We establish & host events for communities to create, make & debate, with a collective interest in how art can make a real difference to our lives.
HATCH’s ethos and approach creates projects where everyone involved feels an ownership of what has been created and can see a legacy for themselves in the future of the project.
Our approach to projects and events starts with consultation and involvement with the stakeholders or constituents for that project. We don’t presume to know what a project needs to look like until we have listened to the people who have the largest stake in its success. As far as is possible and appropriate for each project we enable constituents to develop the project from the ground up and take ownership of it into the future.
For WOVEN, a celebration of innovation in textiles across Kirklees, this consultation started with cultural and community organisations, industry representatives, the University of Huddersfield, independent artists and makers, and the council. We have now established regular Open Planning meetings that anyone with an interest in the festival can contribute to, which keeps the planning process transparent and gives constituents control over the ways they can get involved.
Art Doctors projects, such as Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art?, work with community groups to explore their barriers to engaging with galleries and contemporary art, using those thoughts and opinions to engage in conversations with institutions to influence and change accepted ways of working.
HATCH is Natalie Walton and Alison McIntyre, with associates.
Natalie and Alison have been working together since 2016 to devise and develop arts engagement programmes. HATCH was founded by them in 2018 with a shared ethos around hosting safe spaces for communities to create, make and debate, and a collective interest in how art, through good facilitation, can make a real difference to people’s lives.
