SPARK!

‘Spark’ was our exciting 6 month creative research & development project, funded by Arts Council England, and a prelude to our brilliant long-term artistic vision of ‘Playing with Fire’ (here can the words playing with fire link directly through to the PWF page?) 

Spark incorporated exceptional & provocative arts practice in order to create remarkable art works & performances. We used a wide range of artforms, including dance, pyrotechnics, performance art & digital adventures. Participants explored what it means to ‘play with fire’ & the different ways in which we ‘play with fire’ in everyday life. 

Spark was a ‘whole team’ project incorporating participants, volunteers, staff and artists in order to play with ideas and to develop concrete proposals for the future of the artistic direction of The Men’s Room. 

These ideas, our artistic vision and specific project proposals were launched in December 2021 at our Playing With Fire Symposium at Contact in Manchester to a very excited audience of supporters, participants and artists. Plans were forged, relationships were cemented and the work of seeking funding to make the vision come to life began in February 2022. 

You can see our Playing With Fire vision document here: Strategic Vision. 

We are thrilled to announce that Playing With Fire has now received funding and we have begun our first piece of work with Queer Contact (Feb 2023). We are exploring LGBT history month with some of our best loved Queer artists and performers at Contact, The Whitworth Art Gallery and in our own TMR creative space.