breadth and range of the company’s work into consideration, I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past few months thinking about how we can best reflect the company’s growth, changes, and general fabulousness to the outside world. I think we all understand that a company’s website is an important tool in this, and that our current site is out of date and needs a shake up! To that extent, we’re pleased to be working with the Huddersfield based digital agency Splitpixel to refresh our website and digital presence as well as to progress Mind the Gap’s brand.

This has been made possible thanks to the incredible support we have received from Arts Council England’s Emergency Recovery Fund and the Government’s Cultural Recovery Fund.

Expect to hear more about our new website and other developments in the coming months – we have plans to shout about us all as individuals, as a team, and as a respected organisation – not just because we can but because we need to!

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Following recruitment last autumn, we kicked off the brand new employment programme Future Me in November 2020. We’ve been working with 15 adults with learning disabilities from the north of England who are keen to learn new skills connected to working within the arts.

The aim of Future Me is to enable participants to be able to volunteer, and gain paid employment, within the local arts industry. Like a lot of other things at the moment, Future Me is taking place through Zoom, which is actually working out really well for us. Each week we have a special guest from the arts sector who we interview about their career, and we even get them to share their biggest ever work mistake! We also ask them what the best advice is they’ve ever received and usually find out that everyone’s work journey is different and doesn’t always work out the way they had imagined it would. So far we have spoken to some fabulous people including artistic directors, writers, actors, costume designers and stage managers.

During February and March we’ll be creating new CVs with participants and looking at virtual and real life work experiences with local arts venues and organisations. Keep an eye out for more updates on Mind the Gap’s social media channels.

Future Me is funded thorough the European Social Fund and led by Mind the Gap freelance staff Vicky Ackroyd and Maria Thelwell.

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You might not think that a global pandemic would be especially fertile ground for launching an online visual art project, and yet the Creative Doodle Book seems to have been exactly what people needed!

This was not the original plan for the Doodle Book, but back in March we worked quickly to adapt the initial theatre focussed offer into a broader, more accessible creative offer. We worked with artists with learning disabilities at Mind the Gap and were surprised by the positive response – even from those who proclaimed not to like ‘art’ – so we thought it might be good to share further!

With funding from UK Research and Innovation, we have piloted 4 weeks of workshops with 4 companies, and plan to work with many more through 2021. The Doodle Book gives suggestions for playful, creative activities, and these suggestions are woven into workshops that bring groups together and share knowledge about a whole range of different artists – and all through the magic of Zoom!

We’ve turned household objects into art, inspired by Javier Perez Estrella, explored our own creative journeys courtesy of Frida Kahlo and played tricks on our eyes thanks to Bridget Riley. It’s been an unexpected joy in the midst of a deeply uncertain time, and I think we’ve all been grateful for that.

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Exciting news! Following months of online working, we’re very pleased to be running limited live Academy activity back in our studios.

Thanks to the hard work of our Academy team, and the support of Bradford, Leeds and other Councils, we’re confident that we can provide a Covid safe environment for our students and Artists who have missed out on so much face to face learning and social interaction (at a safe distance) since March.

Academy Director Charli Ward says: “We are continuing to provide online sessions for those who are categorised as vulnerable or are not ready to return to live activity just yet. 2020 has thrown a lot of challenges our way, particularly when it comes to the development and wellbeing of our students and Artists, so it’s wonderful to have some live activity taking place again.”

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