Making Space: a new collaboration spanning Leeds and Nairobi

Transform is collaborating with The GoDown Arts Centre, based in Nairobi, to deliver Making Space, a new arts research programme exploring ways to empower young people in their cities.

We’re delighted that project has been awarded a Catalyst Grant from The British Council.

Making Space will create connections between arts organisations, artists, local authorities and young people in Leeds and Nairobi.

The programme will reflect on the relationships young people in both cities have with local public spaces and their communities more widely. Together, Transform and The GoDown Arts Centre will work with young people to explore how performance might give young people agency and strengthen their connections to the places they live.

The first step in our collaboration is our planning and scoping work, which our British Council Catalyst Grant supports. Hosted across two research trips in each city, we’ll gather formally and casually; explore public, urban spaces; meet artists and other organisations; host public discussions; and come together to develop our focus and format for the wider project.

This is the exciting starting point of an international collaboration bridging creative practices in Leeds and Nairobi, with enormous potential for meaningful exchange. Following these crucial first steps, we plan to work together towards a project for Transform‘s next festival in 2025. Watch this space!

Supported by the British Council