Author: Spectra

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…

Spectra’s Mission: Lifting the capacity of learning disabled people to influence change Purpose: To resource Spectra’s programmes through strategic income generation, collaborative project development, and by building and maintaining relationships with funders  Terms: start date as soon as possible. Fixed term contract until 4 April 2027 with optimistic intention to extend. Settling in period of 3…

Purpose: To support the building and landscaping of The Commons, a community co-designed space within the Community Garden at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital Terms: Freelance contract, 22 Oct – 19 Nov 2024 (dates to be agreed) Fee: £185 per day inclusive of travel, expenses and VAT Location: Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, Grove Lane, Smethwick, B66…

As part of our commitment to transparency and bringing our community along on the journey, we’re excited to share an update on our Environmental Action Plan. When it was created in October 2023, we made sure to carefully consider all elements of our work and set ambitious but achievable goals, including some quick wins, and…