About us
Sparking Creativity and Change for over 20 years in Leicester and beyond…
Who we are
Based in the heart of Leicester’s cultural quarter, we’re an arts organisation with over twenty years’ experience. We help children immerse themselves in the arts in a variety of places and spaces. We offer children opportunities to discover their skills, passions and potential – both as an audience or participants.
We commission and we produce ambitious, high-quality quality experiences that are led by diversity and innovation; we organise a bold and imaginative children’s arts festival; and we champion local cultural activity so that children in the region can thrive!
And we do all of this through the Vital Spark movement and with the help of The Spark’s amazing Child Action Group.
Vital Spark
We believe that all children should be able to experience arts and culture, and that they should be able to see themselves represented in these experiences. This is not yet the case for every child and we’re committed to changing that. Our response is the ‘Vital Spark’ movement.
Vital Spark is about challenging and changing the lack of diversity in children’s arts and culture. We do this by supporting artists who are currently underrepresented in children’s arts and culture. We also work with partner organisations to create world-class opportunities for these artists and share best practice.
Child Action Group
Our new Child Action Group, formed of 9-13 year olds, meet regularly to tell us what we should be doing, when we should be doing it, and how we can offer the best quality.
Over the Summer of 2023 they will create their own group name and appoint the facilitator they want to work with in the sessions.
The monthly creative sessions are free and enable children and young people to steer our work and hold the adults who make decisions to account.
We will share this progress publicly through our Ambition and Quality Manifesto, to help shape a more relevant and inclusive arts sector for children and young people.
Our history
‘The Spark Children’s Arts Festival’ began in 2003, run by a consortium of five local theatre venues, supported by Leicester and Leicestershire Arts in Education, and led by Loughborough Town Hall. Their mission was to present some of the best British and international children’s theatre and dance companies to local children. The first festival ran for eight days, presented seventy events, and was seen by an audience of 9,500 children, teachers and parents.
In 2004, we became an independent company and a registered charity. With funding from Arts Council England, we expanded our activity outside of the festival. Six years later, we were awarded ‘Regularly Funded Organisation’, becoming a ‘National Portfolio Organisation’ soon after that. The company was renamed as ‘The Spark Arts for Children’ in 2013 to reflect the growing amount of year-round work we did outside the festival.
The team
Trina is Interim Director at The Spark. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of national touring company Mashi Theatre and former Associate Director: Festival and Programming at The Spark Arts for Children. As a Freelancer she works as a Director, Facilitator, Consultant in Diversity, Equality & Inclusion and is also a Giggle Doctor with the Theodora Children’s Charity.
Directing credits include productions at Polka Theatre, Derby Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, Tara Arts, Curve Theatre, Soho Theatre and Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, India. She was awarded the Naseem Khan commission with Curve, Bristol Old Vic and The Lowry.
Trina is a former participant with the National Theatre – Step Change programme, The Optimists with China Plate and a Clore50 SC Alumni. She consults with Theatres and consortium to increase representation on and off our stages and has spoken at a number of platforms including the Guardians “Our Nations Theatre” conversations with Lyn Gardner and on Radio 4s Front Row programme.
Trina is Co-Chair of the board of international touring, Pilot Theatre (York), former board of Trustees for Theatre-Rites (London) and Advisor to Baboró International Arts Festival for Children (Galway).
As a Woven Textile Design graduate, I had my first experience working for a charity early in my career as a volunteer designer working with hill tribe weavers on the Doi Tung Project, a UNDCP programme for the rehabilitation of the Golden Triangle in Thailand. When I returned to the UK my career path led me to working in Fashion Retail at Paul Smith Ltd where I began as the Chairman’s Office Assistant and progressed as a Merchandiser.
I continued my journey as a Merchandiser working with smaller organisations and start-ups, but after having my first child I decided to move away from Retail. I moved to the not-for-profit sector, which is where I have remained and gained a broad skillset and experience supporting all aspects of office management, from Board Governance to HR to Finance. I haven't looked back since and have dedicated my working life to making sure small charities can flourish and thrive. I am delighted to be working in the Arts & Culture sector, bridging my experiences back to my creative beginnings.
