Every year, the James Holloway Youth Arts Fund in Suffolk run a mentorship programme to support young people’s creative ambitions.
The fund is named after the late James Holloway, one of the original founders of arts centre The Cut in Halesworth, and it enables locals under 21 to engage in creative opportunities, especially those who might find it difficult to access the arts. It covers attending performances and exhibitions to working with professional artists to develop skills in their chosen fields of expression – be that in dance, music, film, theatre, or visual arts.
We were asked to help put together the 2025 showcase, where a dozen students explored the theme of migration and presented new work. As well as engaging with them on different technical aspects of the show, we also worked with a promising young dancer to create a short dance film, plus our regular collaborator František Holčík played live clarinet accompanying two of the animations.
The initiative is run by dancer Caroline Mummery (a founder of The Cut and partner of the late James Holloway) and visual artist Kasia Posen, and is kindly supported by The Mulberry Trust, The Limbourne Trust and The Ganzoni Charitable Trust.
