“Transform is an international festival grown from the grassroots”– The Stage
Transform is a biennial international performance festival based in Leeds. Every two years, our festival brings together artists from across the globe to present astonishing theatre, dance and performance to audiences in their thousands across the city.
We’re a charity, and we work year-round to nurture artists in creating new work and support young people to begin and develop careers in the arts.
Transform began life at Leeds Playhouse before becoming an independent company in 2015. Transform became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in 2023, and receives statutory funding from Leeds City Council.
OUR MISSION
Transform’s mission is to introduce audiences and artists in Leeds to ground-breaking theatre, dance and performance that connects to the world in powerful, provocative ways.
We enable artists to create the future of performance; generate and welcome new audiences to the arts; and support young people and communities to shape their city and the world.
OUR VISION
Our vision is for bold, brave international performance to be at the heart of everybody’s cultural experience in Leeds, West Yorkshire and the North. We see our festival as an inclusive, energising force for social change, embedded in the cultural life of our city and its people.
Transform is
BOLD
We invite artists and creatives to imagine and realise bold, powerful performance that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in terms of scale, discipline and reach. We produce energising, provocative cultural experiences and embrace different ways of thinking about what performance can be.
BRAVE
We’re committed to engaging with different contexts and territories around the globe, and invite audiences to confront ideas and issues relevant to their own lives and to the wider world. We take on challenging issues and subject matters and create a supportive environment where art can spark social change.
CONNECTED
We’re deeply rooted in our city and our region, working collectively to make a difference and highlight urgent issues. We’re open-minded and collaborative, joining forces with partners locally, nationally and internationally, working together to foster different approaches and ways of making performance happen.
SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS
We work in an ethics-led way, deeply aware of and responsible for those we work with, our wider society and our planet. We’re committed to running an organisation and a festival that strives for climate responsibility and is social justice aware and orientated.
What we do
FESTIVALS
We produce a bold, brave, connected and socially-conscious international festival of performance, taking place in major venues, iconic and unusual locations across Leeds. Transform festival brings together powerful new performances and special events by artists from across the North of England and the globe and is experienced by over 12,000 people.
SUPPORT
We support the next wave of bold performance makers in the North, providing commissioning support, development opportunities and ways to connect their international counterparts. We facilitate a collective of Young Curators aged (18-25) who gain an insight into what it takes to realise major festivals and interdisciplinary performance, and are given responsibility for conceiving and realising aspects of our festivals.
CREATION
Transform commissions and produces extraordinary productions that are seen in Leeds and beyond. Our commissions have gone on to tour venues and festivals across Europe, Australia and North America. We have a particular specialism for working with artists to develop remarkable projects that involve local communities and local people in their creation and realisation.
LEADERSHIP
We are committed to ensuring that audiences in Leeds and the wider North have access to extraordinary international performance, and that UK artists are supported and amplified to create bold work that is relevant to today’s world. We engage in a variety of networks and partnerships to support these aims with like-minded venues and festivals across the UK and internationally.