Jade Mercer, a Community Drama student back in the day when Liverpool was at its heyday as European City of Culture has been kind enough to send me her diary entry of 3 April, 2008 when she was in the thick of her final project, Shadows and Showdowns. Does anyone else remember that project? It would be great to hear your perspective of it too.
Shadows and Showdowns
“Today we rehearsed Scene 5, the one where Liam smashes the jar. We’d been dancing around that moment for a week. Lewis finally just went for it, and the sound of that glass hitting the floor in the old rehearsal room? Chills. I think we’re finally cracking the tone – not pity, not trauma porn. Just truth. Honest, raw truth. Cassie’s monologue gave me goosebumps. Maria wrote it based on a story from one of the girls at the youth hub. We tweaked the wording to protect identities, but the emotion is all hers. We also had a tough talk about trigger warnings. Sophie raised a good point – what if someone in the audience isn’t ready to hear this? We’re adding a quiet space next to the performance area with tea, fidget toys, and a youth worker on standby. Tomorrow’s our first test audience. Real people. Not tutors, not peers. I’m excited. Nervous. But mostly proud. We built this from nothing but a need to speak.
Quote of the day: “You can’t fix silence with silence.” (Cassie, one of the characters).
Jadenow works as a Community Theatre Practitioner and Trauma-Informed Facilitator. She is based in Cornwall and founder of The Listening Room, a socially engaged arts collective working with communities affected by housing injustice, care systems, and mental health stigma. A 2008 graduate of LIPA’s Community Drama programme, Jade has spent nearly two decades creating performance with and for marginalised voices, using storytelling as a tool for agency, healing, and change. Her work blends co-creation, forum theatre, and trauma-informed practice. She has delivered projects across the UK and internationally, and regularly mentors emerging facilitators in ethical, inclusive methods. She believes in slow art, soft power, and the radical act of listening.
I had the dubious pleasure of attending a school reunion last year when my old high school announced it was marking its 70th Birthday with a shindig one Saturday in June. It promised so much (reviving old friendships, rekindling old memories and fondly reimagining what we actually did at school) but when was all said and done, and the event had taken place, it delivered very little in those terms.
I realised that much like ‘Facebook Friends’ who aren’t actual friends at all but just people you share a bit of cyberspace with for a fraction of the time you spend on the internet, many of those old school ‘friendships’ fell by the wayside for a very good reason: those ‘friends’ weren’t friends at all but just acquaintances I had to share my physical day with by virtue of the fact that we were born in the same academic year and happened to live in roughly the same geographic region at that point in history. Just when I thought I had all my memories safely packed away in a box labelled ‘Treasures’, the reunion caused that box to relabel itself ‘Pandoras’ and my relationship with that institution has never been the same since.
So, the false friendships, the alarming memories and the potential combination of over promising and under delivering are all good reasons not to attend any school reunion ever again.
But.
With all that baggage gathering in our homes as we prepare for an imminent LIPA reunion, we might answer the question of why here, why now by accepting that the imminent Community Arts LIPA reunion in August 2025 isn’t merely a matter of rekindling old memories that died out for very good reason: it also gives all of us the opportunity to reassess together what that work meant to us back then and perhaps more importantly to consider what it might mean for us and our wider society and its futures.
A Community Arts infused reunion will be more than just about sharing food and gossip and participating in the occasional brawl over the weekend; it will also be about making new friends from the company of strangers; it will be about seeing people in the flesh for the very first time in many years rather than through the shiny electronic veneer the social media platforms dress us up in; and it will give us an opportunity to take stock – privately and collaboratively – about what that time in our lives meant to us.
It will also be about re-minding and re-membering how arts and culture need to continue to play a role in improving all our lives, all the time, everywhere. Whitewashed memories are one thing: helping construct whole new futures for those who follow in our footsteps is quite another and something worth regathering for.
Another way of reviewing our pasts and envisioning our futures is to join in with our Community Arts Writing 2025 Award! You can find details here:
We’re delighted to confirm that Maddi Nicholson, freelance Artist and founder director of Art Gene, a visual art charity and Arts Council NPO in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria is joining our panel of judges for our Community Arts Award 2025.
Art Gene’s research remit extends across a program of environmentally aware placemaking, socially engaged art projects, residencies, exhibitions, and education work focusing on the role and engagement of artists and communities in the revisioning of their social, natural and built environment.
