I'm Jake.
I deliver collaborative art projects shaped by the people I work with and the places we work in
My work spans film, performance, photography, visual art and installation, creating playful, participatory experiences that celebrate creativity, voice, and difference.


Projects
Here’s a selection of recent and past projects that give a sense of the kind of work I do - ranging from filmmaking and visual art to performance and creative education.


For Refugee Week 2026, I worked with Theatre Porto and primary schools across Ellesmere Port to create Through the Eyes of Children, an exhibition exploring migration, belonging, welcome and community.
Working as a curator and collaborative artist, I developed the creative framework for the project, coordinated work across the participating schools and supported teachers to develop their own ideas with their classes. Each school approached the subject differently, so an important part of my role was helping teachers turn their ideas into achievable artworks, while finding ways to bring everything together as a coherent exhibition.
As part of the project, I wrote There Was a Child, a short story informed by research into refugee experiences. In workshops, I used the story to ask children what they would offer the child and their family. Their responses became words, drawings, colours, shapes and symbols, which I brought together into twelve large flags for All of Us, Waving. The finished flags now fly in Whitby Park.
I designed and installed the final exhibition at Theatre Porto, transforming the space with cardboard, boxes, rope and a temporary shelter, and bringing the different schools’ work together into one large installation.
The exhibition was warmly received by schools, families and visitors, with particularly positive responses to the scale of the installation and the way the children’s work transformed the theatre.


I worked with Year 4 and 5 children from Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School to create The Shape of My Light, a large suspended sculpture for Theatre Porto’s Topsy Turvy.
We began by exploring light in different ways, from stars, sunlight and energy to the idea of an inner light. Through conversation, drawing and poetry, the children thought about the things that guide us, the choices we make and the qualities we value in ourselves and other people.
Using chalk and oil pastel, each child developed an abstract shape representing what it felt like to be themselves. They then translated their drawings into three-dimensional forms using aluminium wire, foil tape, reflective materials and coloured lighting filters.
I brought the individual pieces together as a large suspended mobile, designed to catch, reflect and change with the light around it. The children’s words and ideas also became a collective poem and short digital artwork, combining their readings with images of the making process.


This was a creative project involving nine workshops through six primary schools in Ellesmere Port. Children explored their own unique qualities by crafting playful, imaginative similes - vivid comparisons that capture who they are in fun and unexpected ways.
From “I am as silly as an elephant on a skateboard” to “I am as bold as the sun,” these words became the inspiration for bold, collages made from coloured paper, scissors, and glue. Each collage expresses the energy, colour, and personality behind the simile it represents.
The project culminated in a large-scale mural that I installed in the stairwell and foyer of Theatre Porto. A selection of the children’s original artworks was carefully recreated in vinyl to create a vibrant, swirling piece that celebrates children’s voices and creativity, making their ideas visible in a public space dedicated to children and young people.
Thee mural stands as a joyful reminder of the power of play, imagination, and self-expression - and the importance of giving children a place to be heard and seen.


I was commissioned to make a film for Wigan’s 2025 Public Health Annual Report, exploring the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the borough.
Working with children and young people in Wigan and Leigh, I used creative workshops, interviews and filmmaking to gather their experiences, concerns and ideas about what helps them live happy and healthy lives. Members of Wigan Youth Council also turned the conversation around, putting their own questions directly to senior public health leaders.
I filmed and edited these different voices into a short film in which children and young people drive the story, combining documentary footage, their own artwork and playful graphics to give the formal Public Health Annual Report a much more human perspective.
The project was produced by Curious Minds for Wigan Council, with contributions from children, young people and Wigan Youth Council.




You, Me and Everything is a mobile sculpture that was made during workshops with 10 schools. During the workshops we playfully explored the importance of interpersonal connections and their effect of our wellbeing. Then the children made 3D models of their own personal networks - that all became one big interconnected community cloud hanging in the theatre’s stairwell.
It hung next to it's companion exhibition - Free Family Photos.


Blessed William Davies Catholic Primary School
This was a Creative Learning Cymru project. I was commissioned to lead an enquiry-based arts project exploring the themes of The Book of Genesis and how we can bring creativity to religious education. This was with a class of 36 year 1&2 children.
I chose to focus on exploring and investigating the physical world - light, water, sky, land, birds, animals, people considering the marvel of creation, and the ethical questions arising from our custodianship of the earth.


