Partners and Artists

We're an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, which means funding thanks to taxpayers and National Lottery players plays a huge part in supporting our work. Inspire became a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) in 2018 to deliver a cultural programme and are delighted to remain part of the National Portfolio for 2023 - 2026. Our funding from Arts Council England allows us to deliver a range of performing, dance and digital art projects for all young people. 

Captivate is the local cultural educational partnership (LCEP) for Nottinghamshire. It provides opportunities for partnerships between schools and education partners across the county. It is the creative home for children and young people, schools, teachers and cultural enablers to collaborate and access high-quality arts and cultural experiences.

First Art brings inspirational cultural experiences within reach of everyone living in Ashfield, Bolsover, Mansfield and North East Derbyshire, as well as helping local people to produce and shape their own cultural experiences and events. They work together with local people to do just that, building proper relationships with communities to make inspiring arts and cultural things happen. 

Mansfield Palace Theatre is a destination to create, discover and be entertained. They welcome over 140,000 visitors from Nottinghamshire and beyond every year and have shows, classes and projects to suit all ages and interests.

They are the place where the people of Mansfield can come together, to be proud, to feel good and to find joy both on and off the stage. Everyone is welcome at the Palace Theatre. 

palacetheatreboxoffice@mansfield.gov.uk

Mansfield Museum's mission is really simple, they want to bring people together to create healthier, proud communities.

They are all about helping local people discover the world around them, cherishing Mansfield's unique stories, and bringing them to life.

Their big dream is to be a place where you belong in the hope that everyone can be inspired.

01623 463088

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, Inspire Music and Nottingham Music Service joined together in 2024 to form the brand new regional consortium Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Music Hub, which is now working to develop exciting music-making opportunities for children and young people aged 5 to 18 years in Nottinghamshire.

The new combined service is increasing the range and reach of music opportunities across the region for communities, children and young people.

Next Door Dance is an all-female dance company based in Nottingham. They are a friendly bunch who are passionate about creating performances that are engaging and relevant to a wide range of audiences. Inspire Youth Arts are thrilled to be working with Next Door Dance to provide young people from across Nottinghamshire the opportunity to develop their own choreographic ideas and high-quality performances. 

Unanima are an arts organisation that is dedicated to levelling things up for learning disabled and autistic people. Unanima helps the overlooked to embrace their creativity and reach their true potential through learning disabled and autistic development programmes in theatre making, stand-up comedy, music, creative writing, campaigning and activism. By demanding greater representation of these individuals on stages and in audiences, Unanima vow to change the way you see them.

Bec Smith, of Urban Projections, is a fantastic artist that we have had the pleasure of working with for over 25 years - and who previously attended Inspire Youth Arts!

 Bec is a digital artist and audio-visual performer,  experienced in creating large-scale projections, immersive installations and live visual performances. Her work blends art and technology to transform spaces into shared experiences, sparking connection, curiosity and play. She has delivered projects, performances, workshops and talks across festivals, galleries, public spaces and community settings, always with a focus on bringing people together through inventive and beautifully crafted digital worlds.

Inspire Youth Arts work with Urban Projections on the annual Light Night installations, the Proto-Type Digital Group, and many other projects in between!

Trekkah Benjamin (Benjamin Ziec) is a musician, producer, DJ, sonic artist, and community arts practitioner from Nottingham. Throughout the years he has been known for his work in many art forms, musical genres, and creative settings. Co-founder of community arts organisation Nottingham C.A.N and two Nottingham-based events and record labels Phlexx Records and T.O.N.E.S, over the years Trekkah has curated and performed on stages throughout the UK and Europe. 

All of Trekkah's work is unpinned with a strong sense of creative community collaboration something the artist believes is essential to cultivate a healthy environment for sustained art practice.   

Cara is a Dance Artist, Choreographer, Teacher, Arts Administrator and Assistant Producer working across the Midlands. Cara delivers and creates inclusive, dynamic dance performance and project-based work. 

Cara delivers classes to young people across Nottinghamshire in youth, SEND and education settings; working for FABRIC, Inspire Youth Arts and schools in the East Midlands. 

Graduating in 2020 from Leeds Beckett University with a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance, Cara’s multidisciplinary work finds her crossing paths in creating, choreographing, performing, screendance, teaching and facilitating, producing and arts administration roles. She specialises in flowing and dynamic movement. 

The core of Cara’s work is allowing you to influence her work as she inspires you to reach your own creative potential. Cara's most recent work finds her choreographing RESET Dance Co’s new outdoor performance work ‘PLAY’, as well as assisting the running of the East Midlands Centre for Advanced Training Programme (CAT) at FABRIC, in the role of CAT Admin Assistant. 

