Instigate Arts

Throughout 2023 and 2024 we spent a good deal of time assessing the cultural ecology of Greater Manchester. We watched the city increasingly gentrify, saw some fantastic cultural projects come and go, and witnessed how hard people work in the sector. We saw new spaces and infrastructures open up while other opportunities dwindled and disappeared. All the while we stayed focused on our love of artists and the power and potential of creativity in the lives of everybody.

We began to envision a new place for Instigate Arts in this changing ecology, and a new way of working. The Oglesby Charitable Trust invited us to share this vision with them. They had long supported previous important projects such as the Inspire programme, led by our Director Anne Louise Kershaw at HOME. 

We were invited to put in an application and business proposal to the Oglesby Charitable Trust that would enable us to reactivate Instigate Arts with a period of funded research and development, plus artist support and experimentation. When we received the incredible news that we had been successful, we hit the ground running.

Since then we have assembled a mighty team and have already begun our work with renewed vigour. Soon we will share our mission and goals with you, but for now we want to extend a huge thank you to the Oglesby Charitable Trust for sharing our vision. It’s going to be a very special 2026 for us. We hope you can join us.