In partnership with Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Manchester Art Gallery, and The University of Manchester, Contact was awarded funding by GMCVO to develop a Greater Manchester community of practice exploring arts and trauma – the Arts and Trauma GM Network.

In October 2022, this network was established and included organisations and freelance creatives from across Greater Manchester. Together they collaboratively explored arts, community practice and trauma-informed approaches. Identifying how models of working, training and shared learning can lead to a more trauma-responsive arts sector for all.

The network included: Audrey Albert, Katie Charlton (Starling), Jenny Gaskell, Kate Goodrich, Josie Hepplewhite, Najma Khalid (CHAI Ladies), Cheryl Martin, Sam Owen-Hull, Hebe Reilly & Becky Smyllie (Cartwheel Arts), Lucy Turner (The Whitworth), Tania Tellez (Afrocats), Emma Carroll (Manchester Art Gallery), Olivia Race (Oldham Coliseum), Rose Sergent (Contact), Simon Parry (University of Manchester).

Contact represented the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisations (GMCVO) funded Arts and Trauma Network (ATN) at the Greater Manchester Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and Trauma Responsive event in partnership with the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). They were 550 attendees including project coordinator and producer Markus Hetheier and network lead partners Emma Carroll (Manchester Art Gallery) and Simon Parry (University of Manchester). Markus Hetheier introduced the visual response to our network by visual artist and creative facilitator Audrey Albert who created a beautiful artwork depicting the themes of our network.

The Arts & Trauma podcast

A key question for the network was ‘how do we share this learning?’. Considering the continual development of trauma-responsive practice, creative ways of sharing and how different approaches are needed depending on the project.

This resulted in the creation of the Arts & Trauma Podcast series. Exploring different case studies that platform trauma-responsive approaches.

Further episodes will be released over the coming months, please keep an eye on our socials for more information.

At present, the Arts & Trauma network has come to an end. If you are interested in finding out more about this work, please do get in touch.

The development of the Arts & Trauma network has been possible thanks to the members

Audrey Albert, Cheryl Martin, Katie Charlton (Starling CIO), Josie Hepplewhite, Sam Owens-Hull, Tania Tellez (Afrocats), Kate Goodrich, Najma Khalid (CHAI Ladies), Lucy Turner (Whitworth Art Gallery), Hebe Reilly & Becky Smyllie (Cartwheel Arts), Jenny Gaskell.

Funder and Partners

The network is funded by GMCVO’s ‘Developing Trauma Responsive Communities’ VCSE grant. This bid was made collaboratively by four partner organisations - Contact (Lead Partner), Manchester Art Gallery (Core Supporting Partner), Oldham Coliseum (Core Supporting Partner) and Dr Simon Parry, University of Manchester (Core Supporting Partner).