B arts

Making stuff happen outdoors since 1985

B arts started life as three women and a bike making character-based, walkabout, comedy street theatre. They soon realised that this was no life for respectable women with bills to pay and possibly wouldn’t get the patriarchy dismantled anytime soon. After encountering and working with Welfare State International everything changed. They started making collaborative theatre, carnivals, lantern processions, collaborative creative projects of all sorts, digging into communities and mining for meaning. B arts built partnerships in Italy, Hungary, Rumania, Sweden, Bosnia and France, making work that brought light to the stories that people needed to tell.

Now, 35 years later, the company that is B arts runs an arts and communities hub fronted by our real bread bakery and food waste café in Stoke-on-Trent, co-organises local community festivals, programme new arts projects and programmes in non-arts spaces often with communities, bring creativity to tackle social stresses, lift spirits, bring joy, host touring work, make indoor and outdoor site-responsive shows for not-theatres that use food and eating together as an architecture for the theatre, and work with over 2000 people per year, in North Staffordshire, the UK and Europe.

Lots of examples of our previous and current work can be found on our website. We love working with people so for a conversation about partnerships, residency opportunities, ideas, dreams, bread recipes, bike maintenance tips please talk to us.