As an Artist Maddi produces challenging work for varied and diverse situations nationwide, video, cast iron and stitched works to huge paintings, signage and inflated and recycled plastic sculptures.
Works range from an inflated replica of a Barrow terraced house due for demolition, in ‘Going home from here’ which toured beauty spots in Cumbria, to a set of cast iron enamelled terraced house models, commenting on the lives of 18th and 19th Century working class women in Spinningfields Manchester in ‘a place lived’.
Her Art Gene art works include the Roker Pods for Sunderland City Council: spherical mobile eco off grid pods on the beach and the prom, as café, education and events facilities. The Peoples Museum on Piel Island, for Barrow Borough Council; including a cabinet of curiosities, repurposed engraved tables, beer maps and the islands of Barrow Map. Seldom Seen Maps and Mobile Apps walking tours for coastal areas of Cumbria and Lancashire. Razzle Dazzle bird hides as education resources with interior artwork interpretation for Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Walney Island Nature reserve, mobile App walking tour and non civic war memorial gate and sculpture for Natural England’s North Walney Island national nature reserve.
We’re delighted our Writing Award competition has been joined by five long standing friends, advocates and practitioners in Community Arts. You can read more about them below.
Emily Bowman is Managing Director of Junction Arts, a leading organisation for participatory arts in the UK. Emily champions community-led creative initiatives that foster cultural engagement and social impact. Previously, she served as Deputy CEO of The Mighty Creatives. She is dedicated to ensuring that communities have access to meaningful cultural experiences. She believes in the power of the arts to bring people together, amplify voices, and drive positive change, working to create opportunities where creativity can thrive at a grassroots level.
Emily has over 20 years of experience in the creative sector, with a background in performance and arts leadership. She is deeply committed to arts, culture, and creativity, with a particular focus on co-producing high-quality, inclusive programmes that engage and empower communities. Throughout her career, Emily has worked with a range of cultural organisations, beginning as an actor and facilitator in international productions. She has extensive expertise in facilitation, producing, fundraising, project development, and cultural leadership. Her passion lies in interdisciplinary, collaborative, and participatory work, co-producing projects that respond to community needs and aspirations.
Beyond her role at Junction Arts, Emily is a trustee for Hubbub Theatre and an Area Council member for Arts Council England in the Midlands. She also chairs the Culture & Place group for Bolsover and sits on the Neighbourhood Board for Chesterfield, actively contributing to regional cultural strategy and community development.
Emily Bowman
Rob Elkington MBE is Director of Arts Connect. His work in creative and cultural education includes leading a young people’s theatre company, working on national creativity in education programmes, leading the regional Bridge infrastructure programme in the West Midlands and for major national organisations in local partnership development roles. What connects this work is an interest in system wide improvement that leads to social justice ends and democratisation of arts and culture. He is a fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme, a Trustee of the Cultural Learning Alliance and is Chair of the Black Country Music Hub Board.
Rob Elkington MBE
Anissa Ladjemi is a Community Arts Drama Graduate from 2004. She currently works with those with life-limiting health conditions, supporting them to get what they are entitled to and advising them on their rights, while giving a listening ear. She has run youth theatres and art projects around the world but fell into the third sector during the years of austerity. She has worked with local government and organisations that support and advocate for the homeless, those with mental health issues and learning disabilities. She found working in the third sector allows her to use her creative side. Her arts background has helped her to communicate openly and problem solve, needed when working with those whose voices are often overlooked. She says: “Every career plan I made ended up taking me down a very different path than I planned. It wasn’t always easy but it has certainly been fulfilling and interesting. I guess you could say that working with people is what drives and inspires me. Thank you to Nick and Roger who took a chance on me the day I walked into the LIPA audition. When my school teacher said ”good luck but you will never get in there”, thankfully he was wrong!”
Anissa Ladjemi
Maddi Nicholson is a freelance Artist and founder director of Art Gene, a visual art charity and Arts Council NPO in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Art Gene’s research remit extends across a program of environmentally aware placemaking, socially engaged art projects, residencies, exhibitions, and education work focusing on the role and engagement of artists and communities in the revisioning of their social, natural and built environment. As an Artist Maddi produces challenging work for varied and diverse situations nationwide, video, cast iron and stitched works to huge paintings, signage and inflated and recycled plastic sculptures.
