The Laal Collective (TLC) is an arts organisation based in Cumbria. ‘Laal’ which means little in the Cumbrian dialect, is a registered Community Interest Company with not-for-profit objectives.
Our mission is to work with communities creating arts projects which celebrate identity and sense of place, through collaborative and collective approaches. We want communities to be proud of where they come from and who they are and to show that through their creative voice.
TLC have a firm belief that every participant, whatever age or socio-economic background, has a creative spark. Through our collaborative and collective approach, peoples creative energy is transformed into skills to make their idea a reality. This philosophy and approach is used in schools, community and care settings.
TLC artists have worked in a variety of settings on a wide range of projects. We have developed ways of working with children and young people with additional and emotional needs using drawing, drama, and puppetry as the vehicle for creating the participants’ voice. Through our projects, participants develop their resilience, emotional literacy and connections to people and place that will be celebrated locally and regionally.
We have a strong network of local professional artists who share our philosophy and working practice. We believe passionately in strengthening the potential in young and emerging artists to increase Cumbria’s cultural communities.
The Laal Collective is committed to delivering high quality arts projects working in partnership with artists and participants.
‘We have been delighted with how The Laal Collective have been able to provide these experiences for the schools already, they have a strong history of projects that have had a lasting impact on the schools and communities.’
Melanie Wheatley, Centre For Leadership Performance.
Contact UsThe Laal Collective have many years experience of creating indoor and outdoor theatre. We specialise in creating devised pieces of work, created in full collaboration with participants of all ages and backgrounds, exploring a range of themes and issues.
We can also be commissioned to provide performances for your communities. Our recent theatre commission was for Tribe Carlisle with Frogg’s Festive Tales.
‘There was a storyteller at school today, but he wasn’t as good as Frogg!’ Beth aged 4, audience member.
‘Her favourite story was the Christmas Spider and she was so entranced with it that she made spiders for the Christmas Tree’ Beth’s Mum, audience member.
The Laal Collective have worked extensively in schools creating a variety of projects from half day workshops to being Artists in Residence.
We have long term relationships with Distington Community School, Holme St Cuthbert School and Seascale Primary on the West Coast of Cumbria.
We specialise in creating, in partnership with schools, projects that will encourage and support children in their creativity that underpin their self confidence, self esteem and resilience. These projects are devised to school needs.
‘I really enjoyed turning our class into a sewing and fabric factory and creating some designs. Thankyou for giving us the opportunity to create the puppets and make the banners’ Zofia, participant.
The Laal Collective are able to offer a variety of arts workshops tailored to suit your needs. Performance. mask making and use of masks, puppetry – making and performance, story creation, music, film and visual arts. All our artists have extensive experience in working in schools and communities.
Examples are as follows:
Play in a Day – A one day workshop encouraging performance. Working from an agreed story or poem, we will work with a group to create a performance to be shared with the schools community
Week long residency – We will work with your group for a week, introducing them to various performance and creative skills with a celebration at the end of the week. We work with a number of artists and can offer skills in theatre, puppetry, story development, visual arts, textiles, animation, film and music. Any variation of these skills can be combined in the week (we suggest a maximum of three)
Regular workshops to build relationships/ resilience/ confidence – We are also able to offer regular commitments to school as artists in residency for a day a week. The benefit to working in this way is that skills are built up, relationships formed, confidence built creating a resilience in the people we work with.
We can also offer CPD teacher sessions in theatre skills, film, and music as well as support for arts award and artsmark.
‘You helped with my confidence issues. I used to be nervous about almost everything I said but now I am beaming with confidence’ Charlie, participant
The Laal Collective holds public liability insurance and all artists hold fully enhanced DBS certificates
The Laal Collective artists can be commissioned to deliver a variety of projects from in school workshops to arts projects.
Our most recent commission has just successfully been awarded funding through the Sparks programme. This commission will work alongside Seascale school on Welcoming the Stranger.
We offer a bespoke approach to commissions, developing projects through conversations with schools and community groups. We are experienced in fundraising and can assist groups in applying.
