In Practice

Dr. Laura King from the University of Leeds chairs an exploration of all things art and health with Leeds-based artist Ellie Harrison - Artistic Director of The Grief Series - and Mick Ward, formerly of Leeds City Council, now associate at Nurture Development, Health Innovation Lab, and Trustee at PAFRAS (Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers).

Ellie Harrison is a performance maker and artist living in Leeds and working internationally.

She creates a range of solo and collaborative devised performance work for studios, galleries, found and public spaces. Participation is at the heart of all of her work as a performer, facilitator and mentor of young people. Her work is often characterised by a playful and provocative approach to difficult topics, encouraging audiences to make decisions and participate.

She graduated from Bretton Hall with a first class Degree in Acting in 2006 and an MA in Performance with Distinction from Leeds Beckett University in 2011.

After graduating Ellie was on the Artistic Direction team for Pointed Arrow, making a range of journey based public art projects. Her first solo show Dressing The Part toured nationally and was developed into a durational performance in collaboration with Ollie Smith and supported by Greenroom Manchester and Light Night Leeds.

In 2015 Ellie won A Love Arts award for her work on The Grief Series. Working on Grief Series has seen Ellie travel to Prague, Paris, Mexico City, Sibiu Festival and Timisoara Romania. The Projects in The Grief Series have gained national press attention. She has been invited to speak on Radio 4's Women’s Hour and has been included in Lynn Gardner’s theatre pick of the year.

Ellie is supported in her role by a team of Access Assistants.

In this episode, Ollie Musson from the Rising Sun Arts Centre & Double Okay talks to Annie Kershaw, co-founder of A Girl called Stephen Theatre Company, Emeline Nevers-White, Digital Illustrator and volunteer at the Rising Sun, and G K Field from Double Okay. Sharing their experiences as queer artists, they discuss how organisations and institutions can best support queer creatives in Reading.

Double Okay is a queer and trans arts collective based in Reading. They host many different types of events as a point of local resistance, centring queer people, including exhibitions, performance nights and workshops. They are partnered with the Rising Sun Arts Centre, where they started hosting their Queer Making Sessions every 3rd Saturday of the month.

Ollie Musson is a queer, non-binary and trans artist based in Reading, and a member of Double Okay. Their practice is multidisciplinary and takes many forms, predominantly as a performance artist and drag performer known as Sheer Obsession. They work part time at the Rising Sun Arts Centre.

Annie Kershaw (she/her) is a queer theatre director from Reading, who’s worked with Reading Rep, Rabble Theatre and Double Okay and in 2019, co-founded her own queer reading-based company called A Girl Called Stephen Theatre. In the new year, she will be directing an exciting LGBTQIA+ adaptation of Hedda Gabler at Reading Rep, and this autumn will be associate director on the west-end transfer of Best of Enemies.

Emeline Nevers-White aka vainwin is a digital artist who was born and raised in Reading. Emeline uses colourful and enchanting themes to explore their brown and queer roots. They are also a volunteer at The Rising Sun Arts Centre in the Visual Arts team.

G K Field AKA George has been a Reading based Artist for over 20 years and is a member of Double Okay. They are a queer and non-binary artist, with a practice rooted in painting and has expanded into performance through their drag persona Mister Frank.

The Rising Sun Arts Centre is an award winning, independent arts centre, which for 27 years has been staffed and run by volunteers. The Rising Sun started as a squat, created by a group of intrepid artists who saw a need for ground-level arts development, for and by, the people of Reading. The centre gained charity status in the mid-90s, and has been at the heart of Reading’s cultural life ever since.

MAFWA get together with Leeds Refugee Forum’s Ali Mahgoub, and Project Manager for City of Sanctuary's Maternity Stream, Maha Aomari to talk with them about where they perceive the value is in Leeds’ arts infrastructure and how their organisations are placed within that. Together they take a moment to learn from their community partners and engage in dialogue and reflection between 2 sectors that are not often enabled time to pause, think and chat.

MAFWA uses drama and the arts to create work that celebrates our similarities and differences, brings people together and speaks truth to power. We use our platform to highlight and enable development opportunities for artists and theatre makers from migrant backgrounds, advocate for migrant rights and celebrate diverse communities.