Over the years, Stretch has been involved in tons of Projects - here's some of our current, and favourites.
As part of Stretch Director’ Carlotta Allum's commitment to storytelling with prisoners she is developing a toolkit called The Story Inside. Carlotta has been reserching digital storytelling for her PhD at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London.
Prisoner led community theatre in Hastings. Stretch is over seeing the running of this exciting theatre space. Run by Stretch veteran Dean Stalham, writer and activist, and Francis Saunders, this theatre space runs community performances and groups. Built on sweat and tears we are always looking for support and champions
Stretch has always advocated for art and artists outside of the "mainstream", and one of our primary objectives is to make the arts accessible to marginalised groups and individuals who, for various reasons, have limited access and levels of participation.
York, where Stretch had its headquarters, was been awarded UNESCO designation for City of Media Arts in 2017. Stretch will be collaborating with the Mediale, a festival of digital arts to create ‘Stretch and Collide’, a digital platform to capture and disseminate the personal stories of people from unheard and vulnerable groups.
A group of young people in Leeds have been attending weekly workshops at the Yorkshire Academy of Film and Television Acting. Writer Dean Stalham and Stretch Director Carlotta Allum have been workshopping the script from a new social realism drama called ‘Tagged’, which was written by Dean and inspired by the story of Jamie, who has worked alongside Stretch for a while.
Stretch is currently delivering Stretch Digital, a nationwide Big Lottery funded project equipping prisoners with skills in new media to create digital stories about their personal experiences of the criminal justice system and the life that led them there. We aim to bridge the ever-growing digital divide and increase participants' confidence and employability, while giving a voice to those who are so often left unheard.