 Cara is the Co-Artistic Director & Outreach Coordinator of RESET Dance Co and the founder / lead artist for their youth dance company RESET Youth Co. Cara’s journey with Inspire Youth Arts began as a young person participating in dance projects alongside Next Door Dance, she then completed work experience with both Inspire Youth Arts and Next Door Dance and soon after graduating started working as a freelance dance artist with Inspire.

Georgina is a freelance dance artist based in Nottingham. After graduating university in 2010, Georgina started working in the East Midlands. She currently works alongside the Inspire Youth Arts team as a dance tutor and at the Royal Ballet School in the primary steps department as well as in the private sector delivering contemporary dance styles.  

Georgina has been a lecturer in dance at Lincoln University and currently works at Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama as an academic support for their students.  

She has also worked on large scale performance projects with Dance 4, Tom Dale Dance Company and has been on several UK dance tours with Next Door Dance and Spiltmilk Dance. 

Jimmy Power is a Music Producer based in Nottingham, UK. He is an Experimental Multi Genre Electronic Music Producer, DJ, Event Promoter, Label Owner and Studio Engineer. His Current work is based around exploring creative ways to push the boundaries of performing electronic music in a live setting. As a DJ/Music Producer, Jimmy’s previous work has seen him on line-ups alongside Emalkay, Chasing Shadows, Roksonix to name a few. Jimmy’s engineering skills have seen him work with a plethora of artists from a variety of backgrounds and musical styles. 

Jimmy delivers the Inspire Youth Arts Electronic Music Production session. 

Joe Strickland is a theatre maker, digital producer, creative technologist and access consultant. Since 2012 they have been helping to create all manner of theatre and performance in venues across the country.  

Joe is the Artistic Director & CEO of Chronic Insanity, a Trustee of The King's Hall Trust For The Arts, and the Dramaturg in Residence with the Virtual Immersive Production Studio at the University of Nottingham. 

They are the Digital Producer for Puncture The Screen, Chronic Insanity's data driven art and performance festival, and the Venue Manager for both Insanity Point, a Nottingham-based pop-up streaming venue for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and The Void, an immersive performance and exhibition space housed in a system of caves in Nottingham. 

Joe is an artist supported by the Nottingham Playhouse and a studio member with Near Now. They have been a BBC New Creative, an AA2A Artist in Residence with Nottingham Trent University, and an Associate Artist with New Perspectives and Nonsuch Studios. 

Joe has a PhD in Future Experience Technologies and Storytelling, which was based at the University of Nottingham's Mixed Reality Lab and partnered with the Horizon CDT, University of Nottingham and the BBC. They specialise in using traditional theatre making techniques and applying them to entertainment technology, such as virtual and augmented reality, as well as recreating physical presence using these technologies. 

They are an experienced digital culture and accessibility consultant, having spoken about the subjects internationally and worked with a large range of organisations, including the BFI, Young Vic, AMA, BBC R&D and British Council. They are currently part of the Access Working Groups at both Nottingham Playhouse and Innovate UK. 

In 2022 they won the Off West End award for Best Audio Production for Red Breast by Lotty Holder. In 2023 they won the Digital Culture Network Award for Digital Transformation, as well as being nominated for the Digital Ambassador award. They were also nominated for the Off West End award for Best Director for their work on 24, 23, 22 by Doug Deans. 

Kecco Recchia is an Italian singer-songwriter and educator based in Nottingham, with a career spanning Italy, New York, and the UK. Performing under the stage names Paul Nose (English repertoire) and Keccore’ (Italian repertoire), he has released several albums blending pop with blues, rock, funk, and strong songwriting traditions. His music has featured on BBC Introducing, Notts TV, and in film soundtracks, as well as in theatre-inspired projects. 

Alongside live performances as a solo one-man-band with guitar and loop station or in groups, Kecco is also active as a tutor, supporting learners and emerging creatives in developing their own artistic voice. 

Kirk Spencer is an award-winning electronic artist and producer, known for blending dance, alt-pop, and Eastern influences. His work has featured in Hollywood films, on BBC Radio 1, and in Wonderland Magazine, with collaborations spanning global artists. 

Kirk’s music has been championed by Spotify through Fresh Finds (cover placement), New Music Friday, and featured on playlists like Planet Rave, Noize, and Ministry of Sound. A standout highlight includes a sync in an Apple advert through his 'Ilaiyaraaja Reimagined' project, celebrating the iconic Indian composer. 

He's remixed artists such as Lana Del Rey and Crystal Fighters, earning blog support from Jay Z's ‘Life and Times’, and scored music for the film The Wave, with the trailer soundtrack amassing over 1 million views. 

Through Mercuri Holdings UK Limited, Kirk leads creative ventures across music, entertainment, sports, and media — including producing the first fully Western symphony by Ilaiyaraaja and high-profile immersive events. 

