Sibling Arts C.I.C.
Sibling Arts is a marginalised-led community interest company that amplifies underrepresented voices through theatre, music, dance & film.
We deliver multi-arts projects around lived experience, develop underserved artists & organisations & multiply impact in the arts ecology through cross-sector organising & advocacy.
Our magnum opus, Sex Worker's Opera has sold out shows in 9 countries to standing ovations every night, based on the experiences of its 35 performers & over 100 stories from around the world.
Gender Blending Storytelling delivers trans/non-binary hxstory via storytelling to young people KS3 & teacher training in diverse schools.
Our debut 10min short film 'Johnny Barnes' takes an ancient Irish folk song on a musical fantasia through genders and generations & has been in 5 film festivals to date in UK, Canada & Netherlands.
Our training activates new artists & develops emerging artists' careers. Our consulting has raised £404k for marginalised-led arts projects & organisations, with £1M raised for our own projects to date.
Our participatory arts pedagogy has had a PhD published at Guildhall & informed the impact strategy of Arts Council England, Mamacash, Amnesty International & Open Society Foundations.
Sibling Arts' unique approach:
- Representation we incorporate lived-experience at every level of an arts project
- Devolution of ownership & we invest in artists' longitudinal development in arts careers to grow together
- Consultation of stakeholder communities continually to ensure representation is empowering & stays relevant
- Collaboration with frontline grassroots campaigns to maximise social impact & foster cross-pollination of skills, resources, perspectives.
Our ethos
- Community is Quality - to transcend binaries such as 'professional' & 'community' arts we unlocking talents & activate hidden artists to stun audiences through authenticity & urgent storytelling
- Voice is Ownership - there is no such thing as the 'voiceless' (Arundhati Roy) but true voice comes from owning the production, creative direction & distribution of creative media
- Engagement Uplifts Everyone - creatively involving communities at all stages of a project the more the impact reverberates through communities & sectors inc. human rights, public health, policy & culture.
Team
Directors
Siobhán Knox
Theatre, Dance, Comms & Local Voice
Co-founder Siobhán Knox (she/her) is a queer, feminist interdisciplinary & community artist, working internationally & in the UK, performing solo & with other musicians, poets & filmmakers. Currently she is combining voice, music & movement to create an immersive performed archive of her & her late mother's political art work.
Siobhán is a performing songwriter & a dancer/choreographer who has facilitated hundreds of theatre/movement workshops with marginalised communities, adults & children. Siobhán works with grassroots artists & organisations to develop & improve their community engagement strategies, visibility & comms while protecting the equity & representation of their contituents.
Alex Etchart
Theatre, Music, Partnerships & Global Voice
Co-founder Alex Etchart (they/them) is an Anglo-Uruguayan social artist using theatre, music, film & education to amplify queer, decolonial & environmental communities & campaigns across UK/internationally.
A multi-instrumentalist composer raised in the South American folk tradition, Alex mixes folk, jazz, classical & electronica to unearth invisibilised hxstories in collaborative writing workshops.
Alex consults for marginalised-led organisations to improve their funding strategy, financial planning & cross-sector partnerships to improve outcomes & connectivity for all stakeholders.
alexetchart.com
