For Puppetry,
Collaborative Arts
& Creative Health
Provisions
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Founders of
Introducing...
'TIPA' - The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance - is a unique and much needed sector initiative developed by Broken Puppet Theatre & Collaborative Arts Company with support from our creative industry partners. We are a proudly disabled led, unapologetically inclusive puppetry production company based in South Devon (UK) who specialise in devising performance and creative learning packages made by and for inclusive audiences.
The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance is our open invitation to the rest of the Puppetry and wider creative industries sector; to work collaboratively with us in helping to forge meaningful, long term connections between the professional puppetry sector, disabled creative practitioners, and inclusive audiences.
Read More about TIPA...
For over 12 years, we have been working to develop a creative practice strategy that centres around creative inclusion using puppetry, theatre arts and film to raise awareness, challenge stigma and improve both participatory and professional development opportunities for all artists, children and families living with chronic illnesses and - too often invisible - disabilities. Put simply, we wanted to create a more effective way to share our experiences with others, who still struggle to find solutions to the often complex accessibility challenges faced by these groups and potential host venues/events, so we created The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance.
Who we are & why we are launching TIPA...
Broken Puppet was founded in 2010 by a team of 4 friends who all have lived experience of disability/chronic illness and 20+ years of professional expertise in realms spanning theatre, puppetry, film production, youth and community work, mental health support work, early years education and even biomedical sciences. 3 members of our team also have experience as carers and are able to also articulate - and advocate for - the needs and interests of those in their care. Since 2012, our work has included over 220 community & professional projects, puppetry events and creative development/R&D programmes, including several funded by Arts Council England as well as various smaller/local charitable funds. Between Broken Puppet Theatre Company and our Creative Director Clare's previous freelance or associate artists programmes, we have been responsible for bringing over £220,000 worth of funding into the sector, developing both our own inclusive puppetry theatre practice, and acting as consultants for venues all over the UK and more recently beyond, with the covid-inspired uptake in integrated digital work too. During covid lockdowns, we received £35,000 from ACE to continue our work with house/bed bound creative practitioners and emerging artists, who collaborated online to help us identify the focal points for TIPA's activities and also to write a brand new collection of puppetry shorts, inspired by their own lived experiences, and we are currently developing the creative learning experiences to accompany this work. With ACE funding and some extra funky modern technology at our fingertips, we have been able to expand our work online and now have collaborators at all stages of their career either working with us, or waiting to work with us, from all over the World, BUT our presence in the 'real world' and across the UK still has a lot of recovering to do since covid. In an effort to remedy the lost connections to our UK audiences and begin to bridge the gap between disabled audiences, participants, practitioners and venues, we are ready to invite more collaborators than ever before - and from farther away than we ever imagined! - into our 'inclusive puppetry bubble', with the launch of this exciting new initiative, 'The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance' (TIPA)!
What will TIPA offer it's members?
TIPA is the brainchild of Broken Puppet Theatre Company's Founder, Clare, (who is also primarily responsible for formulating our '5 Elements' inclusive creative practice strategy.) Together with Co-Founders Marie Rogers, Leah Battershall and Bekkie Poole, Clare has felt for a long time now that our sector is in dire need of 'a resource to help bridge the gaps between professional puppetry/theatre producers, disabled and able bodied creatives and inclusive audiences'. To that end, the team set about first creating 'bridges' in their own region, by hosting 'The South West Puppetry Connection' zoom series in early 2022, and then expanding the reach of these connections outwards, across the UK and now, globally, with collaborators from as far afield as Iceland, South Africa, Canada, East Coast USA, and beyond! TIPA will reach across all '5 Elements' of the company's work, which includes; Company & Project Management, Community Engagement, Influential Participatory programming, Transformative Creative Collaborations & Consultancy, Kinetic Research & Professional Development, and of course, the point at which all of these '5 Elements' combine, ultimately producing - and eventually touring -our Inclusive Puppetry collection of work and training others to work more inclusively too. TIPA will eventually offer a 6 tier membership based opportunity for like minded individuals, organisations, events, festivals and venues to intentionally join this industry wide initiative to make Inclusive Puppetry the status quo, not the niche exception. Members will have ongoing access to Broken Puppet Theatre's unique expertise to help them enhance their understanding and execution of inclusive practices for venues, performances, events, participatory workshops and training, as well as get first refusal on new provisions as they launch throughout 2023/24 and beyond. TIPA will also offer a range of resources produced by disabled artistic practitioners, who will facilitate a series of professional development seminars supporting any committed Arts and Cultural settings to develop more inclusive practices throughout their own programming. The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance will offer individual practitioners, creative companies, community organisations, venues and festival/event organisers the opportunity to earn a brand new soon-to-be industry standard award and certification, which can be used to more visibly announce and promote their commitment to inclusion, helping to highlight existing access provisions, shape new facilities, and in turn attract more of the disabled community to engage with them in future. There will be 6 levels of TIPA membership available, each representing the stage at which an organisation is at in terms of their inclusive offerings, with an open invitation to work collaboratively with our team and/or join forces with disabled communities in your area to develop your inclusion practices further and aim to collect all 6 awards. Members of The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance will be able to book our 2023/24 touring and training provisions in advance as a '2 for 1' introductory offer, taking full advantage of a complimentary initial access consultation/review and training seminar when they book us for a live performance with its accompanying creative learning experiences.