Matt is one of the fantastic artists who works on our Singer Songwriter Academy. We asked him some questions for our newsletter to find out more about his practice and what he loves about Inspire Youth Arts! 

Can you describe your artistic practice in one sentence? 

I'm a songwriter who is committed to helping others build a life-long practice of making art. 

What is your favourite thing about working with young people? 

Seeing young people recover the unselfconscious attitude to art-making they enjoyed when they were very young children. 

Do you have a go-to bit of tech/prop/device/instrument/warm-up that you couldn’t be without?  

I have a list of 80+ songs I've memorised, and I spend 25 minutes every day singing though a few of them. 

If you could gift anything in the world, to ALL young people, what would it be?  

A life where real, live human interaction pushes social media to the fringes. 

Have you got any standout projects from Inspire Youth Arts? 

As a fan of the Fab Four, the Re: Beatled project that Inspire Youth Arts commissioned me to write, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' gig in Mansfield, was very close to my heart. 

f you were to describe Singer Songwriter Academy to a young person, what would you say? 

It's an extremely encouraging environment for young singer/songwriters to start writing, performing and recording. 

Favourite EVER song? 

Ergen Deda by Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares 

Rickae Hewitt-Martin is a Midlands-based freelance dance artist and Dance Movement Psychotherapist (DMP, MA 2023). Since 2021 she has toured nationally and internationally with Yewande103. She works as an inclusive dance artist for SENSE, supports CAT outreach at FABRIC (Nottingham), and works as a DMP for Catharsis Arts Therapy. As founder of Vehdance and Movement, her company offers creativity-led classes for children, young people and adults guided by collaboration and connection. 

Believing in the transformative power of movement, Rickae dedicates her practice to empowering self-autonomy and nurturing creative expression across the East Midlands and beyond. 

Sali is an artist and performer with over 25 years’ experience of touring theatre, film, and festival performance across the U.K and Europe. In 2012 she began working with SEND adults and young people and loved how new approaches to movement, expression and communication could create infinite potential for creativity. She continues to work extensively in arts and performance with SEND schools, groups and communities with a focus on individualised approaches that allow participants to discover the breadth of their personal potential. She also delivers coaching and training for practitioners on inclusive practice including workshops for People Dancing and SCOPE. One highlight of her work is co-choreographing the opening and closing ceremonies for the CPISRA world games.

Sali leads the SANDance and Square Peg inclusive dance groups for Inspire Youth Arts, and has long held the group vision to see SANDance become a bridge for young disabled people to find opportunity in the arts and performance sector.

In recent years, with additional training in digital arts, Sali has also created immersive work with SEND participants and audiences. In various artist residencies she has explored routes to expression and connection through VR and adaptive technologies, developing an inquiry of the relationship between the body, autonomy and our sense of identity. Much of her work with young people with complex needs enables them to engage, experience, relate and respond through the body using sensory elements within immersive environments and assistive technologies. 

Shola Riley is a commercial and street dance artist. From a young age, Shola trained in a variety of styles from ballet to hip hop before moving to London to complete her dance degree. Shola then spent several years performing professionally in music videos, TV shows and in the West End. 

Some of Shola’s highlights include performing at Coachella, The Graham Norton Show and The Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show.

Shola feels lucky to be teaching people of all ages and backgrounds, creating fun, supportive spaces where dancers can truly express themselves, as she believes self-belief is the most important thing! In her classes, Shola focuses on building confidence and performance, whilst encouraging individuality and joy through movement. 

Shola teaches our MX Collective commercial street dance classes on Monday evenings, 5.30pm - 7.30pm at The Old Library for 10-18 year olds. 

Tom is an Inspire Youth Arts music artist. He facilitates regular weekly sessions across SEND schools and colleges, creating environments where young people collaboratively compose and perform music, fostering creativity and expression. As part of his role, Tom contributes to the Able Orchestra project, delivering taster sessions and encouraging new participants to explore music making. Tom also co-delivers Inspire Youth Arts Rock School, supporting young musicians to form bands and write, record and perform original tracks. 

Tom has a broad experience of the music industry, as a performer in bands, stage manager and composer, including music for advertisements. His skills and knowledge of the industry enable him to offer multifaceted insights and guidance in his workshops. 

Tom is a music artist, consultant, and practitioner with experience in songwriting, music production and sound design. Since 2018, he has delivered music sessions to young people and adults across a range of organisations including Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Council, Children in Care Council, YMCA and Inspire Youth Arts. He successfully secured a Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant from Arts Council England to develop an album using accessible midi instruments, such as the Digit CMPSR. He has been creating his own music since he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a teenager, using music primarily as a coping mechanism and has since released 4 albums. Tom is passionate about access to high quality music for all and exploring music as a form of expression.