Made with the Young Creatives group at Theatre Porto to celebrate the opening of the theatre. Participants, many of whom were neurodiverse, reflected on what being part of a creative community means to them.
Music facilitated by James Lyons.


For this project, I delivered 17 workshops with primary schools and community groups across Ellesmere Port, inviting children to imagine what it would be like to have complete agency: to rewrite the rules, challenge injustice and, sometimes, simply have things exactly their own way.
The workshops used this playful premise to explore bigger ideas around citizenship, democracy, rights and responsibility. We looked at who makes the rules, who gets to change them, what makes something fair or unfair, and how the decisions we make affect other people. Children identified the things that mattered to them, invented their own rules and debated what it might actually be like to live in the worlds they were creating.
Some of their ideas were wonderfully silly: trampoline pavements, Taco Tuesdays. But beyond these, children repeatedly raised the concerns they could see affecting the world around them. They talked about access to play, the cost of living, homelessness, children's safety, inequality, inclusion and the environment. Their ideas ranged from the radical and thoughtful to the playful, gluttonous and completely ludicrous.
Using masking tape, permanent markers and acrylic paint pens, children graffitied their rules directly onto their school desks, temporarily transforming the most everyday symbol of school rules and authority into a space for their own voices.
We brought thousands of these statements together to create a huge, punky, multi-coloured manifesto that filled the walls of Theatre Porto. A selection of the children’s rules was also transferred onto long coloured ribbons to form a maypole, bringing ideas of childhood, play and movement back into the installation.
At its heart, the work was an expression of children’s ideas, hopes and frustrations in a world where other people make the rules.


Once Upon a Time was a growing, collaborative installation that transformed a theatre space into an enchanted forest. It began with 670 lengths of string suspended from the ceiling, waiting to be filled. Throughout the week, visitors were invited to create delicate leaves from tracing paper and oil pastels, then pin them to the strings. As more leaves appeared, the space gradually blossomed into a shimmering, storybook woodland.
A beautiful original score by composer Patrick Dineen accompanied the transformation, weaving together musical echoes of classic fairytales.
I hosted the experience in character as the Keeper of the Forest – a slightly mysterious, storytelling figure who welcomed children and families, guided them in making their leaves, and spun curious tales about the magical creatures hiding deep within the trees.


The creative enquiry asked the question: What is the impact of using creative practices to enhance Numeracy, IT and Cymraeg on a group of Year 1 and Year 2 pupils?
Working collaboratively with artist Seren Davies we used games, drama, music, dance, arts and crafts, storytelling, video, cookery and procession to explore the ways we can embed learning into different arts activities.
The final products created were a video of the process (that can't be shared here for safeguarding/permissions reasons) and a storybook. The children devised the story and artwork that collated into a children's storybook.


Jumpstart was a course for NEET young people who wanted to develop a career in the creative industries that that I developed and delivered for Tate Liverpool. During the project, young people explored the collection, took part in hands-on activities that developed skills in project planning, teamwork, marketing and creative practice.
Participants also worked together to create a participatory arts pop-up in the gallery space.


I set up a photographic studio in a shopping centre, a library, a market hall, and at Theatre Porto's Family Hangout, and gave free photo shoots to over fifty families. These formed a companion exhibition to You, Me and Everything


O.K. – The Musical is an evolving community theatre musical based around the history and lore of Kinderhook, a small, somewhat obscure town in upstate New York. Written and directed by Christopher Kline.
To watch the documentary in full, please click the link in the description above.
This iteration of the piece took place in Tate Liverpool 2017 over 7 weeks. I was head of the media team, overseeing the documentation of the piece with photography and video - directing and editing this documentary.


Technically, Creative is a half-term activity that offers young people the opportunity to explore key aspects of theatre and film production, coming together to create an technical, immersive installation.
As the lead artist, I work with other artists, technicians, and participants to explore stage lighting, video production, sound design, music technology, and set design.
The project focuses on hands-on learning, creativity, and collaboration. Participants engage directly with professionals, gaining practical skills and insight into the processes that bring a technical performance to life. Through this experience, they build confidence, develop their creativity, and see their ideas come together in a final installation.
With a focus on participation, every individual plays a part in creating the installation, combining technical expertise with imaginative storytelling.


Please click the link in the description above to view the films.


This project was devised with members of People First Merseyside to inform other people with learning disabilities about DNACPR. I worked with the group to develop the script, and directed the film. Animation by Mandy Lally.
To watch the film on YouTube, please click the link above in the description.