‘It’s always lots of fun working with Ali & Vicki from The Laal Collective and really inspiring too. More importantly though, I know we can discuss how projects will work for both of our organisations really openly, and work out how best to use our individual skills and resources to create something bigger than we’d be able to do alone. It’s always a proper partnership and I look forward to seeing what we come up with next!’ Jody Ferguson, Cumbria Wildlife Trust
All our projects are created in partnership with communities.
Both our philosophy and practice are that artists and partners work together as co-creators, regardless of age, ability, and experience.
We work to create an individual and collective understanding that people can make their voice be heard and listened to.
Our projects can help communities explore sometimes difficult and challenging subjects and allow the wider public to engage with these issues in an empathetic way.
‘Looking back, I feel so proud, and all that hard work and dedication paid off’ Elsie. Participant.
B.A Hons Theatre Design
Ali has designed for a variety of theatre companies, touring nationally and internationally.
Since returning to Cumbria, she has continued designing and producing a number of theatre productions, both touring and site specific.
Ali has worked across schools and community settings on a variety of projects and developed ways of working with children and young people with additional and emotional needs, using drawing and puppetry as the vehicle for creating the participants voice.
She has been lead artist in partnership with Distington Community School, for six years, working with young people with special needs and the school pupils to create performance projects exploring a variety of issues.
Ali is also a guest lecturer at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
Ali was Artistic Director of Prism Arts for over 10 years, until July 2020, where she developed the Studio programme and led on commissions with a number of organisations including Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Dove Cottage and The Merz Barn, Cumbria.
Working with Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, she has been lead artist on Driggsby a Whales’ Tale, working with six schools in early years. The project published a book, written by the children and culminated in a major exhibition at Tullie House. This project was a finalist in the Cumbria Environment Awards.
BA Performing Arts 2.1
Vicki began her theatre career in the Northeast, where she is from, working in local theatres and Arts Centres.
She trained at Cumbria Institute of the Arts in Carlisle (Now Cumbria University), where she gained a 2.1 in Performing Arts.
Following her degree, she was offered an apprenticeship with Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, working in their Community and Outreach team, where she worked delivering a Youth Theatre for over 200 young people. During her time at TBTL, she worked on many community projects around North and West Cumbria, working in both school and community settings. Her favourite was Whirlpool, a new writing piece, performed by young people in the pool at Keswick Leisure Centre.
After leaving TBTL, she pursued a freelance career for a number of years, running after school drama clubs and various community projects, some of which were with Prism Arts, Carlisle.
Vicki then became Theatre and Performance Lead at Prism Arts and during her 9 years there, she led across many projects, from The Studio programme which works with adults with learning disabilities to Prism Arts Youth Theatre, running theatre projects for young people aged 10 to 19 with additional needs, which Vicki formed.
While there, Vicki was also involved in some amazing projects working with community partners such as Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and on the successful Carlisle Puppet pageants. Many of these shows toured to theatres across Cumbria.
Vicki is passionate about the arts being accessible to anyone regardless of ability, wealth or location and firmly believes that the arts can aid with confidence, education and mental health. She is also passionate about equality in the arts and that opportunity should be given to anyone and not a talented few. An arts process is equal if not greater than a final outcome and a person’s journey should not be measured on talent alone.
BA (Hons) English and History 2:1
AAT Bookkeeping Level 3
Emily gained a 2:1 in English and History from Edge Hill University Sector College which was part of Lancaster University at the time. Emily was involved in her college drama society: writing, making costumes but also doing all the hundred and one admin jobs that nobody else seemed to enjoy quite as much.
After university Emily flirted with freelance journalism and writing short stories in her spare time while working in administration in the finance sector and then the legal sector. Here Emily developed her particular skills at writing training notes and governance documents.
Through her children, Emily got involved with a number of theatre projects aimed at bringing together children and adults with learning disabilities to share ideas and create performances through writing, puppetry, drama, art and music. One such project led to Emily supporting her young daughter to create an 8-foot puppet which they paraded through Chester as part of a twinned-cities project.
During her time as a school governor and as Chair of the PTA, Emily helped source funding to pay for a visiting writer who ran workshops in school for a week, helped raise money to pay for a much-needed new reading scheme and made countless cakes and cuppas to pay for resources for a new library.
Emily now works on a largely freelance basis as a personal assistant, support worker and provider of general administration and accounting support as well as using her skills to support a local charity in her free time. Emily still likes to do the jobs that no one else chooses.