Works range from an inflated replica of a Barrow terraced house due for demolition, in ‘Going home from here’ which toured beauty spots in Cumbria, to a set of cast iron enamelled terraced house models, commenting on the lives of 18th and 19th Century working class women in Spinningfields Manchester in ‘a place lived’. Her Art Gene art works include the Roker Pods for Sunderland City Council: spherical mobile eco off grid pods on the beach and the prom, as café, education and events facilities. The Peoples Museum on Piel Island, for Barrow Borough Council; including a cabinet of curiosities, repurposed engraved tables, beer maps and the islands of Barrow Map. Seldom Seen Maps and Mobile Apps walking tours for coastal areas of Cumbria and Lancashire. Razzle Dazzle bird hides as education resources with interior artwork interpretation for Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Walney Island Nature reserve, mobile App walking tour and non civic war memorial gate and sculpture for Natural England’s North Walney Island national nature reserve.
Maddi Nicholson
Bee Patience is Communications and Marketing Manager at The Mighty Creatives in Leicester. She graduated from the University of Nottingham with a first-class BA(hons) in Creative and Professional Writing. She started her career as a creative practitioner, delivering creative writing and poetry workshops in schools. Since then, she has completed CIM qualifications and spent more than 12 years working in marketing; first in the fast-paced world of EdTech and now in the charity sector. She is Nottingham Poetry Society’s 2012 Poetry Slam winner and founded the Run Your Tongue spoken word night in her hometown of Kettering.
Bee Patience
More news on future judges to follow!
Interested in applying for the award? You can download the application pack here:
After graduation from LIPA, Anissa Ladjemi took a trip to Norway via the EU which turned into four years of Arts work in Europe and South America which changed her life and where her creativity was embraced wholeheartedly. She came back to find little Community Arts work in the UK so diversified into local government and charity work. She now advocates and works for people with life limiting health conditions which she enjoys. She says “LIPA opened so many doors for me and allowed me to see a world beyond the UK and its restrictions. I loved the opportunity it gave me. It sent me on an unexpected path of self discovery and fun. Sadly we will never look as good as we did the year we graduated from LIPA.” Here she writes about how her time at LIPA transformed her understanding of what art is.
What is Art?
In 2001 at LIPA I attended a discussion group called What is Art? A community music student, Tom used me as an example of the human body being a work of Art and made me stand up while he spoke. We take it for granted everyday but we would be nowhere without it, everybody is unique and your body is unique. You have scars all over you from medical procedures and you’re still here. Your scars are your very own tattoos. They tell the story of your body and all it has endured and survived. Your imperfections give you grace and strength. As time goes on you will look back and wish you looked like you did today imperfectly young and beautiful.
The joy of a body that works is the greatest gift so enjoy it and never take it for granted! It really stayed with me as nobody had taken the time to appreciate my imperfections including myself. At first I was embarrassed but Tom wherever you may be, thank you for always saying something positive and true to me even when I wasn’t ready to accept the compliments. These days I always acknowledge a compliment and you taught me that.
I attended an Art exhibition with Roger Hill in 2004. It was about an artist whose husband had died of cystic fibrosis. To deal with her grief, she had decided to pay homage to him via an art exhibition which included a big inflatable penis and the artist bowing to the penis with lots of images of bondage and S and M. I had previously had a conversation with Roger regarding my frustration about the fact that society labels those with disabilities and health conditions as non sexual beings and incapable of being desired or loved: so people assume they must be with people like them and can’t be desired by able bodied people.
By seeing this exhibition, as much as it was uncomfortable and intense at times, (each to their own but S and M is not my thing) it made me realise that not everybody feels this way, that those from minority groups and those with disabilities are desired by many people but mainly those who are open minded enough and willing to not see it as a barrier.
I was grateful Roger had invited me in the first place as many students refused to attend. Was it his way of saying it doesn’t matter what others think and don’t let society’s expectations stop you from being free? When asked about the exhibition and the discussion on art, Roger said “It captures the quality of the education we were offering so well – feelings and intuitions and discoveries“. I feel society has tried to put me in a box my entire life but we all have the power to step out of the box and be true to ourselves.
The exhibition stayed with me because it was the first time I had seen a person with a health condition talk about sex openly and who dispelled the myth that disabled people are sexless and unlovable.