I have worked with young people and artists in the arts and cultural sector for over 18 years, working with organisations such as The Mighty Creatives and Creative Partnerships before joining The Spark in April 2023. In my previous role from 2015 - 2023 I was the lead for the Artsmark programme across the East Midlands, supporting hundreds of schools and education settings in the region to embed arts, culture and creativity across their whole curriculum and to recognise the powerful impact that arts and creativity can have in education.
My background is in visual arts, having trained in ceramics originally, and I am passionate about the place that arts and culture has to play in transforming and enriching people’s lives, in particular those who are most disadvantaged. Inspired by my previous work with SEND schools and Early Years settings, child-centred practice is at the heart of all my work, and I strongly believe in the importance of listening to children and supporting their voice and agency.
I’m the Company Administrator with a background of HR and Finance working within the Charity sector. I previously worked for Guide Dogs within HR & Volunteering recruiting nationally, implementing new systems and of course getting cuddles from dogs in training.
Being a mum myself I attended several Spark sessions before starting to work with The Spark watching ‘Stickman’ in children centres and libraries which inspired me to work with the Organisation when the role came up. I enjoy working in the background and making the Finance and HR systems work and liaising with various artists, people etc. But the joy that arts bring to a child is what I love to see the most.
Sam is an international award-winning dramaturg, director, librettist, and co-creator with a deep passion for co-creation, climate focused arts practice, and creative democracy. He recently wrote a full-length opera with Laura Bowler, to be directed by Jude Christian, The Girl with a Hurricane Brain, built through eco-anxiety workshops with children around the world. Recently he co-created HOME:Zero, an interactive family theatre installation on sustainability with Nottingham families, Lakeside Arts Nottingham, Makers of Imaginary Worlds for The National Gallery & NESTA.
He is currently producing the Royal Exchange Theatre’s radically community co-created Den Festival in Rochdale and Our Room’s Social Script programme, working on a new opera co-created with the Royal Opera House’s Young Opera Company, writing his first novels, and is funded by Julie’s Bicycle and Arts Council England to investigate community empowerment as a model of Environmentally Sustainable Deep Touring with international partners.
As co-founder of Knaïve Theatre he co-wrote and performed the world-touring, multi-international award-winning Bin Laden: The One Man Show; dramaturged several pieces including War With The Newts (Lustrum Award for Outstanding Theatre); and wrote an interactive, online, game-based environmental schools piece, Antarctica.
He is Associate Artist (Dramaturgy) of Smoking Apples Theatre Company whose Kinder won Ettie and Offie Awards for Theatre for Young Audiences in 2023.
Recent dramaturgy includes: Joshua Val Martin’s Today The Streets Are Ours for Royal Exchange Theatre, Alex Oates’s The Filleting App (RSC’s 37 Plays); Laura Bowler’s Distance with Juliet Fraser and Advert with Decoder Ensemble.
Libretti include: Samhain Bloom (Edward Shilts), Tiresias 2.0 (Dominic Matthews), Cummings & Goerings (Zhenyan Li) and Women Conduct (Laura Bowler).
Directing credits include: Bermondsey 1983 by Rob Reid Allan and Gareth Mattey, Cupboard Love by Madeleine Dring and The Operatists, GOLD, Antarctica, and FFF (movement direction) by Laura Bowler, Module 471 by Lucy Mulgan and The Operatists, The Macclefield Potatot Riot with the community in Macclesfield, and Dead Tree Gives No Shelter by Bysshe Inigo Coffey and company.
Mita Pujara is the Vital Spark Lead, an artist, researcher, educator, and accredited coach with over 25 years in socially engaged arts. Her extensive background spans theatre-making and dance, with performances across the UK, India, Palestine, Kenya, and China (1994-2007).
