All About Us

A Festival to celebrate, create and enable

Led by Trestle Theatre Company and made possible through funding from the Arts Council of England, the project has three strands:

The first was a series of free accessible workshops held at a variety of the city’s most vibrant venues, the second a week-long festival showcasing the brilliant work of the groups involved and finally a culmination of the project resulting in a month-long exhibition hosted by St Albans Museum + Gallery. 

The workshops brought together some of the most exciting performers, Artists and facilitators working in the district to provide a series of free and fully accessible summer workshops to give participants a taste of:

• Circus skills

• Singing and choir

• Spoken word and the chance to be in a film to be shown at the festival

• Arts and crafts

The festival took place between the 1st and 9th of October and featured showcases of song, dance, drama, art and a launch event that included circus performers, arts and crafts, food and drink, sports and live music. Participants with learning disabilities were front and centre, on the steering group, MCing events, showing their creativity and assisting at events. 

The festival took place across the following venues: Cotlandswick Leisure Centre, St Albans Abbey, Trestle Arts Base and Sandpit Theatre.

You can hear our Steering group discussing the #AllAboutUs Festival on Mix.92.6 here

The final element was an exhibition celebrating past, present and future art and memories from and with participants that ran at the St Albans Museum from 13 February to 19 March 2023.  

Throughout the project, we collected oral histories from people with lived experiences of learning disabilities, friends, family, key workers and others that will feature in the exhibition. These oral histories were presented as an installation celebrating this vibrant, creative and diverse community in their own words and art. 

Trestle’s Creative Director Helen Barnet said ‘We are delighted that ACE has recognised the importance of celebrating the wonderful and diverse community within St Albans. We can’t wait to start sharing these fantastic creative opportunities with groups and individuals across the City. If you know of any local groups or networks that would benefit from getting involved be sure to reach out and get in contact. The project has been designed to strengthen our partnerships and networks and we would love to hear from you!’

Partners include Purple All Stars, The Daylight Club and Passport to Leisure. Kate Harding at Purple All Stars said ‘This wonderful festival means we can be our best creative selves and deliver our ‘All about Us’ messages to the St Albans community.’ Sara Strain who is a member of the steering group says ‘We hope the festival will be a celebration like no other, long overdue and much needed.’