Author: Spectra

Words by Maisy Neale, Marketing and Communications Lead. Earlier this month, we opened The Commons, a co-designed community garden installation at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital. As with all of Spectra’s work, the garden has been designed and co-created with radical inclusion at its core. This is reflected in the community co-design workshops and practical design…

Spectra’s Vision: Lifting the capacity of learning disabled people to influence change Role’s Purpose: To ensure Spectra fulfils its aims through collaborative, strategic leadership. To develop and oversee Spectra’s operations through the responsive, care-led, inclusive structuring and delivery of internal systems with particular focus on communications, HR and finances.  Terms: start date as soon as…

‘The Commons’, a new community garden installation, has been built by Spectra, a Sandwell-based neurodiverse creative collective. The multi-arts organisation, which works to lift the capacity of learning disabled people to influence change, has transformed the community garden of the brand new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) into a place of rest, play and nature…

Words by Hayley Guest, Creative Lead. Two full days of R&D (research and development) landed in our calendars at the beginning of 2025, and as a small and (very!) busy arts organisation, we grasped on to the opportunity with both hands. Over the last two years as we’ve developed our community engagement programme, our facilitation…

Words by Eman Bhatti, Impact Lead. In December, Hayley (Creative Lead) and Eman (Impact Lead) had the pleasure of attending a sandpit session for Culture Forward, a forum created by the University of Birmingham that draws together researchers, cultural organisations, and local government representatives to share ideas and form meaningful partnerships. Spectra had been asked…

Words by Kate DeRight, Creative Director At Spectra, we seem to have grown a habit of nourishing ourselves in January for the year ahead. We keep warm through laughter and hot drinks after fresh walks in the wintry woods. We build up heat as we play, talk and work through ideas. We stick out our…

Words by Ruby Lewis, Community Lead My name’s Ruby, I’m an artist who works for Spectra! I joined the Spectra team as their Community Lead at the start of a very exciting process – co-designing with the community a new space to rest, play, sit, move, talk, listen, and be in and it was going…

Words by Eman Bhatti, Impact Lead Following our last Action Plan update in January 2024, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the successes and the ongoing work we plan to do over the next year.  You can find our detailed Anti-Racism Action Plan here if you would like to explore exactly…

Spectra’s Mission: Lifting the capacity of learning disabled people to influence change Purpose: Through strategic and inclusive leadership, to hold the Board and Executive Team to account, ensuring Spectra’s methods, governance and actions align with our values. To bolster Spectra’s capacity to thrive through support for senior leadership, robust reporting to stakeholders, and enthusiastic advocacy.…

Words by Hayley Guest, Creative Lead This autumn has brought the arrival of two new weekly sessions and a host of other pop up workshops as part of the Smethwick Arts project. Headed up by the fabulous Black Country Touring, and with funding from Inclusive Communities, The Smethwick Arts Collective was born out of the…