Way back in January 2020 we invited Ali Michael to write a guest blog about the remarkable play, The Political History of Smack & Crack. Two and a half years later, having weathered lockdowns and plague days, we are pleased to be able to share the news that the play is back on the road and will be performed in Manchester and London in June/July 2022. Please go and see this remarkable piece of theatre that is close to our heart.

Emily van Zoonen is a graduating student in the theatre maker and theatre teacher department at the Academy for Theatre and Dance (ATD) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Emily is currently on placement three months with TiPP as a paid intern. In this post, she reflects upon her experiences as a participant in recent professional development workshop with a group of TiPP’s Rock Up musicians.

We have known for a while that our workforce is not very diverse. There has of course always been a will to do something about it but a lack of time, resources and knowledge on what that something is. When I saw the Sound Connections online 'sit-in' entitled Inclusive Practice in Action: Diversifying the Music Education Workforce I signed up.

TiPP is one of 588 cultural and creative organisations across the country receiving urgently needed support – with £76 million of investment announced today. This follows £257 million awarded earlier in the week to 1,385 organisations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants programme being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.

Our work is about sharing the same space with people, breathing the same air and conjuring ideas and dreams from our shared connections. Obviously, we can’t do that at the moment, so whilst we are in this state of splendid isolation we have linked up with the rather brilliant small performance adventures to bring you a little bit of playful fun.

As well as being awarded Young Creative of the Year Award at the 2019 Manchester Culture Awards, Cara Looij has been working with TiPP as an artist and a project manager. Working with musician David McFarlane and film maker Emily Brocklehurst she has produced the amazing short film, TiPP: Fragments which celebrates TiPP’s legacy. The film was launched on 17th April and can be watched here

This guest blog has been written by producer and performer, Ali Michael. Ali’s work is well known to TiPP, and we would like to offer our support for the creative art project that he and TiPP Artist, Cara Looij have developed as a response to Ed Edwards’ The Political History of Smack and Crack. We wholeheartedly recommend the show to you and if you can help Ali and Cara realise the next stage of the project, then please do.

Changing Stories: Epilogue was the final event of the project.  It was a symposium that we staged in HMP Thorn Cross on 11thApril, 2019. The symposium showcased some of the work that had been made, demonstrated our working methods and provided attendees with an opportunity to gain first-hand experience of participation in a creative arts workshop.  In this post you can watch a short video that has highlights of the day.

On 3rd April I was invited to make to make a ‘pop-up’ contribution to the ‘Measuring and Increasing the Value of Culture’ symposium at HOME in Manchester.  The brief was to make a short, pithy contribution that created a link between formal presentations and informal discussion. I chose to pick up on the themes of the conference, and pose an issue which I thought it would be valuable to bear in mind as the day progressed. I chose to talk about laughter, and the risks to participatory practice of  “teaching to the test”.

To celebrate the conclusion of our Changing Stories project we are holding a symposium at HMP Thorn Cross on the afternoon of Thursday 11th April, 2019. If you would like to get an insight into the work we have been doing and an opportunity to meet some of the artists we have been working with, please join us for the afternoon. HMP Thorn Cross is one of the key locations where we have been delivering the project, so we are really pleased to say that some of the men we have been working with will be joining us to talk about their experiences and share some of their work.

The first in a short, ad hoc series of films and videos from our archive. Back in 2015 as apart of the Magna Carta Anniversary commemorations, we were approached by Unlock Democracy and asked to undertake an arts based research project that asked the question, what do men and women in prison think about justice and democracy?

Action Together awards one-year funding to TiPP for a mental health and wellbeing project for young people living in supported accommodation across Oldham.

Matt Hill (Quiet Loner) is storytelling singer-songwriter who often draws inspiration from history to speak of today’s fights and struggles. He’s been working on the Changing Stories project to work with participants to write and perform their own songs. 

Cara Looij is a recent University of Manchester Drama and English Literature Graduate. Her interests lie in the facilitating of workshops and events across applied theatre, puppetry and multi-arts platforms with a commitment to social responsibility, inclusivity and enhancing wellbeing through the arts. In this amazing visual blog she reflects on her experience on a recent Summer Arts College.

Rachel McMurray has recently completed three weeks as lead artist on a Summer Arts College in a Children’s Secure Care Home in Salford. IN this post she shares her immediate thoughts and reflections on the experience. Rachel is a theatre practitioner, based in Manchester, creating theatre for, and with, a variety of communities and individuals. She is committed to directing and devising theatre which rouses conversation and stimulates social change.

Rachel Scott joined TiPP in January 2007 and is TiPP's Drama Projects Director.  She is currently managing the Changing Stories project, bringing new and emerging artists together with experienced prison practitioners to make new work across a number of participatory arts disciplines.  In this post she describes a recent Changing Stories session in HMP Thorn Cross, where she used smells and scents to generate narrative.

Youth Music awards two-year funding to TiPP and their partners in Manchester to improve music making activities for young people facing challenging circumstances.

David McFarlane is a Boltonian musician, composer, and guitarist living in Manchester. His interests lie in community music-making, improving access to music, and creative music technology.  He has recently completed his first week of work at TiPP, sharing his skills as a musician with young people in a local Children’s Secure Care Home as a part of the Youth Music funded Rock Up project.   In this post he speaks candidly about his experience of working with TiPP.

Katie Charlton is a theatre-maker and facilitator specialising in creating work with, by and for young people experiencing life in the margins. In this post Katie describes some of her work on TiPP’s 'Arts in Mind' Project, a 12 week programme of creative workshops exploring the theme of mental health with care experienced young people aged 13 -25 funded by Mind and Action Together Oldham.