Collective Encounters have been awarded funding to run a year long programme of workshops, performances, professional training, and other events, using creativity to improve health and wellbeing in Liverpool City Region.

Over 11 months, artists and residents will co-create powerful participatory theatre, touring performances and artist development, to engage underrepresented communities in telling their stories, making connections, and steering health policy.

The programme launches in May with some free community events, inviting people in Liverpool, Knowsley and South Sefton to explore what ‘fairer health’ would look like in their neighbourhoods. Also in May, the Radical Joy Cabaret will set the tone for the kind of performance, participation, and politics you can expect throughout the year.

Programme highlights include:

  • Let’s Talk About Fairer Health: a series of free community events in Liverpool, Knowsley and South Sefton
  • Radical Joy Cabaret: a riotous start to the programme using live music and sketch comedy to find joy in the darkest of times
  • Health Utopia Now (working title): a touring performance using drama, music, and participation to explore what a society based on health equity could look like
  • A Turn for the Better (working title): creative workshops and performances advocating for improvements in women’s healthcare
  • Black Maternal Health and History: an oral history and podcasting project documenting Afro-descendent cultural practices around pregnancy, birth and parenting
  • Open space discussions for creative health practitioners, exploring important themes and questions within this practice
  • Professional training and masterclasses in topics including trauma-informed practice, place-based working, and co-productions with health bodies
  • A mentoring and micro commission programme for emerging artists from communities impacted by health inequality

Opportunities to get involved will be posted on our Events page. Our regular groups provide spaces to boost your wellbeing and use creativity to have your say.

We are incredibly grateful to have received funds from Arts Council England, National Lottery Community Fund, and Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust, which will make the project possible, alongside our core funding from Liverpool City Council and PH Holt Foundation, and support from our commissioning partners Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the ReCITE Consortium, with further partnerships to be announced.