TIPA Services & Activities
MENTORING & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR DISABLED ARTISTS
If you are an artist, maker, puppetry, theatre or collaborative arts practitioner who has lived experience of chronic illness or disability - or if you'd like to learn more about developing your artistic practice to work with artists and communities who do - then you may be able to join us for our mentored co-working/peer support & artistic development sessions, held weekly at Market Hall in Devonport, Plymouth. Every week a small team of freelance and associate artists, student practitioners and puppeteers meet between 1pm and 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon, working alongside our Creative Director/Producer to devise new work and develop key skills.
These sessions are not publicly available to book, spaces are limited, but if you are interested in joining us, please email clare@brokenpuppet.co and we'll arrange an informal chat to see if they are a good fit for you!
Puppets &
Chips
ONLINE SOCIALS & WORKSHOPS
FOR PUPPETEERS & MAKERS
Randomly scheduled online or in person social evenings and TIPA Members workshops take place on an ad-hoc basis throughout the year. These are organised by members, for members and collaborators and are fun, informal, social events and skills sharing opportunities that aim to connect regionally isolated artists together more regularly, so that we can act as a cohesive community, despite us all working for different organisations, running our own companies, being freelancers, newbies or passionate hobbyists!
These gatherings usually involve lots of puppets and plenty of chips! Most sessions are open to anyone interested in joining the local puppetry community, no matter if you're completely new to the artform or have decades of experience to share - everyone is welcome! Socials are free to attend but we also occasionally offer ticketed skills workshops.
Follow us on instagram @brokenpuppetco for updates!
CREATIVELY ENGAGING DISABILITY & INCLUSION
AWARENESS TRAINING, PUPPETRY WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS
- DEVELOPED & DELIVERED BY ARTISTS WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE! -
Broken: Live! is our most specialised and well established workshop programme. It began in 2016 with Arts Council England backing, and is now a touring workshop, seminar and interactive/immersive training programme for students of the arts, creative health, medical and educational sectors. It's for HE/FE/CPD participatory groups, with patrons over the age of 16, due to the sensitive content.
We also take this programme into companies who have a genuine ambition to become more inclusive and incorporate a deeper level of understanding within their working environments.
We share our lived experience of the complexities of living with invisible disabilities through using applied puppetry, theatre, creative writing techniques and a healthy dose of humour; creating a safe space for your team and students to explore these themes too; sharing knowledge and promoting understanding, generating empathy and creating action plans to help make inclusive practices more transparent, readily accessible and easier to implement for everyone.
How will TIPA share it's Creative Inclusion practices?
Funding permitting, There will be 3 creative packages;
'Creatures of Chaos' (Puppetry Performance) and 'The Quest of 5 Realms' (Workshops) An immersive experience for children and families audiences; featuring stories of life with chronic illness from a child's perspective, using multiple creative workshops to support children and families living with chronic illness and disabilities.
Target Audience: Theatre/Arts Venues, Schools/Hospices and non-traditional Primary learning settings for 7-11 years, with variations for 5-7s and 11-13s.
'Broken Live: The Show with no name' a curation of live and filmed puppetry shorts, animation, projections, creative writing and exploratory workshops featuring the artistic works of professional and emerging disabled artists, sharing their lived experiences and perspectives to challenge misconceptions and open productive dialogue between disabled and non disabled audiences/groups.
Target Audience: 16 plus, Theatre/Arts venues/festivals with accompanying seminars for HE, FE and CPD, including medical students.
(Later) 'The Canopy Theatre Trailer' - A one of a kind fully customised touring puppetry trailer, that converts into a specialist accessible performance space for outdoor events and festivals. Designed and built by professional set designers who have been informed by disabled puppeteers and by what disabled children and families say they want and need from their very own immersive, sensory theatre space.
Target Audience: Intergenerational, Family orientated community events and festivals, and SEN Settings.
Please note that availability for all 3 provisions will be subject to production timelines specified by their relevant funding bodies and grant funding awards.
Get involved BEFORE we launch!
Our aim with The Inclusive Puppetry Alliance is to create long term, meaning connections and creative collaborations that help all parties develop their inclusive practices, for the mutual benefit of all Artists, Practitioners, Venues and Audiences.
If you're reading this information, we have already identified that you could be one of them!
Now you know a bit more about what we're working on, we hope you may have identified some points of interest or shared ground, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on how you might like to become more involved.
Simply contact our Creative Director Clare - if you're from an Arts organisation, or our Company Manager Bekkie - if you're from a non arts based organisation, to arrange a chat and tell us how you could see a future collaboration with TIPA in your setting.