Instigate Arts

Instigate Arts understands the difficulties faced by artists in today’s current climate, especially those who are marginalised for reasons of class, gender, sexual orientation and economics. We understand the challenges faced by independent venues across the country. We also know the impact art and ideas have on people’s wellbeing and society as a whole and so create projects intended to support artists and ideas, make new work and make positive social change.

Across June 2025, we sent five artists into five Salford drinking establishments. They were tasked to document folklore, rumours and memories of drinking in Salford pubs. From this each artist will archive stories and create a bespoke artwork to be displayed in the pubs during Salford’s centenary year. On the 14th and 15th August, we will be launching ‘Trails, Pales and Centenary Tales’. A trail map will link all five pubs, guiding visitors between venues.

Here we speak to Anne Louise Kershaw    about their practice, journey and involvement in the Salford 100 project ‘Trails, Pales and Centenary Tales’

1.    Tell us about your practice? 
That’s a very weird thing I find impossible to answer. Despite helping hundreds of artists define theirs, I have ten thousand ‘about mes’ and they all link to empty pages. I have always been creative. And I suppose, ultimately, I consider who I am in the fullest sense to be my practice. I am in every sense all I am and all I do, and that is always driven by art and creativity, connection, encouragement and nurturing brilliance and social justice. I want to do good and I can think of a thousand creative ways to do it. I feel that I actually feel and see the problems and potential of the world every minute of every day, so my mind eternally creates ways, and works to understand, fathom, connect, solve and evolve. I believe so wholeheartedly in our right to joy and beauty – it pains me when that is not possible. 

 I am a sound artist, a visual artist, a poet, a musician, a curator, a doer and a connector. I am passionate about encouraging the creative potential within everybody, because I know the powerful effects that can have on people and on the world we share together. I collage, paint, use assemblage of personal artifacts to create poetic meaning into form, be that visual, sound through field recordings, installation of the parts that make up the meaning of my life, or anything. I like to build the world around me, be that in my home, in a gallery space or on a stage, or in a bar or market square. I am a living practice of everything I am and believe. And that is why Instigate Arts. I make things happen. I want to work toward a world where artistic thinking and the most brilliant of excluded voices get to shape things. Because joy is a radical act. We need bread, but we desire roses. 

2. Can you tell us about yourself and your journey as a creative?
This has been a long journey, so skip to the end if so inclined 🙂 And the complexity and longevity is exemplary of so many working-class creatives I know. Here goes…. 

I have worked full-time non-stop since I was 16. In a wide variety of paid roles. I have done more jobs than I am years old, that have absolutely nothing to do with my creativity (Cleaning, Care work, bar work, office admin, shop work, cutting up and logging credit cards when they are kept by petrol station staff, logging vehicle mileage, etc etc), and I have put my full heart into every single one. I have been creative my whole life. Coming from my background, it wasn’t ever presumed anyone would even go to college, never mind pursue a career in the arts, or paint, or make sound work. I honestly didn’t really even know what those things were to be interested in or aspire to. I have strongly hooked onto things, however, throughout this journey that have clearly chimed like a sharp slice within me. And I have used anything to hand to just make stuff. After several years of work, I started to try to ‘do college’. I started various courses and struggled to keep up, and would eventually drop out. Having family ‘stuff’, and sad ‘stuff’ and relationship ‘stuff’ to deal with, plus always having to work full time to support myself, it was just tougher to fit into. My life was like an acid house of Shameless and Shelagh Delaney; it wasn’t made for robes and mortar boards. I was never and could never be part of the student ‘scene’ or any scene for that matter. But kept yearning through. 

At one point I got a lovely job working in men’s suit hire. This gave me some stability and niceness and regularity enough to give my mind space, and the means to afford to do two A-levels at night school (I had to pay now as an adult learner). From this I went to university, MMU to be exact. I couldn’t go further afield because of ‘stuff’. At university I discovered I was quite dyslexic. And at university I discovered the world – (not literally, i’ve never moved or lived further than two miles from where I was born in Stockport). But give a woman like me access to a library where there are books with dewey decimal points in the dozens, and you will make a leader!

I wish. It doesn’t really go like that but man, thank god someone lovely worked in that library let me get away with all my fines because I loved learning. I did social and economic history and literature. I’d always loved history but wanted to know ‘real’ people’s history, and unearth the history that was never in books and never spoken. I’d always felt excluded and cripled by the world around me and knew in my heart there were other stories and lives to know about, ones I might connect with. Once I discovered I was dyslexic, I obsessed over words and grammar and poetry, and was fortunate enough to be given ‘Projective Verse’ by Charles Olsen in class to read – this essay made the MOST sense to me. From here I did an MA in creative writing poetry and set up my own magazine as part of that course. 

