Big Imaginations

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Big Imaginations

Big Imaginations is a region-wide group of venues and promoters dedicated to bringing brilliant children’s theatre to the North West.

We are a region-wide group of venues and promoters dedicated to bringing brilliant children’s theatre to the North West. From grand auditoriums to rural village halls and everything in between, our mission is to spark the imagination of children aged 0-12 with the wonder of theatre. Big Imaginations has brought together 15 venues to make the North West’s children’s theatre offer bigger, better and more affordable.

29/07/2026

Theatre Porto’s Topsy Turvy Returns for 2026 with a Free Weekend of Family Festival Fun
Three-day outdoor celebration marks the start of Theatre Porto’s 40th birthday year

Families are invited to celebrate the joy of creativity, imagination and play this summer as Topsy Turvy returns to Whitby Park, Ellesmere Port from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th August 2026.

Theatre Porto

29/06/2026

Last week the Big Imaginations Network, brave the hot weather to come together in Sheffield at for our 3rd core meeting of 2026.

It was a great day with our amazing network members, exploring questions about quality, when it comes to supporting artists to make new shows and tour existing work.

A huge thank you to for hosting us in their wonderful building. Their staff were lovely and friendly, the food was incredible and the experience of watching a show was beautiful.

What a day it was, thank you for our all network members for being there!

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15/06/2026

🚨 ARTIST IMAGINATION FUND 🚨

15 days left to apply for this amazing opportunity to get some funding to play, explore, research, develop or create a new piece of performance work for children and families.

So if you have:
🎭 An idea you need to get out your head, play with and explore?
🎭 A project that needs some space and timet research and develop it?
🎭 A show that’s ready to be made and you need match funding?
🎭 Or something a little bit in between these!

The we want to hear from you!

Deadline: Thursday 30th June 2026, 10:00am

Application in LinkTree in bio.

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04/06/2026

3 week and 4 days until the deadline of the 2026/27 round of Artist Imagination Fund funding!

So if you have an idea for a new piece of children’s and family performance work, then this is the fund for you! Don’t delay, apply today!

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27/05/2026

Another amazing performance of ‘The Jewellers Daughter’ by at Market, supported by !

We’ll be seeing it again through summer 2026 and int 2027!

See , , & .nw for the next shows!

26/05/2026

Artist Imagination Fund!

On the 13th may we hosted an amazing AIF coffee morning style event online via ZOOM for theatre makers to come and meet the network, hear from us about the fund and ask any questions.

We’re aware that not everyone was able to make it to this coffee morning event. With this in mind, we have published an FAQ’s page to hopefully address any immediate questions artists may have about the Artist Imagination Fund.

Link in our bio.

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19/05/2026

🚨ARTIST IMAGINATION FUND🚨

The Big Imaginations Artist Imagination Fund is still open! Deadline for application is Thursday 30th June 2026.

So, what’s are you waiting for? If you’ve got an idea for a piece of new and exciting children and family performance work, we want to hear from you! Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to have your work and its development supported by our network of 22 incredible arts organisations.

We hope to see your application by the 39th June 2026.

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06/05/2026

🚨Artist Imagination Fund Applications are now open🚨

Another year of Big Imaginations Artist Imagination Fund, funding is upon us! And we’re so excited to hear from you about the idea(s) that you have for performance work for children and families.

Do you have:
🎭 An idea you need to get out your head, play with and explore?
🎭 A project that needs some space and timet research and develop it?
🎭 A show that’s ready to be made and you need match funding?
🎭 Or something a little bit in between these!

If so, we want to hear from you about your idea!

The application form, plus some addiontal resources to support you with your application can be found on our LinkTree, which is in our bio.

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05/05/2026

🚨 Artist Imagination Fund Applications are now open! 🚨
Another year of Big Imaginations Artist Imagination Fund, funding is upon us! And we’re so excited to hear from you about the idea(s) that you have for performance work for children and families.

We’re excited to announce our AIF support package for 2026/27. This package exists to support artists who have an idea that they want to explore. This might be:

An initial idea you want to play around with
Something you want to take into an R&D process.
An idea you plan to apply to Arts Council England for and want match funding.

So if you have an idea, we want to hear from you!

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15/04/2026

Artist Imagination Fund
This year, Big Imaginations was able to support multiple different artists with different levels of funding to help support them to create new and exciting theatre for children and families.
We’re writing this post to celebrate the amazing year of funding and creativity that Big Imaginations has been able to support across the 9 different artist. The fund we were able to give out were split into three categories, which were:
🎉 Seed Funding – 2 posts of £500 to support an artist to do some initial exploration and playing with an idea they have.
🎉Artist Imagination Funding – 3 pots of Funding up to £2,500 to support artists to research and develop an idea they have for a piece of children and family theatre.
🎉 Development Funding – 4 pots of money between £300 and £1000 to support artists to do further development on an already existing piece of theatre they have.

The artists who received these funds are as follows:

Seed Fund:
🎭 Paul Barnhill (Goofus Theatre)
🎭 Simone Lewis

Artist Imagination Fund:
🎭 Edy Hurst
🎭 Herd Theatre Company (Janice Ho and Elsie Shepard)
🎭 Natasha Kim Chapman

Development Funding:
🎭 Adam Blake (Adventure Arts)
🎭 Coalesce Dance Theatre
🎭 Gemma Bond
🎭 Knotted Hawk Productions

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Address

Manchester
M155ZA

Telephone

+441612261912

Website

http://www.bigimaginations.co.uk/

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