Currently in the Studio

Introducing the artists from our Space Time Tools Advice Programme.
Each producing their own unique works, they present a diverse range of creative output.

Currently in the Studio

Jan 2025 the IOU studio was filled with a community art workshop.

The workshop was part of a large art installation to create awareness of declining birds in Britain

Led by artist Natasha Brown the workshop involved the Calderdale College community painting bird boxes made from recycled materials – that will feature in the final artwork.

After the final installation the boxes will all be sent out into the community, schools and nurseries to become used by our local birds !

September 2024
Babylon Gamelan
Designed and made by Rag & Bone
Created by Dave Young with Spencer Jenkins and Julia Snowdin

This September the IOU Creation Centre was taken over by the amazing Babylon Gamelan. The 4-meter high monumental sculpture is made from recycled materials and found objects. Its whimsical design, inspired by the Tower of Babel, combines rough music and random engineering to produce sonic chaos.

Produced by Artichoke as part of Nuneaton & Bedworth Council’s Creative Explorers programme, Babylon Gamelan was a pilot project exploring the potential for a festival to celebrate local industrial heritage and culture.

With over 180sqm of studio and workshop the IOU Creation Centre was the perfect size for this ‘vibrant fusion of sonic art and engineering’ and the team spent 2 weeks as part of our Space Time Tools Advice programe making Babylon Gamelan ready for the show.

Summer 2024
CultureDale: Artist Showcase

Supported by Calderdale Council we have been able to provide funded places for a group of exciting artists to develop a project and for this work to be presented as part of Calderdale’s vibrant year of culture celebrations,

The Showcase offered a unique glimpse into boundary-pushing creations from the region’s finest talents with seven artists  presenting an array of new works, ranging from a mesmerising ‘Salon of Curlews’ and an immersive haunted house experience to VR explorations of retinal landscapes, folklore zines, intricately hand-woven works of art, and a giant mobile sculpture.  Themes of environment, belonging, and identity are entwined throughout the installations, launching  IOU’s Creation Centre with a six-week journey of artistic discovery.

Armelle Skatulski - Virtual Eyes

Beka Haigh - #HOUSE

Rachel Hawthorn - The Luddenden Shroud

Sue Walpole - Curlew Sickle Moon

Georgia D'Silva- A Diorama of a House in Hebden Bridge

Alicja Mrozowska - Interwoven (Trzepak)

Beth Cockroft - Meadow

Artists who have completed their
Space Time Tools Advice Programme

Large white space with people making puppets and hanging structures from metal frames

Quiddlesticks

Back in November 2024 Quiddlesticks took over the studio with their amazing puppets Quiddlesticks is a collaboration between Alison Duddle and Jonny Quick- artists, puppet specialists, performers and theatre makers. They put the IOU studio's 180sqm of space to good use making 16 life size - or larger than ! - illuminated puppets: snow leopards, red pandas, meerkats and peacocks, ahead of a lanterns and light event at Chester Zoo The work has been a collaboration with a number of regional artists.

Maya Little and Fred Seddon

A theatre-making duo working on how to run away with the sea, a poetic dialogue between human and sea to be performed on beaches. We were keen to learn from IOU's experience in making site-specific work, as this is a new challenge for us, as well as to test our ideas with performers and get a better understanding of how sound and movement will work in the piece. We really benefited from the team's practical knowledge, and from the time to think about what it means to represent the non-human. We're now moving towards seeking funding in 2024.

John Bonner / live:lab

live:lab's STTA made best use of the IOU studio space for research and development rehearsals, with the aim to explore production of  a semi-immersive audio-visual performance. The theme of the performance was the life of trees using music, soundscapes, video projections, storytelling with narration and dance, bringing important ecological and environmental themes to an audience in challenging and emotionally engaging ways.

Missing Theatre

Missing Theatre are an international multidisciplinary collective dedicated to blending these art forms to tell stories of people rarely seen. ' Instruction on How to Be Alone' is their first piece.and together they time staying at the IOU Hostel and working in our studio, transferring the concept into a tangible production.
A chair sits in front of screen that shows a black and white image of the chair . A man stands to one side reading from a paper

Garth Williams

Garth's time in the IOU Studio focussed on experimentation with set and projection, creating a piece based on his experiences in hospital using camera, lights, and green screens.

4 figures stand in a large space with red lights

Girl Gang

After receiving Arts Council England funding Girl Gang spent time in the IOU studio to R&D their project Millennial Pink - looking at what it's like to be a teenage female in the noughties

2 women dance on a large trampoline , 2 other women watch . The space is all white

Feet off the Ground

In residence at IOU for a week in May 2022 during the research and development phase of their work Turning Point, IOU supported Feet Off The Ground with studio space and accommodation at Hebden Bridge Hostel. As part of their research, they hosted a workshop at IOU supported by Greenham Women Everywhere – an organisation dedicated to preserving the archives of women who resisted the nuclear arms race at Greenham Common for 19 years. Together they engaged in a day of dancing, singing, writing and storytelling, which significantly influenced the final work and enhanced the creative process.
There is a boat on a canal, in the background there are hills in view, and sat on the boat are four people, and a sculpture of a yellow boat with gold sails.

Sonya Moorhead

Opal’s Comet is a short story, written by Sonya Moorhead questioning how we might navigate personal grief, loss and transformation as, globally, we veer towards social evolution and climate crisis. The show was rehearsed at IOU before its presentation on the Leeds/Liverpool canal in November 2021.

Two teenage people sit on the floor wearing blue school jumpers. There is a girl on the left who is brown skinned with dark hair holding a dinosaur. On the right is a boy who is white skinned with blonde hair, he is wearing a facemask and looking at the toy dinosaur.

Art with Heart

In 2021 Art with Heart made a new show for primary age children in partnership with Manchester Museum and Z-Arts. The show introduced children to basic BSL and used 3D projection mapping and AR to tell its story. IOU provided mentoring for the company ahead of the performances
The image is bright yellow, with a teal colour text over the top. The text says Trans Creative and is shaped in a way the text starts small and then gets bigger.

Trans Creative

Founded by Kate O’Donnell in 2017, Trans Creative produces high quality, accessible, political arts, creating a safe space where trans people tell and hear their own stories. They deliver a combined arts festival called Trans Vegas, which is created for, and by Trans people annually. The event attracts thousands of people live and digitally, as well as year round live and digital events.

We are immensely grateful for IOU Theatre's support in bringing our project to life. Without their belief in our work and the opportunity they provided, "Instructions on How to Be Alone" would not have evolved into the transformative and captivating experience we envisioned. IOU Theatre's partnership has been invaluable, and we look forward to further collaboration and growth in the future.

Creative Producer Emily Lloyd