Arts Council England has a funding programme that helps artists develop their skills. Charlotte Little is an actor and director, and has been a member of DIY for over ten years. In April 2025, Charlotte began a project to learn more about directing and bring these skills back to DIY. Here’s what Charlotte has to say about the experience.
To mark Learning Disability Week and Salford’s Big Health Week, we’re building on Acting for Health with a special event. This special event will bring together people with lived experience of learning disability, health and social care professionals, DIY supporters – in fact, anybody interested in how creativity can be used to explore and challenge health inequalities. And you’re invited!
This Spring, DIY worked with Photosymbols to explore how written information can be easier to understand – and helped create new images for their photo library.
At Gamechangers sessions, members explore who they are as leaders through drama and art, using these discoveries to make things better for others. This term, the theme was ‘A Warm Welcome’. DIY Gamechangers have been thinking about how creativity helps us include and welcome people – wherever we’re from.
For the last three years, ‘Leading Edge’ – our ambitious volunteering programme – has supported members to take the lead in a variety of settings. Funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (September 2022 to September 2025), it was developed alongside a three-year Gamechangers programme funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. At weekly Gamechangers sessions, […]
Access and inclusion is very important to us. And lots of young audiences that we meet don’t always have access to high-quality creative experiences. So it’s our ambition to understand all the different ways people join in at DIY and make sure nobody is left out. Something we’ve been thinking about lately is: what can we do so children and young people with visual impairments see, enjoy, and engage with our work as fully as possible?
On Thursday 11th December 2025, DIY hosted an exciting event at Salford Museum and Gallery. Following their creative work throughout the autumn, DIY artists presented imaginative responses to the gallery’s ‘Exploring the Collection: Colour’ exhibition. This included artistic pieces from DIY’s Visual Arts Group, theatre by DIY BUDS, and a film documenting the creative process.
During Autumn 2025, DIY’s Core Company has been working on an exciting research and development project funded through Salford CVS’s Health and Wellbeing Fund. The company has been diving into themes of ‘friendship’ and ‘the outsider’ using theatre, music, design, and recorded sound.
“All colours and paintings tell all sorts of different stories. We can ask people: What do the colours say to you? What sort of story do they tell you that an artist is trying to show you?” Becky “How do we see colour? How do we feel colour? We all experience colour in lots of […]
Developing inclusive music at Chatsworth High School. During the Summer term 2025, DIY was delighted to be commissioned by Salford Cultural Education Partnership (CEP) to work alongside learners and staff at Chatsworth High School and Salford’s Music and Performing Arts Service (MAPAS) to explore the ways in which music can support cross-curricular learning. DIY’s […]