Pl ace At The Table
3rd & 4th September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham 5th September - Online
A Pl ace At The Table DAY 1 PROGRAMME
Wednesday 3rd September 2025
Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
A Place At The Table
3rd September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham 09:30 10:00 10:15 10:40 11:15 11:30 11:45 12:45 14:00 14:45 15:0016:30
Welcome - Housekeeping
Phoebe Kemp - What is Disability Justice?
Sam Alshoabi - A Journey of Resilience
Q & A - Discussion
Break / Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care Short Workshops
Dr Agata Vitale: Cross cultural trauma and Community Resilience - Q & A
Lunch Break / Walk With Me sessions
Wiltshire Council and Pioneers: The Power of Collaboration
Break Just Imagine If – Session One Registration (Foyer)
18:00 Online Podcasting Agents of Change or Echo Chambers? by Lewis Huo, Penny Dale and Stephen Bush
A Place At The Table
3rd September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
Throughout the day:
Glimmer Sharing
Glimmer Sharing will be available to listen to at the foyer if the venue. It’s an audio installation created out of the collaborative experience of 6 Glimmer workshops with Kilter & Visually Impaired & Blind participants in Bath.
The beautiful audio tapestry, composed by Dinah Mullen, captures the surreal, beautiful and playful contributions of spoken word, scenes, music and sound ideas that participants brought to the project.
Menial and Trivial Exhibition
Understanding the experiences of how to sustain a career as a disabled artist in the Southwest. How to be a sustainable disabled artist in the Southwest?
What are your experiences navigating the welfare benefit system as a disabled artist?
How does it feel to be a disabled artist trying to sustain a career in the arts?
How does it feel to be a disabled artist? What does being an artist give you?
Researchers and curators: Lara Bell and Thomas Rolfe
A Place At The Table
3rd September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
First Break - 11:30AM
Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care Workshops
C J Turner will be running Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care workshops during the 11:30 AM break. These short workshops offer space for a community-centred conversation about selfadvocacy and care.
Together we will reflect on and share strategies for safeguarding our own agency and energy in a time of increased pressure for disabled communities. How do we pay attention to the messages our bodies send us? And how do we acknowledge and act.
Lunch Break - 12:45PM
Walk with Me - Sign-up Sessions
These short outdoor strolls give participants a chance to ‘walk and talk access’ alongside a volunteer with mobility and/or access needs.
We believe having real time conversations about access issues with the experts i.e. us as disabled or mobility-limited peoplecan support greater understanding of town and environmental planning for everyone.
Meals
Lunch will be provided on site. Please inform the event organisers of any food allergies prior to the event.
A Pl ace At The Table
Thursday 4th September 2025
Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
A Place At The Table
Registration
Welcome - Housekeeping
Anne Hills; Trustee Fair Frome: Real People, Real Projects, Real Difference
Lucinda Jarrett and Sarah Gilmartin: Movement and Performance Arts to Create Inclusive Connected Communities
11:15 Corsham Connections
4th September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham 09:30 10:00 10:15 10:40 12:45 14:00 14:45 15:0016:30
Lunch Break / Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care Short Workshops & Walk With Me
Sessions Just Imagine If - Session Two
Break Just Imagine If – Conclusion Manifesto of Inclusion
A Place At The Table
4th September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
Throughout the day:
Glimmer Sharing
Glimmer Sharing will be available to listen to at the foyer if the venue. It’s an audio installation created out of the collaborative experience of 6 Glimmer workshops with Kilter & Visually Impaired & Blind participants in Bath.
The beautiful audio tapestry, composed by Dinah Mullen, captures the surreal, beautiful and playful contributions of spoken word, scenes, music and sound ideas that participants brought to the project.
Menial and Trivial Exhibition
Understanding the experiences of how to sustain a career as a disabled artist in the Southwest. How to be a sustainable disabled artist in the Southwest?
What are your experiences navigating the welfare benefit system as a disabled artist?
How does it feel to be a disabled artist trying to sustain a career in the arts?
How does it feel to be a disabled artist? What does being an artist give you?
Researchers and curators: Lara Bell and Thomas Rolfe
A Place At The Table
4th September - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham
Lunch Break - 12:45PM
Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care Workshops
C J Turner will be running Strategies for Self-Advocacy and Care workshops during the 11:30 AM break. These short workshops offer space for a community-centred conversation about selfadvocacy and care.
Together we will reflect on and share strategies for safeguarding our own agency and energy in a time of increased pressure for disabled communities. How do we pay attention to the messages our bodies send us? And how do we acknowledge and act.
Walk with Me - Sign-up
Sessions
These short outdoor strolls give participants a chance to ‘walk and talk access’ alongside a volunteer with mobility and/or access needs.
We believe having real time conversations about access issues with the experts i.e. us as disabled or mobility-limited peoplecan support greater understanding of town and environmental planning for everyone.