Suddenly I was part of what was going on. Thinking on it now makes me want to cry like a torrent falling down skafell pike. You can’t imagine how it feels to have access to a world where these conversations are happening and these options are available, or maybe you can. But for me, it felt like all the sparkles of life, and for once I could be there. I know what it feels like to not know ‘things’, and to be excluded. And the joy of giving somebody a key to a house they always felt, but didn’t know existed is incredible. It felt like freedom, for a minute. 

Anyway. If I continue with this depth I will never get there (An oddly apt metaphor). 

I started working in publishing, then I started a blog. Then decided to go to everything creative happening in Manchester and write about it. I became a writer, though was never paid for that, not that anybody knew that. I got involved in feminist and queer activism and a DIY arts collective called Blank Media Collective where I was given my first curatorial ‘gig’ as such – to co-curate (with the amazing Nathalie Boobis) a feminist exhibition and get paid for it. Yes please. What is this world? 

And there I am, out there in the art world that inspires me. I set up other initiatives and then I created Instigate Arts. 

Why? Despite all this, I could see nobody like me (or the ten thousand yous) on the gallery walls, and wanted to challenge representation. It had taken me a long time to know that somebody like me could actually go to university, that sound art was a thing, that I could make sound art, what curation meant and that it was not only something I liked, but was good at. So I know that representation and visability and access matters. 

As Instigate Arts, a Community Interest Company that I established, I felt I could approach official institutions in a way I didn’t as just Anne Louise Kershaw. So I started to reach out and work with official institutions like Manchester Art Gallery, HOME, PHM, Royal Exchange,  RNCM, MIF & more – but as an outsider, an outside ‘legitimised’ as a company. 

Instigate Arts CIC – Getting the voices that need to be heard into the places that need to hear them. Takeovers, theatre shows, exhibitions, screenings, festivals, parades followed. Barely paid, rarely paid. Usually not ever paid. I did this full time for free while always working full time for a low wage alongside. The experience I gained from this work did me good, in terms of my CV. It led to me getting a full time role at HOME, then I became freelance and then decided to reboot Instigate Arts. That ten year cycle painfully demonstrates an era of increased then decreased access and funding that circumstantially did me some good then much harm. I could see that the whole objective of Instigate Arts was needed now more than ever. 

I’m going to stop there actually. There’s much more to say, but you know what? I’m still working full time mainly unpaid. I’m still putting my heart and soul into the work that I do. But the thing that’s different is this – I have learnt from everything I have done, and I have an idea of how it can be different. I’m doing this because I believe in the idea so passionately (If you want to know more about us as a CIC see our theory of change), and I am going to work until this is achieved, sustainable, and marginalised voices and artistic thinking is at the root of how our society works. I am a dreamer. But I work insanely hard. I haven’t had heating or hot water since December. But I have crystals hanging in my windows and art filling my walls. I have a fully improvisational band called Back Of The Brain and run a venue in Ashton-Under-Lyne called The Nico Ditch – supporting marginalised artists to shine. Give me bread and I will grow roses. I still want to wash my hair in hot water when I have a cold. And I am yet to draw a wage that reflects my expertise, influence, impact and time, or covers my bills. So I am still on the journey. And Instigate Arts CIC is here for anybody who wants to make this journey easier and viable for people. Come and talk with me. 

3. How has the Salford Centenary project changed how you feel about your own practice?

It has reminded me of who I am. When your burnout has been firefighting for so long it is now using your own soul as an extinguisher, having the opportunity to spend paid days, delving into the heart and spirit and heritage of a place, recording sounds, talking to people, exploring and investigating history, folklore, the cheekiness and beauty of people – that’s who I am and what I am brilliant at. I LOVE rooting into the hidden history and meaning of things. And this has enabled me to do just that. It has exposed me to a whole new history and sonic landscape, different voices and timbres and spaces, and allowed me to make unhindered. I was stationed at Worsley Old Hall, but then also piggybacked onto Dean’s venue at Worsley Stores. The history and warmth and weirdness and intrigue of these spaces were wonderful. The staff and spaces were so welcoming. And people WANTED to talk. Oh my word, did they? Pubs and bars are vital and special spaces within our communities. Places where connection and magic can happen. Solidarity, kinship and who the hell knows what. Being part of that newness (to me), in wonderful old spaces (that were new to me) expanded my mind and thinking and the magic of my creativity. That’s a wonderful thing. 