As Associate Director of Pan Intercultural Arts, she established London’s first intercultural youth performance company and founded two refugee arts programs for children that continue today. After earning a Master’s in Arts, Creativity, Education, and Culture (University of Cambridge), she transitioned into research and evaluation, consulting for arts organisations and theatres like the Royal Court, Kiln Theatre, and Tamasha. She lectures at universities, including the Central School of Speech and Drama and Rose Bruford College, and is currently developing a one-woman show.
The Trustees
Mike Candler is an experienced Cultural Planner with over 40 years’ experience in the voluntary and public arts sectors. Committed to diversity, inclusion, and equality in culture he has provided leadership across both revenue and capital programmes. Mike was previously Leicester City Councils Cultural Project Director and is currently Arts Manager for London Borough of Camden where he is leading work on a range of partnership and cultural development programmes.
I am a freelance consultant working in the Arts and Cultural sector. I have over 30 years’ experience in development and leadership roles across a diverse range of settings, including educational, not-for-profit, and commercial. I am an experienced fundraiser at local, regional, and national level and I have worked with a diverse group of individuals and organisations. I am also a coach and mentor to experienced and emerging artists. I have spent my career supporting artists and practitioners and developing my passion for participatory and social engaged work. I attended my first Spark festival with my daughter Jess aged 2 years (she is now 22!) and my last in 2023 with my great niece Lottie.
As well as a trustee of The Spark Arts for Children and I am a member of the advisory board for Sidekick Dance Company a learning disabled dance company based in Leicester, and the Executive Director of Hubbub Theatre a learning disabled company based in Derby.
When I am not working with artists and cultural organisations I am planning Weddings and Naming Ceremonies as a qualified Celebrant!
More information coming soon.
I am a disabled artist with over 30 years’ of experience in theatre. I am currently the Artist Development Manager for Graeae, Co-Director of Meander Theatre Co, and in my recent past worked as an Agent For Change with Ramps On The Moon and for 20 years as Associate Artist with Bamboozle Theatre. Trained in Theatre Design. I have with, absolute glee, devised, directed and designed theatre alongside Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creatives throughout my career. My focus is on creating accessible structures for theatre making whoever I work alongside. Regularly working as an access consultant or Disability Equality trainer my past clients include, Nottingham Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Level Centre, Bold Text, Egg Box, Carbon, Ditto, Grizzly Bear and Major Labia Theatre companies.
I am London born, emigrated to Leicester in 1982 to study for my first degree at De Montfort University. Work, business, wife, family, and cats have kept me in Leicester.
I am one of nine kids, the middle child and rumoured to be the cutest. I initially qualified as a teacher, worked in education before moving into Industry to work as an accountant. Five years later I left industry as a qualified accountant, and a few other bits of paper along the way.
1995 was the year I made the leap and started my own businesses, I Hate Numbers. My back bedroom, which I shave moved away from was the start of that business journey.
On the International front I have carried out and been involved with several projects, in counties such as Russia, Cuba, Tanzania, Kenya and the Seychelles.
I have been actively involved in the governance of arts and educational establishments across the East Midlands and beyond and involved in the charitable and creative and cultural sectors for over 40 years, in a working, professional and voluntary capacity.
I am passionate about making arts and creativity accessible to all, and to ensure we offer opportunities for anyone to engage with words and creativity, especially for those that may feel that arts are not for them, as I believe it can change people’s lives. In my current role as General Manager at Nottingham City of Literature, part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, my work encourages reading and writing for pleasure, and to make the world better with words, particularly for young people.
I am keen to promote people-centred environments, spaces for collaboration and co-production working closely with all people. I have over 15 years experience working in the arts sector in Mexico and the UK, at Tequila Jose Cuervo Cultural Division, The Mighty Creatives and Attenborough Arts Centre. I also have a PhD on learning dialogue in contemporary art museums, and have specialised in audience development and evaluation.
