In 2023 we were lucky enough to recruit four established artists or artistic companies with national or international reputations to create new work that pushes the boundaries of form, uses innovative technologies and undertakes significant public engagement through participatory arts and co-creation. The Associates were not simply commissioned to make work for Lincoln; they were given the space, resources and relationships to develop ambitious ideas that could reach audiences well beyond the city.

In 2026 we recruited two additional Associates to join this portfolio. Our Associates not only develop and produce new artistic work that inspires, challenges or delights audiences, but help guide our organisation to achieve its mission. These artists work with us on bespoke major commissions, significant presentation opportunities and support our talent development opportunities for earlier career artists, including open rehearsals and creation processes, workshops and mentorship.

Since 2023, this approach has resulted in a growing body of new work with a significant life beyond the Arts Centre.

Joss Arnott Dance have created Meet the Hatter, a new multimedia dance production in which a solo dancer inhabits a magical world of creatures created entirely through projections, sound and light. The work brings together live performance and digital technology in an ambitious experience for family audiences and has gone on to tour nationally and internationally, demonstrating how investment in new work in Lincoln can provide a platform for artists to reach audiences far beyond the city. The production also secured additional funding to support its development and touring, creating many jobs for people, made in Lincoln but touring right across the globe now.

Zest Theatre have created Camp Phoenix, a brand-new musical play about growing up and those key moments that shape our lives. The production was made in Lincoln and featured professional performers alongside young people from the communities where it toured. More than 600 young people contributed to the development of the script and production, with 82 young people ultimately performing alongside professional actors. The production supported 10 freelance creatives and toured to Stockton-on-Tees, Lincoln, Barnsley, Canterbury and Deptford, with every performance featuring integrated Audio Description. It demonstrated what can happen when young people are not simply the audience for new work, but are directly involved in shaping and performing it.

Zest have continued to develop this participatory approach through The Zone and Zone Go, creating pop-up youth spaces that have toured around the country, alongside Soundboard, a new interactive production commissioned by Lincoln Arts Centre. Part chat show, part game and part live performance, Soundboard puts young people and their experiences at the centre of the work, extending Zest’s commitment to making ambitious theatre that is created with, rather than simply for, young audiences.

Casson & Friends have brought dance into unexpected spaces and created opportunities for audiences and students to participate directly. Their Arcade project transformed the University of Lincoln campus into an interactive dance game, created in collaboration with BA Dance students, bringing contemporary dance into everyday public space and engaging students in a dynamic and playful experience. They have also created Shed Stories, a new performance exploring men’s mental health. The project was developed through residencies with Men’s Sheds, including Boston Men’s Shed and a further 13 Men’s Sheds across the country, involving 306 community co-creators. The work has subsequently developed into a touring project across Lincolnshire and beyond, demonstrating how an Associate commission can become a sustained piece of community engagement rather than a single presentation.

Proto-type Theatre have continued to explore the intersection of live performance, digital technology and social questions through their work as an Associate. We’ve made, The Lightbulb Moment, an live, animated and audio experience that invites audiences into a miniature digital world, using story, sound and animation to explore systems, chains of cause and effect, and the question of who has the power to make change. It is another example of the Associates using technology not as an end in itself, but as a way of finding new forms through which audiences can experience and think about complex ideas. This has toured to Derby and Lancaster before going on a wider UK tour.

The Herd have brought a distinctive focus on early childhood and family audiences to the Associate portfolio. Rooted in Hull, The Herd makes work by collaborating with young children to create shows, installations and programmes of creative play that celebrate children’s creativity and strengthen family connection. Their practice demonstrates the value of giving artists the time and space to develop work through genuine collaboration with their audiences. Since 2016, The Herd has reached more than 94,000 people and worked with more than 5,000 children through play sessions and workshops. Their installation REPLAY, created entirely from reclaimed materials, has reached more than 50,000 people through presentations including at the Southbank Centre and as part of Bradford’s City of Culture programme. Their work is now touring nationally alongside an expanding programme of community-based creative play, demonstrating how an Associate relationship can support artists to build both ambitious artistic work and a sustainable model of engagement around it.

Our Associates have also helped us explore how contemporary artistic practice can contribute to wider conversations about identity, belonging and social change. Most recently, we have been working with internationally recognised Lincolnshire-based artist Annabel McCourt on Ad Astra, her landmark new commission for Lincoln Arts Centre. Building on her earlier work Per Ardua, the project works with LGBTQ+ communities through conversation and photography to gather stories of adversity, injustice and resilience. These become a new constellation of voices and images, creating space for dialogue, reflection and collective memory. The work premieres at Lincoln Arts Centre as part of our Loud & Proud season in Autumn 2026.

The impact of the Associate model therefore extends beyond the individual commissions. It has enabled artists to make ambitious new work, created paid opportunities for freelance creatives, brought young people and communities into the creative process, supported students and emerging artists to work alongside established practitioners, and helped locally rooted ideas travel nationally and internationally. Crucially, the Associates have become part of the creative life of the organisation itself: shaping our programme, opening up new ways of working and helping us create the conditions for other artists to develop too.