Meals
Lunch will be provided on site. Please inform the event organisers of any food allergies prior to the event.
A Pl ace At The Table DAY 3 PROGRAMME
Friday 5th September 2025
Online
A Place At The Table
5th September - Online
13:30 - 14:30 Campfire Songs - Online Session
The Place4Hope youth leadership board overseeing the Campfire Songs project will present a seminar exploring digital access, inclusion, challenges and limitations
In this session, the youth leadership board will talk about the Campfire Songs project and how working online brings them a sense of global connection and solidarity which makes them feel that they can take action and make a change but also recognising the inequalities around digital access to participate
“If the population of the earth fled the dying planet because of rising heat, what would and what could we do?”
Campfire Songs: The Art of Storytelling in Heat and Flame, 2025 - 2026
As a result of climate change, urban heat is causing a rise in temperatures making urban living a risk to human life in Summers across Southern Europe. Simultaneously, forest fires are destroying whole communities.
A Place At The Table
5th September - Online
13:30 - 14:30
Campfire Songs - Online Session
A project driven by the Place4Hope programme led by Rosetta Life in collaboration with Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Institute for Digital Arts and Technology Plymouth and partners across the globe. Co-created and co-led with Young Leaders across the world.
We are exploring 360 Filmmaking with a smaller group of young leaders so we can immerse ourselves in their worlds and are working with Colombia, Gaza, Bangladesh, Greece, India, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Africa, Romania, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, UK and USA.
Place4Hope Vision & Mission
Our vision is to empower young people worldwide to become agents of positive change through collaborative and creative initiatives that address pressing social and environmental challenges.
Our mission is to provide a platform for young individuals to express themselves, explore their creativity, and engage in meaningful dialogue and action around issues such as climate justice, social equity, and mental health so that they are mobilized to make a difference in their communities and beyond. We seek to foster a global community that embraces diversity, fosters empathy, and works together to create a more sustainable and equitable healthy future for all.
A Pl ace At The Table
SPEAKER AND EVENT INFORMATION
The Just Imagine If- Sessions facilitated by Dr Nickie Jakeman and
Phoebe Kemp
Just Imagine If_ We had the most inclusive society in the world. At Just Imagine If_ we believe the future is shaped by the collective courage to dream and the power to act. We create inclusive, playful yet serious spaces where people come together to reimagine their future. Imagination, co-creation and leadership sit at the heart of the work of Just Imagine If. We believe that embracing the power of diversity is critical to developing a different and better future. Over 2 sessions, we will use a variety of creative techniques to help us face into the present and then imagine and co-create a better future. We’re really excited to be helping you realise a more inclusive future by supporting the creation of a Manifesto for Inclusion.
To find out more about Just Imagine If_ please visit, www.justimagineif.org.uk
Dr Nickie Jakeman
Nickie is an Emergency Medicine Consultant and coach who believes that diverse groups can harness the uniquely human power of collective imagination and creativity that can lead us to a better future. Alongside Just imagine if_, Nickie works in the community supporting her local Hospital@Home service, and is a Trustee for Grow Batheaston a community based social and environmental charity.
Phoebe Kemp - What is Disability Justice?
Phoebe Kemp is a director, creative access consultant, movement director and workshop facilitator based in Bristol. They make political work infused with joy and hope. As a queer, neurodivergent, wheelchair user, they are passionate about making accessible work – from sensory theatre for PMLD audiences to embedded audio description and BSL, and telling stories that have often been under-represented on our stages. This includes new writing, devised work and reimagining of classic texts. Visit Phoebe Kemp’s website: https://phoebekemp.co.uk/
Sam Alshoabi: A Journey of Resilience
Sam is here to share his remarkable and moving story on behalf of BWR. Bath Welcomes Refugees- a small but dynamic charity volunteer-led and nonpartisan, our mission is to facilitate the settlement and the path to independence of those who come to us seeking refuge.
Visit https://www.bathwelcomesrefugees.org.uk/ for more information.
Dr Agata Vitale Trauma, Resilience and Community
My research focuses on social determinants of health and minority groups, and on developing community interventions to recover from sociocultural trauma. I use art-based methodologies, including storytelling and artmaking, to foster resilience in vulnerable groups. I also have a research interest in the use of Narrative Therapy to support individuals who have been affected by multiple levels of trauma, including forced migrants and survivors of domestic abuse, and those affected by the intersection of risk factors and living with HIV.
I am a Leader for the Mental Health, Wellbeing and Research Centre and the Academic Staff Representative for the Research Ethics Committee at Bath Spa University.
Menial and Trivial Exhibition
Lara Bell - Community Researcher
Lara Bell is a disabled artist, milliner and researcher who is currently working as a Community Research for Bath Spa University as part of the We Are The People project, funded by the Wellcome Trust. They are particularly interested in conversations around ableism, navigating health alongside work and welfare benefits, stigma, shame, and the power of art to express individuality and create meaning.
