About Common Arts

Common Arts started on World Theatre Day, 27 March 2024.

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At the time, it was just called Common. No business plan, no funding and no real idea what it would become. Just a decision to stop waiting around for permission and start building something independently.

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The name has always mattered. Common as in shared. A common goal. A common cause. Something that belongs to more than one person. That idea still sits at the centre of the organisation now.

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In the beginning, Common was meant to be a serious theatre company. The plan was simple: make shows, build audiences and grow into a production house. But the more projects that happened, the more the organisation changed shape.

The first opportunities came through saying yes. A eulogy workshop at Stretford Public Hall became A Dead Good Show, an evening of new writing built from conversations around death, care and living well. Around the same time, Common was commissioned to create We Sell Seashells, a clown street theatre performance for StretFest.

Those early projects shaped everything that came after. They rooted the organisation in Greater Manchester and introduced a way of working that felt more open, collaborative and connected to people and place.

 

Over time, Common became Common Arts.

The organisation grew beyond theatre into podcasting, oral history, workshops, participation and community-led creative work. The phrase combined arts became an important way of describing the organisation and the way it works. Not limiting itself to one artform, but bringing different creative practices together through shared ideas, stories and people.

Producing also became central to the organisation’s identity. Not just making creative work, but creating the conditions for good work to happen in the first place. Building projects carefully. Bringing people together. Finding ways for creativity to feel accessible, sustainable and rooted in real life.

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At the beginning of 2026, Common Arts underwent a rebrand and became more focused and intentional as an organisation. A clearer visual identity emerged alongside a clearer understanding of what the work was really about: creativity, participation, accessibility and long-term creative sustainability.

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On 6 March 2026, Common Arts officially became a Community Interest Company.

Today, Common Arts works across theatre, audio, community storytelling and creative engagement. The organisation is still growing, still evolving and still learning, but the aim remains the same as it was at the beginning: to build thoughtful creative work that feels grounded, accessible and shared.