4. Why do you think the themes of trails, pales and centenary tales are important in   the current social, economic and political environment?
There were several key themes that seemed to emerge in the creation of this project, in speaking to people and making the work. People really are generous with themselves and their time, once you find a nice place to connect. And I suppose that is where pubs come in, pubs and bars, and collective connecting spaces. Independent venues are struggling, and something collective that emerged from everybody’s work was that people face all kinds of struggles themselves, yet these venues provided somewhere for people to get respite, to be with friends, or form friendships, to feel connected to something, and that makes people feel good about themselves. So it’s vital we support venues and independent businesses to survive and thrive, so that we also might do so. The reason so much of my work revolves around the heritage and history of a place is because it enables us to connect the issues we are experiencing with those of the past. That somehow makes us feel less isolated and less in danger, and like we are more rooted to things. I find art amplifies that. If an artist can create something that people can get some feeling from, that can make more impact than all the news articles in the world. If people feel things, there is life in that, and something of themselves. If they then feel connected with others through it, that’s the power of community and culture and place right there. Salford is 100, so to be able to create and take art out into bars and pubs, and for that art to hopefully highlight the brilliance of people, and make them feel connected to something, there is nothing more timely than this. The more we can do of this, the better. 

5. Part of this project involves receiving coaching support from the brilliant Salford-based organisation Result CIC. How has this been for you?

Ah this was great for me. The ethics of Result CIC align with my own very succinctly, so this wasn’t just some ‘aim high, never accept less’ self-help podcast gubbins, it was heartfelt and person-centred, and it started from this person, which was me. Garth, who provided my coaching, was very open-minded and understanding, and smart and pragmatic. He has a sharp and very kind way of guiding me to realise the things within myself that likely others can see, but my wee inner child often hides from me. To receive coaching during a project was a very special and useful thing, and something I hope Instigate Arts can provide again. Marginalised artists, I feel, have the most to say and the least agency to say it. So to run a creative project where I’m facing my inner demons, where underconfidences emerge and in the most vulnerable and tender places – my core creativity – to do this whilst being coached and supported was phenomenally helpful. A tandem process that makes more than the sum of its parts, feels holistic and very kind, and had great benefit to me.    

6.   What has working with Instigate Arts made possible that wouldn’t have happened otherwise?
We are trying to do something different right now with Instigate Arts, and working toward a much larger vision of what this world can be for us as creatives, and as creatives within it. We want to make great work and be valued for creating that work, and for the contribution we make as artists, free of traditional gatekeepers and funding constraints. This project as a model allowed that. It’s incredibly rewarding to have a free creative brain, eager to make good work that profiles voices that would ordinarily go unrecorded, that highlights the importance of community and people and spaces, that celebrates heritage and the roots we couldn’t see,  and connects people to these things and to each other – and to be free to do just that. Artists and creatives hold within them a unique, abundantly useful set of skills that can have huge benefit to people and society, to business and the way things work, yet there is barely any way for them to get paid for this. Art and creativity is seen as some luxurious add-on to things rather than the thing that can positively influence all aspects of life and the world we live in. A solicitor knows what they are worth, a Michelin chef knows what they are worth, yet so many artists can be decades into their craft, carrying insight and skill that goes unspent whilst they struggle for minuscule pots of funding that restrict their creative freedom. The perception of art and artists is all back to front and misunderstood. Instigate Arts is working to change that perception. This includes paying artists properly to create freely, brilliant work. And also includes finding innovative ways to get art and creativity into spaces they don’t classically exist – so as to reach and connect with more people for more benefit. I was paid properly to create freely and do good work. That is what most artists and creatives want, as anybody should who is skilled and has much to offer with that skill. I was part of a team who supported each other, something that can lack when people are pushed to their limit or working in isolation. And I have been linked with new people and opportunities. And new hope. The arts across the UK are being stripped and starved. Funding is being cut, too many people apply, and marginalised artists the most are therefore excluded from any opportunity, yet have the most, I believe, to say. Working with Instigate Arts provides hope of other ways of doing things. And I hope others can see that. Because what the world needs now is creative thinking, kindness and connection, and nobody provides that more than art and artists. 

Read profiles of all of the Instigate Arts Salford 100 artists here.