Working with five schools across Ellesmere Port, I encouraged children to think about what makes us all different - our talents, quirks, likes and dislikes, ambitions and appearance - and to make a peculiar portrait of themselves, setting it in a peculiar street filled. Large-scale banners were exhibited at "Porto's Peculiar Playground' a post-covid outdoor arts trail at Theatre Porto. They were later used by the local council as vinyls in shop windows around the town centre. I also created an animation, traveling along the streets that the children had created.


Wonder Classrooms was delivered in schools and involved a resident artist transforming classrooms into a creative space to learn in, using den building techniques. I worked with the artist Cathy Cross to document the process.


I worked with young people from GYRO to see how the responded toTate's Keith Haring exhibition through interactive workshops they took part in with artist Jake Ryan.
The work presented in Tate Exchange explored the various ways that young LGBTQ+ people express themselves. The young people wanted to share that their LGBTQ+ identities are very important to them and that they do not exist in isolation from the rest of their identity.
Visitors to Tate Exchange were encouraged to explore their own identities through a series of activities.


I worked with lead artist Denise Wright and storyteller Gav Cross. As filmmaker and graphic designer on this process, I worked with Denise to turn the children's artwork into a storybook. I also documented the process with video and animated the book into a short film.
To seee the film, please click the link in the description above.


I worked with young people from Ellesmere Port, many of whom were encountering filmmaking for the first time, to create this short film. They developed the story, acted in it, and took on crew roles behind the scenes.
The film highlights the condition of the underpasses connecting the town to the waterfront and the National Waterways Museum. These spaces are poorly lit and feel unsafe. In that environment, even everyday encounters can feel unsettling.


I devised this activity and performance with Theatre Porto.
Presented by Mister Clopp with his two marshals, The Great Horsey Jump Off is a fun-filled, theatrical take on the familiar ‘show jumping competition’, except in this scenario, it’s hobby horses doing all the work and everybody is a winner!
Spectators of all ages, are invited to grab a hobby horse, give them some special horsey features and become competitors! Expertly guided through the hobby-horse course which includes vertical jumps, a slo-mo strip and a funky, disco dance floor, the whole spectacle is brilliantly compared by our seasoned sporting professional who will provide all the wit and commentary!
This is available to book via Theatre Porto


As part of this post-Covid project, we worked outdoors in Whitby Park with a group of young people to create a series of oversized, ridiculous headpieces. These became the starting point for a playful photography project. I wanted to give a nod to some of the cliches of how young people are often represented in the media and advertising, but with big daft heads on!
The aim was to be humorous and imaginative, allowing young people to occupy public space in friendly and unexpected ways. The result was a joyful mix of parody, performance and visual disruption.


Participants were invited to fill their boxes with whatever they liked - paper, fabric, found objects, miniatures, and to light them theatrically with LED lights. Drawing on memories, daydreams, stories and places that mattered to them, each shoebox became a window into a different way of seeing the world.
The idea was simple: if a shoebox can hold a world, then so can a theatre. Like the black box stage itself, these containers became spaces of transformation—proof that imagination needs very little to take flight.
Together, the collection formed a miniature landscape of dreams, celebrating the creative potential of every person who took part.
About Me
Hi, I’m Jake – a community artist, filmmaker and performer based in North Wales. I work across film, photography, visual art, theatre and installation, creating collaborative projects that are accessible, playful, and rooted in meaning.
My practice, which spans nearly 30 years, is grounded in participation, inclusion and access to creativity. I often work in schools, community settings and cultural spaces with children, young people, families and adults - including people with learning disabilities and those who are neurodivergent. I aim to create welcoming environments where people feel able to take part, explore ideas and express themselves in ways that feel natural to them.
I trained in Community Arts at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, with a background in theatre. Over time, my practice has developed through working closely with artists, educators and organisations across a wide range of projects. I stay flexible and responsive, adapting to each context while staying open to new ideas and approaches. Collaboration is at the heart of what I do, and I’m always learning from the people I work alongside.
As well as leading participatory projects, I also document creative work through film and photography - capturing performances, workshops and events in ways that reflect the atmosphere, relationships and energy of the moment.
I’ve developed projects with organisations including Tate Galleries, Arts Council Wales, People First Merseyside and Theatre Porto, and I continue to be inspired by the imagination, generosity and insight that people bring to creative work.