Thomas Rolfe - Internal Research Fellow
Interdisciplinary Cultural Practitioner, Community Engagement Specialist and Researcher working across universities, research projects and cultural organisations like museums. Using community-centred and arts based research methodologies that focuses on local community development and supporting vulnerable communities through the engagement of the arts, cultural organisations and creative projects.
Dan Wilkins, Abbie-Jo Lawrence, Poppy Witts Woodward
–The Power of Collaboration
Dan Wilkins is head of adult social care transformation and quality at Wiltshire Council; Abbie-Jo Lawrence and Poppy Witts-Woodward support the Pioneers who are a network of disabled and older people from across the county, sharing their views and expertise to help develop and design services to live their lives well.
To become a Pioneer, you simply need to be aged 5 and over and have lived experience of disability, autism and/or mental health conditions. It’s as simple as that!
Visit the Pioneer’s website: https://www.wiltshirecil.org.uk/pioneers/
Anne Hills Trustee Fair Frome – Real People, Real Projects, Real Difference
Fair Frome champions greater financial, educational, social and health equality for people living in Frome and the surrounding areas
CJ Turner-Macmullen: Sharing Strategies for SelfAdvocacy and Care
CJ Turner-Macmullen is a Postdoctoral Impact Fellow at Bath Spa University. Alongside it, they are a Creative Director, Freelance Theatre-Maker, Playwright and Actor represented by Pride in Performance.
Lewis
Hou, Penny
Dale, Stephen Bush - PodcastingAgents of Change or Echo Chambers?
Lewis Hou, NCCPE Engage Fellow
I am the founder and director of Science Ceilidh, the current coordinator of The Ideas Fund and Community Knowledge Matters, and recent awardee of the Beetlestone Award for leadership in the science engagement field.
My Fellowship explores the question “how can the systems around research be reimagined and changed to enable more equitable power dynamics and inclusive knowledge production with communities”.
Penny Dale
I’m a freelance journalist, audio producer and trainer based in London.
I have almost 30 years’ experience, including 20 at the BBC World Service. I regularly write for the BBC News website and produce the BBC’s This is Africa weekly music programme and have written, produced and hosted podcast series for the BBC World Service, Kenya-based AQ Studios, openDemocracy, the International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs) and the UN’s environmental programme.
I train journalists in audio production and editorial values for the BBC World Service, Kenya, Zambia and Malawi broadcasters, and Somalia’s female-only media organisation, Bilan Media. I have a particular interest and expertise in Africa, history, visual arts, music, cultural and human interest stories.
Stephen Bush, Associate Editor Financial Times
Stephen Bush is a political editor and journalist. He joined the Financial Times (FT) in March 2021 after seven years at the New Statesman, where he was most recently political editor and wrote their politics newsletter, Morning Call.
Bush started his career at the Daily Telegraph and joined the New Statesman in 2015 as editor of their rolling politics blog, becoming special correspondent in 2016, and political editor in 2018. In 2017, he was named the Political Studies Association’s Journalist of the Year.
Dr Tanvir Bush, Symposium Facilitator and NCCPE Engage Fellow
I’m a writer, Research Fellow at Bath Spa University and disabled activist based in Corsham, Wiltshire.
My Engage Fellowship focuses on exploring (disabled-led) creative public engagement methods at the intersection of disability, academia and local government. Utilising compassionate empathy and the power of our lived experiences as disabled people, we aim to ignite discussion, widen understanding and inspire transformational inclusion i.e. no longer ‘us and them’ but just ‘us’. No longer ‘ what can we do to help you?’ but instead ‘what can we all do to help each other?’
I see future engagement being fully inclusive and, by dint of imagination and creativity, becoming responsive to the needs of all within the community.
Visit Tanvir’s website: www.tanvirbush.com
Lucinda Jarrett and Sarah Gilmartin: Movement and Performance Arts to Create Inclusive Connected Communities
Lucinda Jarrett
Lucinda is a writer, independent dance artist, and performance maker who co-founded Rosetta Life in 1997.
She currently leads a 3 year creative intervention in the stroke community. She also leads Dream a Difference – www. dreamadifference.art – a poetry and songmaking project building awareness of social justice and peace across ten countries where children are living with conflict.
Visit the Rosetta Life website here: https://rosettalife.org/
Sarah Gilmartin
Founder of iID (Inclusive Intergenerational Dance) a small Arts for Health charity, in 2010 in Surrey. IID specialises in working with older adults particularly those who have become isolated and/or living with long term health conditions and their carers.
Sarah is trained as a dancer, dance teacher and later as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist. She now delivers community groups and projects with iID, teaches ballet at The Pound Ballet School and works for AWP NHS Mental Health Trust on Acute Psychiatric Wards with adults and older adults as a DMP. iID currently runs Creative Lunch, Studio 64, Dance for Parkinsons and My Space (Corsham School) in the area.
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